This is part of a series with Perfect Earth Project, a nonprofit dedicated to ecological gardening, on how you can be more sustainable in your landscapes at home.

Last month we talked with Evelyn Beaury, a scientist and assistant curator at the New York Botanical Garden’s Center for Conservation and Restoration Ecology, about the dangers of invasive plants and what gardeners can do to slow the spread. (Read the story here.) One solution is to stop buying those super-aggressive, non-native plants in the first place. By the time a plant ends up on an invasive plant list, the problem is already so big that it will take a lot to fix. Luckily, there are many fabulous native alternatives to grow in their place. As Evelyn Beaury says, “The more we can do to prevent the next big invasive plant, the better off we are.” 

We reached out to design and ecology experts Jeff Lorenz, founder of Refugia Design; Rebecca McMackin, lead horticulturist at American Horticultural Society; Johann Rinkens, owner of Fields Without Fences; Christine Ten Eyck, founding principal of Ten Eyck Landscape Architecture; and Edwina von Gal, landscape designer and Perfect Earth Project founder to share their favorite alternatives to the “dirty dozen” of common invasive nursery plants. 

Don’t Grow This: Miscanthus sinensis 

Grow these instead: “Northwind upright switchgrass (Panicum ‘Nordwind’), Indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans), big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) all have similar heights and structure to Miscanthus sinesis but have more wildlife and ornamental value, including foliage and flower seed head color,” says Lorenz. “Muhly grass (Muhlenbergia capillaris) also features spectacular billowy color and showy seedheads.”

Don’t Grow This: Barberry 

Grow these instead: There’s practically a ninebark for every situation. “In addition to the straight species, there are cultivars with maroon and chartreuse foliage,” says McMackin. “Common ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius) is also a host plant to a number of moths, including the Io moth,” she says. Lorenz also suggests Carolina rose (Rosa carolina) because it has “similar seasonal interest, is thorny, and produces nice rose hips.” The salt- and deer-tolerant plant also “harbors fewer deer ticks and instead invites beneficial predators,” he notes. 

Don’t Grow This: Privet

Grow these instead: “Privet is horribly invasive in Central Texas,” says Ten Eyck. “Evergreen Yaupon holly (Ilex vomitoria) and evergreen sumac (Rhus virens) are great evergreen alternatives. Cedar waxwings love the Yaupon berries in the spring and evergreen sumac has glossy beautiful evergreen foliage and can reach 6 to 8 feet in height.” Lorenz recommends bayberry (Myrica pensylvanica) and wax myrtle (Morella cerifera) in the Northeast. “They’re both semi-evergreen with aromatic foliage, silvery fruit, similar feathery branching and foliage. They are also deer-tolerant.” Birds love bayberry’s fruit and shelter within its branches, while wax myrtle is a nitrogen fixer shrub that is a host plant for the red-banded hairstreak butterfly. 

Don’t Grow This: Bradford or Callery Pear 

Grow this instead: “Common or downy serviceberry (Amelanchier aborea) is a great beauty,” says McMackin. “Its fruits are delicious, 1000 times better than Bradford pear, and the fall colors are glorious.” Plus, native bees love it. “But you can’t abuse it,” she says. “I want to point out that the reason people constantly rely on super aggressive plants, like Bradford pear, is because we have not created the space for plants to grow. It really comes down to being a design issue, as much as a species selection issue. We use Bradford pear not because it’s spectacularly beautiful, but because of the amount of abuse it can handle. And that is depressing.” Common serviceberry might not be able to survive in a microscopic tree pit surrounded by concrete, but it can withstand some salt and drought. And as McMackin says, “Did I mention the berries? Oh my god, they’re delicious.” 

Don’t Grow This: Butterfly Bush

Grow these instead: “I have a growing affinity for false indigo bush, which is sometimes called desert false indigo (Amorpha fruticosa),” says Rinkens. “But don’t be deterred by its desert moniker, A. fruticosa is adaptable to a wide range of habitats.” Rinkens has grown it in naturalized plantings along drainage channels, seen it established along stream corridors at the crest of the bank where roots have moist soil and good drainage, and spotted it in lowland floodplains that receive temporary inundation. “It has blooms with a similar form and abundance to Buddleja (butterfly bush) but is native to 46 out of the lower 48 lower states,” he says. “A. fruticosa does have a large and sprawling growth habit, often to 12-15 feet tall and also spreads almost twice as wide as it is tall, often forming wide clumps of 15-20 feet in width. This is certainly a plant that is best suited for hedges, wild plantings, or meadow and shrub thicket restoration projects. It is a larval host to multiple species, of importance to pollinators for its nectar, and provides abundant edible, nutritious seed to ground birds given it’s a member of the Fabaceae family (think peas, locust pods, etc).”

