It would describe its shape, its root system (taprooted, deep fibrous roots, shallow horizontal roots); its life span (a short-lived pioneer like columbine, or a long-lasting lavender); its sociability level; its adaptation to stress (quick-establishing,
but short-lived ruderal species like Gaura lindheimeri or Nassella tenuissima; a thuggish, fast-spreading competitor like Monarda didyma; or a slow but steady stress-tolerator like Hosta or Calamintha).
For years, I would pack together large grasses like switchgrass, or flowers like garden
phlox (both Level 1 plants) and wonder why they got rust or powdery mildew.
Cuba Center, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
and the California Native Plant Society websites all have excellent information about how a plant grows in the wild and what it grows with.
Those Level 1 and 2 sociability plants tend to be those taller upright plants you
use in the top layers of your garden because they like to grow through others.
Take a butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa, named this year’s Perennial Plant of
the Year by the industry group the Perennial Plant Association), for example.
We think it’s possible to create designed plant communities: stylized versions
of naturally occurring ones, adapted to work in our gardens and landscapes.
When you plant in communities, you manage the entire plantings, not each individual plant.
