Trusted Plants for Kansas Landscapes

Posted on July 24, 2019 by Scott Vogt

It has been an interesting year weather-wise, to say the least. We have seen monsoon flooding and sweltering heat. I would like to say that this is another typical year in Kansas, but I don’t know what typical is anymore. So with all the highs and lows, wet and dry, what will grow here? How can you choose trusted plants with confidence, knowing that they are right for your site?

Plants are the best teachers

The simple answer is to look to nature to show you the way. Plants are the best teachers. So go ahead and choose plants that you believe will grow without much input on your part. After a year or two you will have a pretty good idea which plants grow best. You will need to plant more of the plants that are thriving and find a new space for those that are struggling. Every good gardener has had their share of plant failures, but they keep finding new plants that work. Don’t get discouraged, this is all part of the process of growing plants in a harsh environment.

*A display of Black-eyed Susan, Russian sage, and blue star.*

Every Landscape is Unique

The other thing to keep in mind is that every landscape is different. What works for your neighbor may or may not work for you. The plants they use may not be your cup of tea. Choose plants you like and appreciate to make your landscape uniquely yours. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but it does need to bring you joy, fulfillment and increase your confidence to try new things.

Start Small

Start with a small area and slowly expand it. This way your garden doesn’t overwhelm you. From weeding, to watering, to maintaining your garden space, establish a garden you can manage with just a few hours each week. More than likely, it will not be perfect the first time, but with trial and error you will discover the types of plants that work in your areas.

*Rattlesnake master with red switchgrass*

A Reflection of You

From those humble beginnings, you will have a space that reflects your interests and tastes. Here are a few of my favorite “go to” plants. I confidently use these plants because they are quite adaptable and provide consistent color, texture and/or bloom. Some of these plants may work for you too.

Grasses for Sun

Switchgrass: Panicum ‘Northwind’, ‘Ruby Ribbons’, or ‘Purple Tears’
Prairie dropseed: Sporobolus heterolepis
Blue grama: Bouteloua gracilis ‘Blonde Ambition’
Little bluestem: Schizachyrium scoparium ‘Twilight Zone’, ‘Standing Ovation’, or ‘Jazz’
Feather reed grass: Calamagrostis ‘Karl Foerster’ (Not native, but it has nice form and texture)

Wildflowers for Sun

Aster: Aster ericoides ‘Snow Flurry’, Aster laevis ‘Bluebird’, Aster lateriflorus ‘Lady in Black’, Aster oblongifolius ‘Raydon’s Favorite’ or ‘October Skies’
Ornamental onion: Allium ‘Millennium’
Blue star: Amsonia hubrichtii, amsonia illustris and ‘Blue Ice’
Baptisia varieties
Coneflowers: Echinacea angustifolia, pallida, and paradoxa. Hybrid varieties are nice if properly placed.
Rattlesnake master: Eryngium yuccifolium
Blazing stars: Liatris aspera, punctata, pycnostachya and spiccata
Primrose: Oenothera missouriensis
Penstemon ‘Dark Towers’
Wild quinine: Parthenium integrifolium
Black-eyed Susan: Rudbeckia missouriensis, fulgida, maxima, or triloba
Goldenrod: Solidago ‘Golden Baby’, drummondii, nemorails, rigida, ‘Fireworks’, or ‘Wichita Mountains’
Spiderwort: Tradescantia ohiensis
Ironplant: Vernonia lettermanii ‘Iron Butterflies’

Grasses and Wildflowers for Part Shade

Yarrow, Amsonia, Aster divaricatus ‘Easter Star’, Solomon’s Seal, Coreopsis, Heliopsis, Monarda, coneflowers, phlox, coral bells, Rudbeckia, goldenrod, culver’s root, golden alexander, prairie dropseed, river oats (use with caution), sedges, and bottlebrush grass.

Every grass has its flower.

Posted on July 17, 2019 by Janelle Flory Schrock

Grasses are tenacious harnessers of the prairie.

This humble family survives the open plains and thrives in niches that others are too flamboyant to endure. Their incredibly deep roots protect them from drought, and their tall silica-rich stalks scatter the next generation.

