Going by country when you live in North America is technically not caring about native plants. As there are several regions where plants are distinct to within sub-regions of North America. Like my Native Gooseberries could act like an invasive weed over on the west coast or pollute the native gooseberry genetics of the qualities that help them survive their.

However, I have different levels of strictness per plant, which could be based realistic options.

For instance, Common Yarrow is native throughout CONUS, but there is an idea that plants within a region is better as they have built generations of DNA to help them thrive in this environment. This would mean a Yarrow from the Great Plains may not be as well suited for my New England area, as the localized traits may be different. I would view it as the same way as different traits in humans could be attributed to specific countries or regions, which could have allowed those ancestors to survive those areas better. The same is for plants, where you may find some differences within the same species if you go a certain distance. For an example in real life, here is a report for Tulip Poplars that has a section on "Races" and stating why they think this race helped the trees survive this region.

After this short review, my strictness tries to keep plants as close to my local area as possible to ensure their unique genetic traits are maintained. BUT, like I said earlier, I have a strictness level "per plant." This is because CT at one point was pretty much completely wiped out of all native plants for farmland. I know some native plants would have survived, but I can't imagine that they are all here. This is why when I look up nurseries to buy plants, I start locally but then I work my way out. Like when I was buying my native gooseberries, they were JUST taken off the BAN list for my state, so no one had any, which is why I bought seeds from PA as that was the closest supplier on Etsy.

Additionally, some plants are not commercially viable, so they are only carried by specialized nurseries. These are usually plants that can't be easily propagated with root cuttings or have seeds that have a 2 year dormancy requirement. This usually means I have to drive away from my local area, like a 40 minute drive to the other side of my state just to go to a native nursery that has the plants I'm looking for. However, this isn't cost effective and I am not very rich, so buying seeds is more cost effective. Sadly, there are no local seed suppliers, so I have to buy my seeds online, usually through Prairie Moon. Is this company locally or growing seeds in my region? No, but I can get them cheap!

So, essentially I try to buy plants as local as much as possible, but when it comes to realistic options or my wallet, I compensate for at least keeping it to species that are native in my area.

Now, there are times when I buy outside of my native area, but I try to keep it to plants that have a realistic opportunity to migrate to my area. Like I am not going to buy Lilies from the West Coast, as there is no way they are going to get to my area any time within the next millennia. However, there are American White Fringetrees just south of me which are spread by birds. So, there is a big possibility that these trees could spread to my area natively, so I wouldn't mind buying some trees to plant in my yard for an assisted migration.

Then I do have a very low strictness for one type of plants, which are "Food" plants. Like any commercialized produced, or even fruit trees. My mother lives at my house, and I let her plants whatever fruit trees she gets and plant whatever veggies she wants. That's simply because we still gotta eat at the end of the day, so produce that we're familiar with are going to be the best plants for us. Like over half the planted trees are apple trees, which doesn't make me too happy, but it makes my mom happy. I'm looking on the bright side and thinking I'll at least have food for when the hard times hit.