Why grow Pearly Everlasting?
This guest blog is part of a series of articles written by Mount Allison students, as part of a partnership between Nature NB and the Applied Native Plants and Pollinator Conservation course. Thanks to Dr. Emily Austen and the students for this ongoing collaboration!
By Paige Stuart, student at Mount Allison University
Pearly Everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea) is an excellent addition to any home garden. These attractive, low-maintenance plants encourage pollinators to visit your home, benefitting both your garden as a whole and the larger ecosystem.
Pearly Everlasting is a hardy perennial plant found throughout the United States and Canada, with its native range reaching north into New Brunswick and the surrounding Maritimes. It grows in various habitats and is particularly adapted to dry, stony sites, like meadows, roadsides, and forests. It prefers locations with dry, stony, or clay-rich soils and thrive in sun to part-shade conditions.
These characteristics make Pearly Everlastings an excellent choice for less-desirable garden locations, like rock gardens and low-fertility soils. Anywhere where your other plants may not thrive. Pearly Everlasting requires little water, making it very drought resistant. Adding this plant to your home gardens provides several benefits, including visual appeal and increased pollinator presence.
The seeds can be sown directly on the surface of the soil in the late fall to germinate in the spring. The plants bloom during the summer, producing small, pearly-white flowers with a central yellow disk. They can grow up to three feet tall, with cottony stems that cluster together, giving the plant a bushy appearance.
Pearly everlasting also has medicinal properties and has been used by indigenous communities for millennia. The plants were traditionally used to treat sores, boiled into teas for rheumatism, or smoked to relieve colds.
Pearly Everlasting is insect-pollinated, providing nectar for both butterflies and moths. The American Lady (Vanessa virginiensis) and Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui) butterflies have a special relationship with this plant, as it serves as a host for their larvae. These butterflies migrate south during the colder months and return to the Maritimes when the weather warms. Upon their return, they feed on the plant’s leaves and lay their eggs in the spring. The butterflies’ caterpillars then create webs around themselves and grow as they consume the plant material. Without Pearly Everlasting the life cycle of the American and Painted Lady butterflies would be disrupted.
Native plant-pollinator relationships are extremely sensitive to environmental change, as they need suitable habitats to support their populations. Planting species like Pearly Everlasting is an easy way to support butterflies. Additionally, cultivating plants that require minimal resources reduces the environmental burden of backyard gardens, especially when it comes to water consumption.
Planting Pearly Everlasting is an easy, effective way to support pollinator populations in New Brunswick. Backyard gardens only stand to benefit from these hardy, low-maintenance plants.
