GARDENING WITH WILDFLOWERS

Why use prairie plants?

• Ability to thrive despite Great Plains weather extremes and soil types

• A prairie garden requires little if any supplemental irrigation once established

• Prairie plants resist insect pests and disease.

• Provide critical habitat for local wildlife

Disadvantages of Prairie Gardens

• A prairie landscape can look overgrown and weedy to the public

• Prairie landscapes require very large lot sizes or large estates to provide benefit

• Converting to a prairie garden is costly• Plants are slow to establish and weed

control is a problem

If you grow prairie plants, don’t…

• Design your prairie garden with an automatic irrigation system.

• Mulch too deep. Provide a light 1-2” layer• Space plants too far apart• Mix prairie plants that aren’t adapted to

your site

If you grow prairie plants, do…

• Plan on starting small and keep it simple• Plant your garden with at least 50% prairie

grasses• Enrich the soil in the planting zone with

topsoil, rich with humus and oxygen.• Copy a prairie model using the same kind

of soil and topography as your own site• Match the plant to the habitat!

• GreatPlants Display

Garden

Installing Prairie Gardens

• What is native for you?• Seeds vs. plugs• Prairie Gardeners often plant 80% forb

seed and 20% grass seed• When to plant?• Fight weeds before planting your prairie

Prairie Junegrass, Koeleria macrantha

Short Prairie Grasses

Blue Grama Grass,

Bouteloua gracilis,

Sideoats Grama, Bouteloua curtipendula

Little Bluestem, Schizachyrium scoparium

Prairie Dropseed, Sporobolus heterolepis

Sand Lovegrass, Eragrostis trichoides

Tall Prairie Grasses

Switchgrass, Panicum virgatum

Indiangrass, Sorghastrum nutans

Big Bluestem, Andropogon gerardii

Sand Bluestem, Andropogon hallii

Leadplant, Amorpha canescens

Woody Wildflowers

New Jersey Tea, Ceanothus americana

Prairie Smoke, Geum triflorum

Spring Blooming

Pasque Flower, Pulsatilla patens

Pussytoes, Antennaria parviflora

“it was the velvety, silver-green mat of an antennaria which etched the first indelible impression of a wild plant on my mind and turned me into an ardent admirer of them.” –Claude Barr

Dwarf Spiderwort, Tradescantia tharpii

“a very hairy little spiderwort, flowering freely for several weeks in early spring. It has kept its allotted space among other gentle-mannered plants.” –Claude Barr

Fremont’s Clematis, Clematis fremontii

Pincushion Cactus,Coryphantha missouriensis

Pincushion Cactus, Coryphantha vivipara

Plains Prickly-Pear Cactus, Opuntia polyacantha

Prairie Alumroot, Heuchera richardsonii

Prairie Phlox, Phlox pilosa

Dwarf Blue Indigo, Baptisia minor

Calylophus serrulatus ‘Prairie Lode’

Toothed Primrose

“well behaved in the garden….its petals wide and overlapping,forming a full, round saucer” –Claude Barr

“little has been done toward color selection in Yucca glauca. I brought to the garden a plant whose sepal segments were strongly tinted with red” –Claude Barr

Soapweed, Yucca glauca

Summer Bloomers

Pale Purple Coneflower, Echinacea pallida

Narrowleaf Coneflower,Echinacea angustifolia

Prairie Spiderwort & Pale Penstemon

Prairie Spiderwort, Tradescantia ohioensis

Butterfly Milkweed, Asclepias tuberosa

Sensitive Briar, Schrankia nuttallii

“each of the several to many trailing or clambering, little-branched stems carries its compliment of flowers…inch-wide balls of fluff of a lovely rose-pink.” –Claude Barr

Missouri Primrose, Oenothera missouriensis

Prairie Skullcap, Scutellaria resinosa

Wild Quinine, Parthenium integrifolium

Fragrant False Indigo, Amorpha nana

Purple Poppy Mallow, Callirhoe involucrata

Fringed Sage, Artemesia frigida

Purple Prairie Clover, Dalea purpurea

“the thick cones, which attain a length of two inches, are dark green, a bit silvery hairy, and the circles of flowers are a beautiful purple-red from light to deep in hue….a gay atmosphere is added by the many long-filamented anthers of gold or burnt orange.” –Claude Barr