Though often thought of as a backdrop for peaking wildflowers, grasses are actually flowering plants themselves. They evolved to stand and spread under vast, harsh skies. While their fraternal twin the orchid family grew alluring petals and fragrances, the grasses grew into tall and limber pollen casters. Well after the first flowering plants and more recently than the dinosaurs, grasses diverged from other buds as minimalists.

They found resilience in simplicity.

Without a need to attract insects to jumble their genes, grasses didn’t have to spend masses of energy on lavish pageantry. They dug their roots in deeper, grew a few more stickers, and when grazers or burns mowed them down, they came back sprawling.

Minimal beauty

Their flowers stayed small and muted. They lost their petals and rearranged their bracing bracts into something more hardy. When pastures bloom, their shy brilliance pokes out of camouflaged grains. They exist as rows of envelopes, smaller florets, braiding themselves into a diversity of branching inflorescence.

Grass flowers adorn themselves with what looks like a string of pollen-covered lanterns. From within, a curious set of small internal leaves will swell, pushing feathery stigmas and powdery anthers out of the floret.

Grasses are anemophilous, “wind loving.” Although their blooms are only half as vivid as their stalks, many make small colorful gifts to the breeze. The female pistil can come in silver, yellow or deep periwinkle, whereas the male anthers can flaunt yellow, orange, green, crimson and even lavender-purple.

You can see them displaying their small wares right now along the grounds of the Arboretum: blue grama, big bluestem and brome all in their summer suede.

Blue grama, Bouteloua gracilis
Big bluestem, Andropogon gerardii

Beginners to winners

Another reductionist adaptation is their use of spiny awls. You probably know them better as stickers. These extra bristles get caught in fur and socks to be pulled across the prairie. Some awls are bent, some are straight and some will even twist and untwist with fluctuations in humidity, screwing themselves into the earth.

They may have replaced fragrance for practicality, but ultimately it’s had major payoffs. Swaths of pasture persist through drought, fire and storm. Twenty percent of all wild plants in the Great Plains are grasses. Not only do their populations outnumber any other group of flowering plant, their distribution is sweeping. By weight they account for 70 percent of all crops.

Truly subdued prominence.

Resources: Barnard, Iralee. Field Guide to the Common Grasses of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska. University Press of Kansas, 2014

Design by Time and Color

Posted on July 3, 2019 by Katie Schmidt

The construction of our new HUB (Horticulture and Utility Building) meant a lot of new sidewalk installation to go with it. And whenever there is cement work around here, there is always a lot of disturbed turf grass and less-than-desirable fill dirt. Instead of reseeding more grass in the areas adjacent to the sidewalk and fighting the weed growth, I decided to put in a new garden. In only two short years, that garden has grown more quickly and successfully than I could have hoped! I designed it in a snap using just three main guidelines: light, color palette, bloom time.

I focused my design on purple. With the part sun conditions in the middle of the bed my bee balm, blue eyed grass and spike speedwell felt right at home.

Light

This space was a delight to design because of its unique conditions and shape. Long and narrow, it spans length of the sidewalk and changes gradually from full sun to full shade as you walk towards the HUB. It irrigated by the same system that keeps our fescue green and lush in that area. These factors gave me endless plant options — a garden situation anyone could design!

Starry champion or widowsfrill (*Silene stellata)* is a little known shade plant sporting fringed white blooms through June and July. Wonderful for adding a wispy, airy texture to the bed.

Timing the Blooms

I narrowed it down to mostly spring and fall blooming plants for this area. The adjacent sidewalk leads right to our FloraKansas plant festival, so I planned for the biggest impact at the highest traffic times. I have nicknamed this garden the ‘display bed’ because it allows our plant shoppers to see what the plants look like in the ground, actively growing in a garden before they buy them. This justifies the unusually high species diversity in this bed, breaking from my personal style of simplicity and mass planting.

In spring, copper iris blooms tower over the blue-eyed grass clumps. Purples and oranges always pair well together, and the foliage similarities between these two help carry on a grassy texture throughout the bed.

