“Native” has become a buzzword in the world of botany and horticulture, and I guess I’m contributing to it! Suddenly a bunch of people who didn’t care where their plants came from are ready to lionize one group of plants and villainize another. But what does “native” actually mean? This is a question that Mark Richardson and Dan Jaffe attempt to answer at the beginning of Native Plants for New England Gardens:

Multiflora rose – whose Latin name is Rosa multiflora, logically enough – is kind of a shit rose. A lovely portrait of a shit rose. It is native to east Asia, but definitely not North America, where it has become wildly invasive. … if you know me at all, you know I have a bee in my bonnet about the term “invasive,” but my definition of a shitty invasive is “can I find it naturalized in woodlands behind my house?