Gray-Headed Coneflower,Ratibida pinnata

Upright Prairie Coneflower,Ratibida columnifera

Prairie Bushclover,Lespedeza capitata

Rattlesnake Master, Eryngium yuccifolium

Pitcher Sage, Salvia azurea

Fall Bloomers

Dotted Gayfeather, Liatris punctata

Scaly Blazing Star,Liatris squarrosa

Rough Gayfeather,Liatris aspera

Compass Plant, Silphium laciniatum

Wild Bergamot, Monarda fistulosa

Showy Goldenrod, Solidago speciosa

“the find of the day, in cracks in the slabby limestone of the summit, was the prime rock aster of the Plains, A. fendleri

in full flower at 4 to 10 inches.” –Claude Barr

‘My Antonia’ Fendler’s Aster, Aster fendleri

Aromatic Aster, Aster oblongifolius

Wet Areas

Swamp Milkweed,Asclepias incarnata

Joe-Pye Plant,Eupatorium purpureum

Culver’s Root,Veronicastrum virginicum

Thickspike Gayfeather,Liatris pycnostachya

White Wild Indigo,Baptisia lactea

Turtlehead,Chelone lyonii

Sneezeweed,Helenium autumnale

Purple Meadow Rue,Thalictrum dasycarpum

Prairie Plants for Naturalizing

Plains Coreopsis,Coreopsis tinctoria

Brown-eyed Susan,Rudbeckia triloba

Wild Petunia, Ruellia humilis

Lanceleaf Coreopsis & Prairie Larkspur

Golden Alexanders,Zizia aurea

Wild Columbine,Aquilegia canadensis

Western Wallflower, Erysimum umbellatum

Yellowdicks, Helenium amarum

Fringed Puccoon, Lithospermum incisum

“with slightly slashed and ruffled petals, the fringed puccoon glows delightfully in medium yellow, mainly in May.” –Claude Barr

Prickly Poppy, Argemone polyanthemos

Rocky Mountain BeePlant, Cleome serrulata

“it wins an honored place by bearing at the apex of each stem an ample, flat-topped cluster of inch-wide heads, all in deep, rich yellow and centered about a disk of intense, glowing orange” –Claude Barr

Prairie Ragwort,

Senecio plattensis

Shell-leaf Penstemon, Penstemon grandiflorus

Native Plant Sources

• Ion Exchange (seeds and plants), 1878 Old Mission Dr., Harpers Ferry, IA 52146-7533

• Missouri Wildflowers Nursery (native perennial seeds and plants), 9814 Pleasant Hill Road, Jefferson City, MO 65109, mowldflrs@socket.net

• Oikos Tree Crops (oaks, nut trees, American native edibles), P.O. Box 19425, Kalamazoo, MI 49019, Phone (616) 624-6233

• Prairie Moon Nursery (native plants & seeds for wetland, prairie, savanna and woodland), Route 3, Box 163, Winona, MN 55987-9515, 507/452-1362, pmnrsy@luminet.net

• Prairie Nursery (wildflowers and prairie plants), P.O. Box 306, Westfield, WI 53964, (800) 476-9453, webcs@prairienursery.com

• Seeds of the Plains, HC 76, Box 21, Belvidere, SD 75721• Shoestring Acres (prairie seed), P.O. Box 6614, Lincoln, NE 68506,

402/327-2532, www.shoestringseed.com• Stock Seed Farms (grasses and wildflowers), 28008 Mill Rd., Murdock, NE

68407-2350, (402) 867-3771, stockseed@navix.net• Nebraska Statewide Arboretum, arboretum.unl.edu/plant sales

Bob Henrickson

402.472.7855

rhenrickson2@unl.edu

…enriching lives through the beauty and wonder of plants.

arboretum.unl.edu