Hendersonville, TN Landscaping Rules: Native Plants (2026)

On regulated development sites, Hendersonville's landscape standards establish a substantive native-species preference: 'for each development site, at least 75 percent of the trees required to be planted under the provisions of this article shall be native species.' This applies to required street trees (one tree per 35 linear feet of property abutting a street), parking-lot interior landscaping, screening, and bufferyards. The Planning Department publishes a Tree Selection Notes template alongside its Tree Removal Permit Application Checklist to guide applicants in choosing acceptable native and adapted species suited to USDA Zone 7a/7b (Middle Tennessee) — common selections include tulip poplar, white oak, willow oak, sugar maple, eastern red cedar, flowering dogwood, eastern redbud, serviceberry, and bald cypress. There is no mandate for native landscaping on existing single-family residential lots; homeowners may plant ornamentals, lawn grasses, or natives as they choose. Tennessee state law (TCA § 4-1-305) designates the tulip poplar as the official state tree. Within the Old Hickory Lake USACE shoreline buffer, native vegetation is favored under the 2020 Shoreline Management Plan and species used for shoreline erosion control may include native woody species such as willow, ash, dogwood, maples, birch, sycamore, and locust. UT Extension and the Tennessee Native Plant Society publish regional native-plant guidance.