Purple Coneflower has masses of beautiful lightly-scented purple daisy flowers with coppery-bronze eyes at the ends of the stems from mid summer to early fall, which are most effective when planted in groupings, also attracting pollinators. The flowers are excellent for cutting. Its pointy leaves remain green in color throughout the season.

Swamp Milkweed has fuchsia flat-top flowers with rose overtones at the ends of the stems from mid summer to early fall. The flowers are excellent for cutting. Its narrow leaves remain grayish green in color throughout the season.

The most common and recognizable of the ferns, this is a very tough and hardy plant, featuring tall lacy fronds all season long that continue to grow strongly through any adverse conditions. Grows best in shade with rich, moist soil. Has a great textural effect in gardens and can be used to hide a fence or other structure in the landscape.

Prairie Smoke (Geum triflorum) boasts distinctive pink feathery seed heads. Each stem holds 3 bell-shaped blooms that transform into wispy pink plumes. Massed, it creates a pinkish haze that lingers a month. Fern-like, deeply serrated leaves have hairy margins. Winter brings attractive red & crimson shades.

Blue Wild Indigo has masses of beautiful spikes of indigo pea-like flowers rising above the foliage from mid spring to early summer, which are most effective when planted in groupings. The flowers are excellent for cutting. Its round compound leaves remain olive green in color throughout the season.

Obedient plant receives its name from the characteristic fact that if you manipulate an individual flower back and forth on its axis, it will stay in position you place it. It is wonderfully adaptable, tolerating both drought and poor drainage. Spreads aggressively by stolons, but is easy to pull out and keep in check. Obedient plant is a good nectarsource for butterflies. This perennial is easy to establish and maintain. It can become aggressive but the shallow roots are easy to pull out.

Flowers are in a spike-like cluster 6 to 18 inches long of purple to pink flower heads. Each flower head is about 1 inch across and made up of 25 to 40 star-shaped disk flowers with a long stringy divided style emerging from the center.

Short grass-like Sedge. Delicate and semi-evergreen with slender leaves and interesting flowers. Grows in shade or part sun. Prefers dry to well-drained soil. It can do well in more sunny locations with adequate moisture and can be used as a lawn substitute. Can be mowed as low as 2". Is clump-forming and will not create a solid mat.

Blazing Star has masses of beautiful spikes of purple flowers with pink overtones rising above the foliage from early to mid summer, which are most effective when planted in groupings. The flowers are excellent for cutting. Its grassy leaves remain green in color throughout the season.

Common Milkweed features showy shell pink flat-top flowers at the ends of the stems in mid summer. The flowers are excellent for cutting. Its narrow leaves remain grayish green in color throughout the season.

Filipendula Rubra, commonly called the Queen of the Prairie, is a U.S. native perennial. Deeply cut, fragrant, bright green leaves have lance-shaped leaflets with an unusually large terminal leaflets. A good foliage plant that is valued for both its leaves and its flowers.

Spotted Cranesbill has masses of beautiful pink flowers at the ends of the stems from late spring to mid summer, which are most effective when planted in groupings. Its deeply cut lobed palmate leaves remain emerald green in color throughout the season

The Eastern Redbud is one of spring’s most beloved native trees, wrapping its bare branches in clouds of rosy-pink blossoms before the leaves emerge. As the flowers fade, glossy heart-shaped leaves unfurl, carrying fresh green through summer and soft yellow into fall. Native to the woodlands of eastern North America, it thrives in sun to partial shade and average, moderately moist soil. Its graceful, vase-shaped silhouette makes it a standout accent by a patio or along a woodland edge, and it shines planted in groups. Pollinators flock to the early blooms, and birds appreciate its cover. A four-season charmer that feels right at home in the regional landscape.

Cinnamon Fern is primarily valued in the landscape or garden for its cascading habit of growth. It features bold spikes of dark brown flowers rising above the foliage in late spring. Its enormous oval bipinnately compound leaves are green in color. The foliage often turns peach in fall.

Whorled Milkweed is a delicate, fine-textured native that’s a quiet powerhouse for the pollinator garden. Its slender stems are dressed in airy whorls of needle-thin leaves, giving it a soft, almost feathery presence among bolder companions. Native across much of the eastern U.S., it serves as an essential host plant for Monarch caterpillars while its summer flower clusters draw butterflies and other beneficial pollinators. Happiest in full sun to light shade, it asks for little water and thrives in the lean, well-drained soils other plants snub. Deer tend to leave it alone, and it spreads gently to form colonies—perfect for naturalized borders and prairie-style plantings. Weave it through a meadow garden and watch the winged visitors arrive.

Prairie Coreopsis (Coreopsis palmata) is a beautiful, long-blooming wildflower that is especially useful for establishing in difficult areas with poor soils and dry conditions. Native to the Midwest, the plant begins blooming in late spring with showy pale-yellow flowers that attract a variety of native bees and sulphur butterflies.

Bowman's Root features airy corymbs of white star-shaped flowers with crimson calyces rising above the foliage from late spring to early summer. The flowers are excellent for cutting. Its attractive serrated pointy compound leaves are olive green in color. As an added bonus, the foliage turns gorgeous shades of yellow, coppery-bronze and burgundy in the fall. The dark red stems can be quite attractive.

Scattered along the stiff, upright stem of this unusual perennial are tough, blue-green, yucca-like, parallel-veined leaves. Smooth, rigid stem bearing thistle-like flower heads made up of small greenish-white florets mingled with pointed bracts. The individual, greenish-white flowers cluster into unique, globular heads. These occur on branch ends atop the 6 ft. plant.

Rattlesnake master can be an aggressive self-seeder. Remove seed heads to keep the plant in check. Scattered along the stiff, upright stem of this unusual perennial are tough, blue-green, yucca-like, parallel-veined leaves. Smooth, rigid stem bearing thistle-like flower heads made up of small greenish-white florets. The individual, greenish-white flowers cluster into unique, globular heads. Their spiny leaves make walking through clumps of these plants difficult.

Showy Goldenrod earns its name in late summer and fall when its upright, three-to-five-foot stems break into dense, arching plumes of brilliant golden yellow that electrify the back of the sunny border. A Great Lakes native, it provides one of the most reliable and generous bursts of late-season color available to the Midwest garden, supporting dozens of butterfly and bird species as they prepare for migration. Unlike some goldenrods that spread aggressively, this one stays in a well-mannered, upright clump that’s trustworthy enough for mass plantings or naturalistic border work. It thrives in average, well-drained soil in full sun and asks for almost nothing once established. The warm yellow fall foliage extends the seasonal show well after the flowers have finished, and the seed heads provide food for birds into winter. A bold, native choice for anyone who wants a late-season display that truly takes care of itself.