Discussions about the use of native versus exotic plants seem to be inherent to planting design. Currently these are picking up pace in the light of the recent threats of climate change and biodiversity loss. To allow for a better understanding of the historical context of the debate the authors have taken a step back, looking at the historic garden(ing) journal Garten-schönheit thereby following the same discussion a hundred years ago in the run-up to and during part of the German Nazi-Regime. In this declaredly non-political journal debates of the time seem differentiated, acknowledging the relevance of non-native plants in garden settings as opposed to the landscape thus showing some similarities to debates today. The authors argue that terminology does matter and a ref lection of the historicity of terms used today needs to become a matter of course.