Thrive and Homegrown National Park are pleased to announce “Thriving Gardens,” a new regional plant guide for northeast Alabama, northwest Georgia, and southeast Tennessee.

The Thriving Gardens regional plant guide is designed for communities in northeast Alabama, northwest Georgia, and southeast Tennessee. It features a selection of ferns, grasses, groundcovers, flowers, shrubs, vines, and trees that are natural to this area. Often called “native” plants, these representative species are beautiful, durable, attract and support wildlife, and enhance our human sense of wonder and literacy about the natural world.

Greater Chattanooga, a place for life

The greater Chattanooga region of Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee includes portions of the Cumberland Plateau, Ridge and Valley, and Southern Blue Ridge ecoregions and is one of the country’s great centers of life. 

The deciduous forests – forests that explode into bloom even as trees lose their leaves in fall and winter – are the most diverse of their kind in the nation. The unusually rich assortment of broadleaved trees – oaks, hickories, elms, ash, buckeyes, maples, to name a few – nourish a spectacular show of spring wildflowers – bluebells, trilliums, spring phlox, bloodroot, and many others – that rise and flower in the waning days of winter and with the arrival of spring light.

The deep temperate forest is not the only ecosystem that makes this region special. Sweeping grasslands and savanna-like forests with scattered trees were once dominant over many areas, their remnants still visible in the sun-loving wildflowers and shortleaf pines that still dot the landscape. It is quite likely that this region is a global center of sunflower diversity; one can find a dozen different kinds of sunflowers and their close relatives, the silphium, blooming among the native grasslands. In the open light of shortleaf pines, these and other flowers – royal red and blue lobelias, purple asters and blazing stars, waving anemones and larkspurs – bloomed spring, summer, and fall.

It is no wonder this region was once a haven for wildlife. Increasingly rare birds like quail, grouse, and pineland sparrows basked in the sunny meadows, as cerulean warblers, cuckoos, and wood thrush sang from the forests. The rich assortment of blossoms encouraged an equally rich assortment of bees, butterflies, moths, and other pollinators.

Choose Natives

Local plants provide several benefits to yards and parks, including: 

• Easy maintenance: Native plants are adapted to the local climate, so they require less water and care.

• Cost savings: Because they require less water and care, property owners spend less on gardening supplies and water bills.

• Local wildlife: Native plants provide food and shelter for local animals like birds, butterflies, and bees.

• Beautiful gardens: With a variety of textures and blooms, native plants make your garden colorful and full of life.

• Environmental protection: Native plants have sturdy root systems that are adapted to local soil, helping to prevent erosion and reducing the need for chemicals like pesticides and fertilizers.

• A sense of place: By blending with the surrounding environment, native plants add unique character to the places where we live, work, and play.

A budding partnership

The Thriving Gardens plant guide is a collaborative initiative between Thrive Regional Partnership and Homegrown National Park® to support residents, businesses, and communities as they restore vibrant native landscapes across northeast Alabama, northwest Georgia, and southeast Tennessee.

With thanks to Generous Supporters:

This project wouldn't be possible without the invaluable support of our co-sponsors:

• The State Botanical Garden of Georgia at UGA

• The City of Chattanooga

• The Paint Rock Forest Research Center

• Reflection Riding Nature Center and Arboretum

• The Southeastern Grasslands Institute

• WMWA Landscape Architects

The Thriving Gardens initiative is funded by:

• The Lyndhurst Foundation

• The Riverview Foundation