Blue Whale Trees
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Companion species

Pick one plant and see what grows with it: the natives that share its ground in the wild, and the ones that pair with it in a yard because they want the same sun, soil and climate.

Shrub, 10–20 ft, zones 3–7, full or part sun, average or dry soil. Catalog page.

In the wild

Common Prickly Ash (Toothache Tree) grows in rocky ground, rich moist slopes, stream banks, dry uplands and old fields and edges

These natives share that ground, so they will look right together and want the same care.

Common Hackberry
Celtis occidentalis shares stream banks, rocky ground, dry uplands and old fields and edges Gray Dogwood
Cornus racemosa shares old fields and edges, stream banks, dry uplands and rocky ground Devil's Walking Stick
Aralia spinosa shares old fields and edges, rich moist slopes, stream banks and rocky ground Blue Ash
Fraxinus quadrangulata shares rocky ground, dry uplands and rich moist slopes Mockernut Hickory
Carya tomentosa shares dry uplands, rich moist slopes and rocky ground New Jersey Tea
Ceanothus americanus shares dry uplands, rocky ground and old fields and edges Pignut Hickory
Carya glabra shares dry uplands, rich moist slopes and rocky ground Staghorn Sumac
Rhus typhina shares old fields and edges, dry uplands and rocky ground

In the yard

Trees to plant it under

Common Prickly Ash (Toothache Tree) takes some shade, so it can live beneath these.

In the yard

Beside it

Plants that want the same sun and soil, for a bed, a hedge or a grove.

How the matches are made

Every species we grow is tagged with the natural communities it lives in: floodplain forests, swamps, stream banks, rich slopes, dry ridges, sandy barrens, rocky ground, old fields, the forest understory, the mountains and the coast. Wild neighbors are the species that share one or more of those tags, with the closest matches first. Yard pairings use the plant's own needs instead: overlapping hardiness zones and soil moisture, and for the shade pairings, a size difference of at least two classes and a smaller plant that tolerates part shade or shade.

Sharing a habitat tag does not mean two plants always grow side by side, and a tag says nothing about how far apart to plant them. Use the planting-site check for the spot itself, and the growth estimator for how much room each one will want in twenty years.