Penstemon digitalis
'Husker Red'  | What's a cultivar?
Many people are confused about the term "cultivar." William Cullina defines a cultivar as "...a clone or seed strain selected for a particular trait or traits. It's written capitalized, unitalicized, and in single quotes."
For example, the tall white beardtongue or Penstemon digitalis is the species, and a cultivar of this species is Penstemon digitalis 'Husker Red.'
Is a cultivar native?
If the species is native, then the cultivar selected from the species is native, too. But will it have the same habitat characteristics you're looking for? Maybe, maybe not. It depends on whether that particular cultivar--usually selected for traits pleasing to the human buyer--happened to retain the nectar, berries etc. that benefits wildlife. For example, a cultivar selected for its doubled petals, unlike its species, makes the plant less useful for pollinators since they can't get to the nectar. Or some cultivars are selected because their berries are larger than is typical for the species--great for ornamental value for humans, but not so good for birds that find smaller berries easier to eat.
Sometimes a cultivar may be beneficial if it allows more people to plant a small version of a
native species that otherwise might be too big for the typical yard, for
example (though there are probably other species that fit that space). But often cultivars are just marketing tools, allowing growers to charge higher prices for patented plants.
Genetic diversity
If you plant 100 seeds from one of your coneflowers, chances are you'll see some variations in the plants that result--some desirable, some perhaps not. Cultivars, though, are predictably the same.
But what happens when there is a new disease or insect? What happens as the climate changes? The cultivar may or may not survive, but one of the many variations in the open-pollinated plants might.
Our landscapes are now filled with cultivars --often the same few popular ones--and at the moment, cultivars may be all you can find. But choosing open-pollinated plants vs. cultivars is an issue worth thinking about.
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Honey bee on an aster  | Pollinator gardens in Syracuse
Syracuse has two "official" pollinator gardens in Syracuse--one at the James Hanley Federal Building and one at Ed Smith School. Read the P-S article...
Create your own pollinator garden
You can have a pollinator garden, too. The Pollinator Partnership has information specific to our region, including a planting guide.
And highly recommended: The Pollinator Pyramid: What We Can Do in Our Yards to Help Bees is an excellent 15-minute video in three sections: Creating Habitat, Alternatives to Insecticides, and Combating Insectophobia. Accompanying material for this video is available, too.
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