For similarly showy blooms and flower spikes, Lorenz recommends ‘Ruby Spice’ summersweet (Clethra alnifolia ‘Ruby Spice’), bottlebrush buckeye (Aesculus parviflora), and white meadowsweet (Spiraea alba). “They have quality nectar for pollinators, including hummingbirds,” he says. “If the main reason you’re planting butterfly bush is because you think it’s helping butterflies, plant butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) instead,” says von Gal. Butterfly weed supports the larvae of gray hairstreak, monarch, and Queens butterflies, who munch on their leaves, as well as insects and hummingbirds, who sip its nectar. 

Don’t Grow This: Heavenly Bamboo

Grow these instead: “In addition to heavenly bamboo spreading rapidly, its red berries are poisonous to birds and wildlife,” says Ten Eyck. Instead, she recommends growing coralberry (Symphoricarpos orbiculatus), which supports native bees, or American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana), which is a host for the rustic sphynx and Snowberry clearwing moths, and spring azure butterfly. They both provide food for birds. 

Don’t Grow This: Winged Burning Bush

Grow these instead: “Highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum), Southern Arrowwood (Viburnum dentatum), and American cranberry bush (V. trilobum) all have intense autumn foliage that rivals burning bush. Highbush blueberry has many fruit producing cultivars, four season interest with leaves that persist into winter and early spring blooms,” says Lorenz.

Don’t Grow This: Vinca minor

Grow these instead: Shade loving mountain spurge (Pachysandra procumbens) might be “slow to establish, but it is a really great groundcover if you have the right spot,” says von Gal. “It’s also deer proof!” Ten Eyck recommends frogfruit (Phyla nodiflora) and horseherb (Calyptocarpus vialis) are great native groundcover alternatives,” she says. “Frogfruit blooms white and horseherb blooms yellow. Both do well in sun or shade.” 

Don’t Grow This: Wisteria sinensis

Grow this instead: American wisteria (Wisteria frutescens). “This is an easy one: plant native wisteria,” says McMackin. Stoneleigh garden in Pennsylvania has planted the vine to climb up a majestic London Plane Tree snag, or sculpture as they like to call it.

Don’t Grow This: English Ivy

Grow these instead: “I love Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia),” says Ten Eyck. “It doesn’t need wires to climb up a wall and I love the fall color and winter tracery left on the wall after it loses its leaves in the winter. Lorenz recommends yellow jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens). “It climbs by winding (not tendrils), so it won’t damage other plants or built surfaces. It’s also evergreen to semi evergreen and produces yellow flowers in the spring.”

Don’t Grow This: Spiraea japonica

Grow these instead: Rinkens loves both Virginia sweetspire (Itea virginica) and white meadowsweet (Spiraea alba). “Both have similar clumping habits and are able to hold their own in landscapes and border hedges. Each species has showy blooms that persist from flowering until fall and attract and host pollinators in both larval and adult stages. In ideal conditions, white meadowsweet can grow a bit taller than Virginia sweetspire and S. japonica, so pruning to shape it may be warranted. Virginia sweetspire, on the other hand, is almost a one-to-one swap as far as dimensions at maturity. White meadowsweet is a larval host plant for spring azure butterfly.” Ten Eyck suggests white mistflower (Eupatorium havanense): “It’s one of my favorite plants because it is semi-evergreen and blooms profusely in the fall, attracting all pollinators! It will also climb and drape over walls or fences,” says Ten Eyck.

Don’t Grow This: Doublefile Viburnum 

Grow these instead: While you might not find doublefile viburnum on an invasive plant list yet, McMackin has been seeing it spreading throughout forests in the Northeast. “Why grow it when there are so many beautiful native viburnums out there?” she asks. “I particularly love Viburnum nudum, which blooms in late spring, has gorgeous foliage (the cultivar ‘Winterthur’ is commonly available). Also the Native dogwood (Cornus florida) has a similar effect, while Oakleaf hydrangea is a plant that can practically go anywhere,” says McMackin. “It’s incredible.” Von Gal loves American cranberry bush (V. tribulm). “It has great color and produces lots of fruit,” she says. 

See also:

• Quick Takes With: Edwina von Gal
• Quick Takes With: Rebecca McMackin
• Experts’ Favorite Native Plant Combinations