Letter to the Editor: Native Plants

Bill Jones

Thank you so much for the information you guys are putting out there regarding native plants. Your editorial comments, as well as Matthew Olson’s article (December 2022 Green Profit), are certainly in line with what I am seeing after 20 years in the native plant end of the game. Business has never been better.

I did want to bring to your attention another reason why more and more of our gardening public is turning to native plants: the role of outside influencers. The power of The Audubon Society, The National Wildlife Federation, land conservation groups from The Nature Conservancy on down
and so on. These groups talk constantly about the importance of natives for the birds, bees and butterflies, and their reach is in the millions. It is making a huge impact, much more than our industry can. This is rarely mentioned in our industry press, but I think it is very important. We tend to talk to ourselves like most business groups do. GP

—Bill Jones, President, Carolina Native Nursery in Burnsville, North Carolina