When you consider the commercial landscaping around your business – whether you operate a retail center, industrial facility, HOA, healthcare facility, educational establishment, or office park – there is quite a bit for you to consider.
You want to make a good first impression on people who visit your site, whether it’s their initial visit or a regular occurrence. – no matter if it’s for the first time or a repeat visit. You want your landscape to look good, helping people safely find their way and giving people a positive feeling that amplifies your company’s reputation. And you need to stay within a budget, keeping maintenance in check, so your commercial landscape always looks professional and tidy.
When choosing what plants are best for your commercial site, the chore can be overwhelming. There are so many options available. How can you possibly know what will work best for your specific location and conditions? What if you have a very busy location and are concerned you’re going to pick plants that are too high maintenance and become more of a nuisance than great additions.
How can you navigate this decision and make a great choice? Opt for commercial landscaping with native plants.
By choosing native plants, you can not only add some great aesthetics to your facility, but you can also reap the many benefits of these additions.
What are those benefits? There are quite a few. Let’s discuss some of the biggest benefits of native plant landscaping for commercial properties in Northeast Ohio.
First Things First: What Is Native Plant Landscaping?
As you try to figure out how to beautify your Northeast Ohio commercial property, you might be wondering what native plants are and how they can fit into your design vision.
By definition, native plants are those that occur naturally in a particular area or ecosystem. And because they are used to the local seasonal changes and ranges of temperatures and weather conditions, they are easier to maintain.
Top 5 Benefits of Native Commercial Landscaping
Now that you know what a native plant is, knowing why they are beneficial can be helpful as you make your decision to choose these types of plants.
Here are the many perks native plant landscaping can bring to your Northeast Ohio commercial site.
1. Support the Local Ecosystem
Native plant landscaping is great for your commercial facility because these plants support the local ecosystem.
How do they do this? They draw in pollinators like butterflies and bees through biodiversity. Not only are pollinators beneficial for the plants, but they are also great for reducing undesirable pests like mosquitoes.
This helps the local environment, meaning your business is contributing to sustainability.
2. Reduced Maintenance Requirements
Commercial landscaping with native plants is also a great practice when you want to reduce overall maintenance needs.
Since native plants are better adapted to the local climate, weather fluctuations, soil conditions, and environment, they more naturally need fewer inputs. This means less irrigation, fertilization, pesticides, and overall maintenance.
You might notice, for instance, that your native plants will require less water during dry periods compared to non-native varieties. And, once established, they can hold up to pests better and even crowd out undesirable weeds.
3. Tolerate Weather Extremes
Native commercial landscaping also better tolerates any regional weather extremes that might crop up throughout the year in Northeast Ohio.
This keeps the plants looking healthier longer – even as extremes may come and go.
Native plants have deeper root systems than their non-native counterparts. This makes them more able to survive floods or droughts or even be better additions to areas near rain gardens or detention or retention ponds.
And when your plants are able to survive these variations and extremes it means you also save on any unnecessary replacement costs.
4. Native Plants Are Perennial
Since native plant landscaping is made up of mostly perennials, this brings with it additional perks.
Native trees, shrubs, grasses, and flowers will go dormant each winter and then come back the following spring as bigger, stronger plants.
5. Native Plants Provide Creative Options
Commercial landscaping with native plants can also be well-designed to the point where you won’t be able to tell what’s native or non-native.
You can artfully design and arrange native plants in the same way you would non-natives. You just plant them in the right locations based on sun, soil, and water conditions.
Some great native plants for Northeast Ohio commercial properties include:
- Eastern hemlock – This tree has dark green, small needles with lighter undersides. This finely textured evergreen has a full, natural look and can reach 70 feet tall with a 35-foot spread. Use it for screening or as a specimen.
- Black gum – The medium-sized, deciduous black gum tree grows in a pleasing rounded shape with a nice, straight trunk. Dark, glossy green leaves shift to brillant shades of red, orange, yellow, and purple in the fall. Tiny flowers in spring give way to small, dark blue fruits that attract birds. These trees can grow 30 to 50 feet tall with a 20- to 30-foot spread in full sun and moist, well-drained soil.
- Virginia Sweetspire – This 3-foot by 5 foot shrub has long narrow sweeps of white flowers in early summer and consistent reddish-purple fall color. This dense shrub is fragrant and performs well in full sun to partial shade. Adaptable, Virginia sweetspire even tolerates dry conditions, as well as some standing water. It’s also deer resistant.
- Red Twig Dogwood – This plant offers variegated leaves and white flower clusters on a 6- to 12-foot high and wide base. It turns maroon in fall. In the snowy Northeast Ohio winter, its red branches are bright against the white backdrop. Pea-sized white berries are great food for local birds. And this shrub is resistant to deer.
- Winterberry Holly – This native holly is medium green in summer, turning yellow or purple in the fall. In September, this shrub offers bright red berries. While it prefers wetter areas, it can also tolerate drier sites. You can find small and large varieties.
- Coneflower – These mid- to late-summer blooming flowers grow best in full sun, are colorful, attract butterflies, and deter deer. Relatively easy to grow, these flowers range in color from pink to purple.
- Coral Bells – There are so many varieties of coral bells, ranging from peachy-gold to reddish-magenta to deep plum. Flowers grow on dainty spikes with cream-colored bells that rise up from mounds in summer. They like evenly moist soil.
- Phlox – Creeping phlox can give your commercial property a colorful spring display with soft pastel hues of pink, white, blue, and purple. These fragrant, five-petal flowers stretch an inch across and attract butterflies and other pollinators.
- Little Bluestem – This clump-forming, ornamental grass is known for its blue-green leaf color and upright form. It makes a great backdrop for flowers and excels in dry soils. LIttle bluestem reaches a height of 3 feet by fall when it turns a reddish-bronze color and has tufted seed heads.
Looking to Try Commercial Landscaping With Native Plants? Turfscape Can Help
Northeast Ohio is certainly home to some great native plants that you can incorporate in your commercial property landscape design.
And since native plants are so well adapted to the local climate, temperatures, sun exposure, and soil, they can be highly drought tolerant and grow deeper, stronger roots. This makes for stronger plants and trees in the long run, which require less water and inputs and can save you money. On top of that, they look attractive and professional, drawing in butterflies and birds as well.
Reading to explore adding native plant landscaping to your commercial site? Maybe you have some ideas, but you aren’t sure where to begin. Let Turfscape help. We can bring our years of commercial property experience working with all kinds of plants to your space, giving you something extremely special and unique to your brand.
Ready to see how Turfscape can transform your Northeast commercial facility with native plants? We’d love to share our professional expertise with you. Get started today with a free consultation. Together, we can help you elevate your business image and reputation in the local community.
