Wouldn’t it be great if we lived in a perfect world? Comfortable no matter what the temperature in summer, content in whatever situation life threw at us? Calm and collected even under duress or stress? Do we have your attention? Yes!

There is a select group of native perennials that can grow in just about any well drained soil condition, sand, loam or clay. These hardy and adaptable natives do not need expensive topsoil, soil amendments and fertilizer to thrive in our gardens; they are content to live in the native soil in which they are planted.

If the goal is to create an easy care, low maintenance landscape we can achieve it by choosing plants from this group of perennials.

Imagine early blooming perennials Smooth Penstemon, Lanceleaf Coreopsis and Blue False Indigo. Lanceleaf Coreopsis will bloom all summer long if we dead-head the spent blooms!

Blue False Indigo

Our mid summer gardens are dotted with pollinator and butterfly favorites including Purple Coneflower, Red Milkweed, Brown Eyed Susan and Culver’s Root.

Monarchs and Swallowtails will flock to Butterflyweed, Dense Blazingstar, Prairie Blazingstar and Yellow Coneflower. Late summer blooms can be achieved using Sweet Black Eyed Susan, Ironweed and Stiff Goldenrod.

Black Eyed Susan with Butterflyweed

Last but not least, don’t forget the grasses. Little Bluestem or Prairie Dropseed will never need a drop of water even in the hottest weather! Grasses scattered throughout our gardens help support the wildflowers and crowd out weeds with their deep roots.

Prairie Dropseed

What more can we ask of our humble North American native wildflowers?  We ask for beautiful lush blooms, we have them, we ask for easy gardening with little effort. No problem!  Plants that crowd out weeds and save water resources? Yes, this is our kind of gardening!  Now, where is that tall glass of iced tea and my chaise lounge? Yes, there, all better…Ahhh!

Wildflowers & Grasses for all Soil types:
Sand, Loam or Clay in full sun, with medium soil moisture

Wildflowers
Allium cernuum – Nodding Pink Onion
Asclepias tuberosa – Butterflyweed
Aster Novae-angliae – NewEnglandAster
Baptisia australis – Blue False Indigo
Coreopsis lanceolata – Lanceleaf Coreopsis
Dalea purpurea-Purple Prairie Clover
Echinacea paradoxa – Ozark Coneflower
Echinacea pallida – Pale Purple Coneflower
Echinacea purpurea – Purple Coneflower
Eryngium yuccifolium – Rattlesnake Master
Helianthus helianthoides – Ox Eye Sunflower
Liatris pycnostachya – Prairie Blazingstar
Liatris spicata – Dense Blazingstar
Monarda fistulosa – Bergamot
Penstemon digitalis – Smooth Penstemon
Penstemon smallii – Small’s Penstemon
Parthenium integrifolium – Wild Quinine
Rudbeckia subtomentosa – Sweet Black Eyed Susan
Rudbeckia hirta – Black Eyed Susan
Rudbeckia triloba – Brown Eyed Susan
Silphium laciniatum – Compassplant
Silphium terebinthinaceum – Prairie Dock
Silphium perfoliatum – Cupplant
Ratibida pinnata – Yellow Coneflower
Solidago rigida – Stiff Goldenrod
Solidago ohioensis – Ohio Goldenrod
Tradescantia bracteata – Prairie Spiderwort
Vernonia fasciculata – Ironweed
Veronicastrum virginicum – Culver’s Root

Grasses
Schizachyrium scoparium – Little Bluestem
Sporobolus heterolepis – Prairie Dropseed

Wild Quinine in front of Purple Coneflower