Bona Terra

Native Plants | Wild Genetics | Sustainable Practices

Expert-grown natives and plant grants supporting local not-for-profit native planting projects

Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) photographed by Andrew Cannizzaro, image licensed under CC BY 2.0

Mission statement: We grow native plants with a focus on the local genetics necessary to restore diversity in the Chesapeake eco-region.

Vision statement: Providing people and businesses the resources to preserve our at-risk habitats, to restore ecosystems, and to rethink environmental action on micro and macro levels.

Apply for a Bona Terra Plant Grant

We are attempting to give over 1,000,000 seedlings of native plants to local groups and organizations! Check out our Plant Grant page for more information and to fill out an application form for your group. Help us meet our goal by applying for seedlings today!

Bona Terra Plant Grant

Our Bona Terra Tilling Guide

Are you prepping a garden, but don’t know where to start? Want to learn a little more about till and no-till methods with native plant gardens? Check out the Bona Terra Tilling Guide!

Bona Terra Tilling Guide

Or you can download and print the guide using the button below

Bona Terra Till Guide Download

Check out what we’re up to, see what’s in bloom, and learn more about native plants and our growing practices by following us on social media.

We added a new local eco type species to the inventory and it’ll be ready by may. Everyone knows lawns are bad but sometimes they’re unavoidable. You can add a little diversity to yours by planting a few Viola sororia to your lawn. They will host fritillaries who enjoy munching the leaves but humans can also eat them! Look out for these bees coming for nectar- Andrena (Gonandrena) fragilis, Andrena (Gonandrena) integra, and Andrena (Gonandrena) platyparia. They bloom early when there isn’t much flowering in the world and before grasses start growing so they’re great for adding color and diversity to your lawn without having to adjust your mowing schedule. And don’t worry about having to buy a lot, they’re prolific seeders and just 1 every 10 square feet will be plenty to have them established in a lawn after a few years. As a bonus they make great stepping stone pathway plants and can function as green mulch in a variety of lighting, soil and moisture conditions.

Whipped this up while potting plants this week. This guide is meant to give you all the essentials for getting your Bona Terra Plant Grant seedlings into pots. It’s posted on the website in downloadable form so anyone can print it out and use it however they see fit. Let me know your questions or critiques because I’ll be adding to this and refining it based on feedback!

For all those wondering what 2-300 seedlings in a quart pot looks like here are a couple from last year.

Pre-order native plants for pick-up at one of our spring plant sales! Choose which plant sale you want to attend:

Today is the day to call and let your representatives know that clear native plant resources and labeling matter to everyone! Ask your Maryland senator and delegate for a FAVORABLE vote on the SB836/HB950 the Maryland Native Plant Program.

With nearly all of our first group of grantees done with their plant selection process we have over 70,000 plants paired with local organizations with plans to plant them this year. A few species are nearly gone but most on the list are still available and we’ll be adding some more as soon as I have time to update the website. Our second group of grantees are almost ready to move on to the the plant selection process and this group is looking to be nearly double the size of the first. Plant availability is going to be first come first serve so with 70,000 already taken in the first round and an estimated 130,000 going to the second round grantees that will leave 800,000 more seedlings to choose from. The goal for the year is 1,000,000 but it seems like we’re gaining some momentum so if we reach 1 million by may 15, maybe I’ll toss another half million in seeded quarts for y’all.

Both of these are straight species Aqualegia canadensis but one came from a large scale plant production and one is from wild genetics. They may not seem to be all that different but the second Columbine has undergone fundamental changes that will have impacts on it’s viability outside human cultivation. The Columbine that has been in the care of humans has been changed by the simple act of collecting from the easiest to reach (tallest)and biggest seed pods. That may seem to be a benign filter when selecting the seeds but there are fundamental aspects of the plants biology being altered by those simple acts. For one you’ll notice the leaf margins of the wild Columbine are deeper. That results in a smaller amount of surface to photosynthesize. In the wild, combine grows out of the cracks of rocks and with limited water supplies so the smaller leaf surface is more in balance with its average amount of available moisture. By selecting the plants with the largest seeds and flowers we also chose plants with smaller leaf margins and larger leaf surfaces that collect more energy. Those larger leaf surfaces are not in balance and will require too much water for the plant to be able to thrive outside of our gardens. Second you’ll notice in the first photo the leaves are covered with pubescence. These hairs serve a vital role of radiating heat off of the plant keeping it at optimal temperature for photosynthesis. But those same hairs are a double edge sword; they cost energy for the plant produce and they block light from the leaves reducing the amount of photosynthesis that they are able to do. When selecting plants with the highest and easiest to collect seed pods we are inadvertently selecting the ones that have less pubescence. In our gardens this results in bigger and more flowers but those same plants will fail in the wild if they direct too much energy into producing flowers and not enough and radiating heat. Both of these naturally occurring mechanisms result in smaller flowers and less seeds being produced but they also result in more dynamic and resilient plants that are better suited to persist in naturally occurring conditions in the wild.

It’s been a busy couple weeks with testifying for a new Maryland native plant bill, plant pick ups, fielding dozens of calls, writing plant guides, finalizing our guiding principles, getting cleaned up for nursery tours and endless recycled pot organizing but all that didn’t stop me from potting up 2,000 more plugs and seeding 350,000 plants into quarts for plant grants too! Woo, the spring season has definitely kicked in at the nursery!! I’ll be by the phone all day as usual, so give me a call to get your questions answered and plants put on reserve to be sure you get what you need.

Native Plant Sales

Expert-grown natives delivered to your project site

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Portable Milling

On-site tree removal and lumber milling

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Native Plant Sales

Our native plant nursery is carefully maintained by experts using sustainable practices. We focus on growing local ecotypes within 100 miles of our nursery in Anne Arundel County, Maryland using minimal fertilizer and no pesticides, herbicides or growth hormones.

We have native plants available for sale to homeowners, landscape professionals, and conservation and restoration non-profits. We offer delivery and pick-up on orders, either at our nursery in Friendship, Maryland or at our office in DC. Our goal is to provide stewards of the Chesapeake Bay with native plants, whose lack of availability has historically been a challenge in conservation efforts. See our inventory by clicking below.

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Portable Sawmilling

Have a tree that needs to be converted into usable boards? Our portable saw mill can help! We cut dying or diseased trees that need to be felled into dimensional lumber as well as unique slabs and live-edge boards that are not widely available.

Portable sawmilling is an affordable way to get expensive cuts of wood with a much smaller carbon footprint than their counterparts at the lumber yard: the lumber we produce is air dried, and requires no transport (or packaging) from a mill to a store to your home. As a bonus, we remove remaining branches and cast aways to be repurposed into soil at our native plant nursery. Finally, many of our clients appreciate being able to hold onto a memento from a beloved tree.

Visit our Sawyer Services Page

Bona Terra, LLC

bonaterra@bonaterradc.com

(202) 507-9648

We are a small family-run landscaping business and native plant nursery located in Washington, DC. Our urban landscape design, growing practice, and installation business specializes in artistic installations, bay-friendly native gardens and sustainable practices.

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