Pick Your Palette

Papaver orientale ‘Royal Wedding’ stuns in white and purple. The whites blooms in a garden help to blend and unify other colors that might clash.

Color was key in my plant selection. In this area we have a lot of fescue grass and pine trees. These all fall into the cool green spectrum of color. To contrast that, I chose lots of reds, pinks and warm purples to populate the garden space. Purple and reds are not colors I like to use heavily in garden design, but it really works against all the cool tones of that area.

Monarda “Cherry Pops” is still beautiful even as its blooms are fading.

I stuck with mostly non-woody plants so that I can mow down this bed in the spring without fear of damaging a shrub. The only shrubs I included were ‘Proud Berry’ Symphoricarpos — the pink matte-finish berries are too cute to pass up! I placed the shrubs in the back of the garden so they are out of the way for maintenance of the rest of the bed.

Designing a cohesive, attractive new garden bed can be simplified by giving a little thought to these three important factors. If the thought of balancing light, color palette and bloom time still sounds overwhelming to you, email us to schedule a landscape consultation. We are here to help!

Welcoming Insects

Posted on June 20, 2019 by Brad Guhr

“If you build it, they will come.”

I often use this phrase to describe my home prairie garden which is a common misquote from a favorite 1989 baseball movie, Field of Dreams. The actual quote uses he, not they…multiple baseball players walk out of the cornfield when he builds the field…hence the likely confusion. Nevertheless, the premise of my misquote seems to be proven by my observations. Insects and a whole host of other wildlife species come to my yard, because of the plants I am adding to my landscape.

*Monarch caterpillar on common milkweed*

I haven’t done any quantitative sampling of insects in my yard to prove with statistical certainty that landscaping with native plants has increased the presence of fauna around my home. However, every year I do see what seem like increasingly more insects, as well as other animals that eat insects, around my yard. Therefore, I am deducing that Kevin Costner’s quote (or my made-up version) rings true for me.

*Red milkweed beetle on common milkweed.*

A Diverse Food Web

It would make sense that an increase in insects in my yard would happen as plant diversity increases in our landscape. The principles of ecology and trophic levels of food webs tell us this will happen. In a previous blog post (In Awe of Insects), I discuss an Earth Partnership for Schools curriculum activity called “Sweeping Discoveries.” We do this activity at Dyck Arboretum on a regular basis with teachers and students to test whether insect diversity is higher in a fescue lawn or prairie garden. The prairie garden always produces greater numbers and greater diversity of insect species.

Ailanthus *webworm moth – an introduced species that* *uses* *the invasive exotic tree-of-heaven for its host plant. Unfortunately, this tree is showing up all over our neighborhood and it makes sense that this little moth is around now too.*

Plenty of Moisture

Another factor coming into play that is likely causing a bountiful number of insects in our yard has been an abundance of rainfall in the first half of 2019. Roughly half of the Newton, KS area’s 34 inches of average annual precipitation fell in record-breaking fashion during the month of May. Not only is this prairie garden mature, since I have been adding to it regularly for 15 years now, but the existing plants are reaching their maximum size and duration of flowering due to the abundant moisture. There is plenty of host plant material and nectar right now for insects.

*15+ inches of rain in the last six weeks has made the garden quite lush.*

Herbivores and Carnivores

I make daily morning/evening weeding and observation visits in our prairie garden. I have enjoyed watching butterflies, flies, moths, beetles, true bugs, ants, katydids, small bees, big bumblebees, and more in recent weeks. The especially intense blooming of common milkweed has really attracted plant-eating and nectar-sipping insect visitors lately.

As one would expect, species that eat insects should also be abundant. Insectivorous birds common around our urban yard include grackles, cardinals, brown thrashers, black-capped chickadees, Carolina wrens, bluejays, starlings, Baltimore orioles, chimney swifts, and American robins. Joining these birds in our yard are carnivores including assassin bugs, Great Plains skinks, big brown bats, preying mantis, spiders, cicada killers, eastern screech owls, and Cooper’s hawks that have made their presence known (somewhat regularly).

