The city of Mount Rainier is encouraging homeowners and businesses to add native plants to their properties.

Under the Mount Rainier Native Plant Network program, homeowners and businesses agree to maintain at least 25 native species or keep at least 10 percent of their backyards and green spaces native.

The goal is to create corridors of native plants through urban spaces that connect to larger parks and nature preserves to allow wild animals and pollinating insects to move around.

People looking to get started can get a free consultation from a volunteer with the Prince George’s County Audubon Society Wildlife Habitat Program.

Among the recommended native plants are Black-eyed Susans — the official state flower — Goldenrod and Pennsylvania sedge.

Once a property has been certified, the city will provide the owner with a colorful plaque designed by Mount Rainier resident and graphic designer, Torie Partridge, who is owner of Terratorie and best known for her colorful maps of local neighborhoods and towns.

“These will become plaques that can be put on the front of your house to show that your garden is full of native plants, and to inspire your neighbors to do the same,” she wrote on Instagram.

Native plants can be bought from nearby New Brooklyn Farms, Chesapeake Natives Inc. in Upper Marlboro or Patuxent Nursery in Bowie, among other places.

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