Pretty Wild – Wild Shrubs and Trees in the Garden.

More and more gardens feature exotic plants, and for many, the more exotic and unusual, the better! But it doesn't always have to be exotic. Native wild shrubs and trees can easily compete with the high-maintenance exotics.

Many exotic candidates like avocados or bananas rarely bear fruit in our climate and are very care-intensive. Doesn't a crisp apple from your own garden taste much better?

The more exotic the plant, the greater the joy over the success when a new plant has grown from a pit or seed. However, it's often forgotten that kiwi, avocado, and the like only really thrive here under very specific conditions and with a lot of care. The same goes for native wild shrubs and trees. Yet, they have so much to offer, and even if they don't bear fruit, they attract people and animals to the garden. What many garden owners also forget is that native wild shrubs and trees are extremely robust and easy to care for. Why? Well, because they are in their natural habitat and don't have to adapt to new temperatures, light conditions, or soil types. Practical, right? How practical would it be to keep native wild shrubs and trees in your own garden! And native wild shrubs and trees are more than just apple and pear. Garden owners can choose from about 90 different species, so there's the right wild shrub or tree for every taste. Promised!

Native wild shrubs and trees are not only very robust and extremely easy to care for, but they also make an important contribution to life in the garden. Native wild shrubs and trees offer food and shelter for the small inhabitants that hobby gardeners so enjoy observing in their gardens. Of course, bees and other insects also visit exotic woody plants and find food there, but the rare visit to the exotics is nothing compared to the lively bustling on a native wild shrub or tree. The hawthorn is one of the best bird magnets: its fruits are eaten by 32 bird species. Only the juniper is even more popular, offering food to more than 43 bird species. But not only birds, insects also thrive on native wild shrubs and trees. The best example here: the popular but non-native butterfly bush (Buddleja). Although it is also called butterfly bush because butterflies like to visit it, it offers no food for caterpillars. But without caterpillars, there are no butterflies, and so the butterfly bush is rather useless for insects. Native wild shrubs and trees, on the other hand, offer an almost endless supply of food and sustain the insects and birds that are so important for the garden.

Fruit trees usher in spring with their magnificent blossoms, and so early in the year, the first bees and bumblebees throng to the flowers of apple, cherry, plum, pear, and mirabelle. No wonder, because native wild shrubs and trees provide plenty of food for diligent garden helpers. Towards the end of the flowering period, not only do the insects benefit, but also the garden owner. Nothing beats fresh and self-harvested fruit from your own garden. Blackberry, raspberry, elderberry, and currant are also very suitable as privacy screens. And incidentally, they not only provide important food for the birds, but above all, they taste really good to the garden owner. But native wild shrubs and trees don't always have to bear only flowers and fruits. Dense hedges of copper beech, conifer, or privet offer the garden's inhabitants natural protection from predators. And so, by choosing native wild shrubs and trees, the garden owner not only has less maintenance work to do, but also does something good and helps ensure the preservation of species – both in the plant and animal kingdoms.