*Our big brown bat population (up to 16 at last count) eats loads of insects around the yard.*

Harvey County Butterfly Count

If you have any interest in learning more about the butterflies in Kansas and even if you are a butterfly novice, consider joining me and others this Saturday, June 22, 2019 at our 20th Annual Harvey County Butterfly Count. Spend either a half or full day looking for, identifying, and counting butterflies with experienced group leaders around the county. This citizen science data is logged through the North American Butterfly Association and helps track trends in butterfly populations. Send me an email if you are interested and I will get you involved.

*With monarch populations on the decline, regular monitoring of this species is more important than ever.*

Now, get out there and tune into the fascinating world of insects around you. Consider what you can do to add more plant diversity, and ultimately more insect and wildlife diversity to your landscape. Both you and the insects will benefit.

Gardening with Purpose

Posted on June 12, 2019 by Scott Vogt

We have seen an abundance of blooms this spring. All this beauty and wildlife activity, particularly pollinators, has reminded me again about the roles our gardens play in benefiting our small corner of the world. We can garden with a sense of purpose that helps wildlife ecologically. With Pollinator Week quickly approaching (June 17th – 23^rd), I thought maybe we could take a moment to think about our gardens in a different way.

Garden with your goals in mind

When we garden, each of us has an opportunity to develop a native wildlife habitat, to design our garden to attract pollinators and wildlife, and to create a safe space where horticulture, imagination, and ecology are reflected purposefully in our garden design. We need to think with the end-goal in mind. By creating living sanctuaries, depleted and endangered native bees and butterflies can easily find the food, shelter and water they need for their survival.

This is a small way you can show you care, maybe even rediscover your own humanity. Along with others in your neighborhood who develop habitat gardens, you will help the predicament of these beneficial insects. Even a small garden can have an impact. Think of it as a way you can reconnect with nature in a very personal way as you care for your corner of the earth.

Monarchs

Statistics show that the monarch butterfly population in North America has declined by over 90% in just the last 20 years. This is disheartening. One of the biggest factors in monarch decline is the increasing scarcity of its only caterpillar host plant: milkweeds. Without milkweeds, monarchs can’t successfully reproduce or migrate, resulting in the species declines. If you plant milkweeds in your own garden you can help reverse the fortune of these beautiful insects. You can be part of the ultimate solution, which is to provide the plants monarchs need for their life cycle.

Honey Bees

The plight of the honey bee and the collapse of entire colonies has garnered nationwide attention. However, many of our native bee populations are in danger too. Scientists continue to track dwindling populations of native bees, including the possible extinction of some species. The native pollinators are key components of a healthy ecosystem. Habitat loss, the use of pesticides and insecticides along the introduced diseases threaten their lives. These bees often lack season-long food sources, which is obviously important to their vitality.

Choose Native Plants

Native plants can help us alleviate some of the problems pollinators face. Native plants have the ability to grow in our soils, are adapted to the climate, look attractive, control erosion, create beneficial habitat and are the preferred food source for many of these pollinators. By establishing habitat gardens that use native prairie plants, we can improve their plight in this world. Recognizing that we can make a difference should be motivation to at least begin to help them.

Stewardship starts at home

Stewardship and conservation can start with our gardens. Despite size limitations, these prairie gardens are an important part of conserving the prairie and the wildlife that depend on them. You might be surprised how much your garden can do to reverse some of these trends. Imagine your garden combined with hundreds of other small prairie landscapes. True, it is not the expansive prairies of the past, but it does make a difference. Your garden can be a piece of the patchwork of prairies.

What will all this rain do to my native plants?

Posted on May 29, 2019 by Scott Vogt

The spring of 2019 has been an unusually cool and wet spring here in Kansas. I don’t like to complain about rain, because I know at some point it will quit. Conditions will get hotter and dryer through the summer. I don’t know what normal is anymore. For many of us, a short reprieve from the rain would be welcome. It would give us a chance to catch up and let our basements dry out.

All this rain made me think about what it does to plants. Many of you have newly-planted gardens or established flower beds and you, too, may be asking yourself – what will all this rain do to my native plants?

