About Us
Our
Story
Bee Native TN was founded out of a desire to help repopulate native pollinator populations. Native bee, honey bee, and monarch butterfly populations-just to name a few, have been on a drastic population decline. Native pollinators are vital to our ecosystem, and some would say our ultimate survival as a species.
One out of every three bites we eat daily depends on pollinators, and without them, our diets would change drastically and our health would be at risk. Part of the decline is pesticide use, part is natural diseases that occur in populations, and part is climate change, and increased development with simple turf grass and exotic landscaping.
Before moving to Tennessee over three years ago, we were not aware of how vital planting native was. We foolishly went to both big box garden stores as well as local garden supply and nursey stores and were sold what they claimed to be helpful plants to pollinators. After some time, we were educated by local gardeners and nursery owners that specialize in native plants that many plants that we deem "helpful" pose no actual nutritional value to our local pollinators! And many, can actually be considered invasive and borderline outright unhelpful. Since then, we decided to have a native-plant focus to aid in our local pollinator population for our own landscape and to share the knowledge we have learned over time with others who also wouldn't know otherwise.
It’s not that people don’t want to plant native, it’s that , like us years back, there is a miseducation about the intrinsic value and inherent need to include more native plants in residential gardens and landscapes, and ease of access to obtain them. Part of our mission is to educate on the need for native plant focused gardening and how beneficial it is to our local environment here in East Tennessee that everyone loves.
Not everyone may have the room for a full meadow, but even a small container garden with smaller native flowering plants can greatly help support our local pollinators. We do not believe an entire landscape needs to be all native plants, however simply including more native plants into the landscape can have a profound impact.
Our small scale family-run nursery offers native, pollinator friendly plants to foster healthy and sustainable environments. Shop with us and help bloom beautiful native flowers in your own garden that will attract and aid pollinators for years to come!
Tennessee Plant Certification Nursery License # BCOL-CNNK3L