Excessive growth

Rain obviously causes the plants to grow. One of the downfalls of excessive growth so early in the season is that it will need to maintain that growth the rest of the year. Certainly, native plants are adapted to our prairie conditions and have root systems that can sustain the plants. It makes the placement of plants even more critical and important as we work to match the plants with our sites. If the plants are properly situated, it should not be a problem.

Use this season as an opportunity to observe your plants. If you see some wilting over the next few weeks, it may be an indication that the roots have been damaged or that the plants are not happy where they are planted.

Plant diseases

All this rain has created perfect conditions for plant diseases like bacteria and fungi to flourish. There hasn’t been much time for plants to dry out in between rains. Prolonged periods of leaf wetness and excess moisture around the plant root zone can damage leaves and the crowns of plants. A few days of sunlight will help, but we need to make sure these plants are not smothered by mulch and the crowns of the plants have a chance to dry. Many plants, including trees and shrubs, have been slow to leaf out. Excessive rainfall and overcast skies has slowed the plant’s growth and can affect the timing and intensity of the blooms for the rest of the season. With rainfall like we have had, it makes us more aware of drainage issues, air circulation, plant selection and planting depth within our landscapes.

Nutrient leaching

Native plants don’t typically need to be fertilized. Their extensive root systems tap into nutrients that most plants can’t reach.

Your plants may have a yellow cast to them, but that doesn’t mean you should fertilize them. It is a result of lack of sunlight and too much water. Let them develop new roots and they will begin to green up on their own. By adding fertilizer, native plants have a tendency to flop and outgrow their root systems. Resist the temptation to fertilize your plants. While heavy rains have leached nutrients out of the soil, affecting the plant growth, these conditions will usually only cause temporary nutrient deficiency.

Plants are resilient and quite adaptable. They should recover over time. The long term effects of all this rain may not be fully known until later this year or even next year, but a majority of them will be fine. One reward is that we haven’t had to water much. We established some plants here at the Arboretum and never had to water them other than the first watering. That is very rare in Kansas. I love the sunshine today. All the lush plants are loving it too.

Katie’s Weeding Guide Part II

Posted on May 23, 2019 by Katie Schmidt

In a previous blog post I discussed tips for common weed identification, but hinted at a second installment covering plants that don’t quite qualify as weeds. After all, a weed is just a plant out of place! Some lovely native flowers have ‘weedy’ tendencies but don’t deserve total eradication from the garden. Here is an introduction to a few of those characters, and what you can do to control them when weeding your gardens.

Spiderwort – Tradescantia ohiensis or T. tharpii

*A lovely member of the* *dayflower family,* *spiderwort puts on a wonderful show throughout spring.*

Ranging from true blue to purple, spiderwort germinates readily from seed and can quickly take over a garden. I find it in every garden we have here at the Arboretum. Hairy leaves with purple veins and a pronounced fold along the mid vein are easy ways to identify spiderwort. The short stemmed species (T. tharpii) is a nice filler around other perennials and will grow as a ground cover. T. ohiensis is taller and more unwieldy, crowding out desirable plants. When Arboretum volunteers are weeding, I ask them to remove all but a few intentional clumps. I cut the flowers frequently to prevent those clumps from seeding.

Prairie Petunia – Ruella humilis

So petite but not so polite, Ruella spreads rapidly and travels all over the garden, thanks to its exploding seeds pods. White, pink, or lilac flowers are borne on purple stems with deep green foliage. With a mainly prostrate habit, this creeper makes a nice border plant, especially spilling over rock edging. Deep rooted, it is hard to pull once mature. If these fellas get started in your garden, regular weeding won’t do it – you will need to dig them out. But maybe they are the free, fast growing ground cover you have been looking for!

*Photo by* *Jeff McMillian, hosted by the USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database*

Curly Cup Gumweed – Grindelia squarosa

*Photo by Kenraiz [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]*

Gumweed can be found growing north of our Prairie Pavilion, but not for long! I am overdue in weeding them out. This western US native is cheery and adorable, but too wild to be running amuck in our formal gardens. I’d be much happier to see it growing in our prairie or around the pond edge. If you have the space, don’t pull them all out – it is attractive to pollinators and can be controlled by cutting the flowers before they seed.

These are just a few of the weedy native flowers that your soil’s seed bank may be harboring. Perhaps they can find a happy home in your garden, as long as you are willing to tame their bad habits.

Kansas Native Ferns

Posted on May 10, 2019 by Katie Schmidt

At FloraKansas Native Plant Festival our customers were surprised to see we offer Kansas native ferns. Perhaps they were surprised to hear Kansas even had native ferns! With our hot, dry summers and deep-freeze winters, Kansas does not seem like hospitable environment for delicate, shade loving plants. However, we have several naturally occurring fern species in the state that are hardier than you might think. They are fascinating to observe growing in the wild, but also make excellent additions to your shade garden.

Royal Fern

Osmunda regalis var spectabilis

According to fossil records, the royal fern family (Osmundaceae) dates back about 365 million years. 3 to 4 feet tall (shorter in poor, drier soil), this fern becomes a large and impressive specimen in the shade garden. O. regalis var spectabilis grows happily in the far eastern part of Kansas and throughout the eastern third of North America. Royal fern has attractive bright green foliage and rust colored spore plumes. It prefers moist, somewhat acidic soil and shade though it can handle sun if the soil is kept wet. This fern can live up to 100 years if planted in the right location!

Royal fern is an easterly species, occurring from the Ozarks through the southeastern US and north into eastern Canada.

Christmas Fern

Polystichum acrostichoides

This festive native fern grows in far southeastern Kansas. According to Missouri Botanical Garden, it “…typically grows in a fountain-like clump to 2′ tall and features leathery, lance-shaped, with evergreen (green at Christmas time as the common name suggests) fronds.” If you love boston ferns but want something perennial, this is a great option. When planted in an average moisture, shaded area it will spread slowly to form a colony.

If you are up for some botanizing, head to these southeastern counties in moist, partially wooded areas to catch a glimpse of these ferns.

Sensitive Fern

Onoclea sensibilis

Onoclea is unique native fern, with arching fronds and oblong, creeping rhizomes. Getting its name from sensitivity to frost, O. sensibilis is surprisingly hardy. It can easily survive the cold dry winters in Kansas, Nebraska and even the Dakotas. This species is native to the eastern half of North America as well as far eastern Russia and China. According to Wikipedia, you can help your ferns survive the winter by leaving dried fronds on the plant instead of clearing them away.

There are many more native ferns I could include here, from the marginal woodfern found in Wilson, Elk, and Greenwood counties to the tiny rock ferns growing among the monoliths at Rock City in Minneapolis, KS. Get out and do some fern hunting, or buy a few at our fall sale to enjoy for years to come.

Garden Trends in 2019

Posted on April 17, 2019 by Scott Vogt

Over the past five years, we have seen some interesting things happen regarding native plants. People are learning about native plants and matching plants up with their local conditions. More and more people are seeking them out to include in their landscapes. Here are a few of the emerging garden trends regarding native plants:

Wildlife-friendly plants

I keep coming back to this idea of beautiful AND good. Aesthetics are important and we all want attractive landscapes, but of equal importance is this feeling that what we are doing is good for everyone and everything. It can be intimidating to change the way you garden or landscape. Choosing plants just because they are visually appealing simply isn’t a good enough reason anymore. Creating a habitat using plants that are adapted to your site is a far better approach to landscaping. Designs that have attractive combinations of wildflowers, grasses, shrubs and trees may initially capture our imaginations, but more and more people are wanting these plants and landscapes to provide additional benefits. Our gardens must now not only look good, but also do double duty to provide for pollinators, attract birds and other wildlife, develop habitat and positively impact the environment.

Pollinator gardens

It has taken a while, but native plants are finally getting the attention they deserve. They are viable alternatives to many of the overused plants you see in so many landscapes. There are literally hundreds of plants that will fit into your landscape design. Whether it is a true native species or “nativar” (a hybrid or new selection of a native plant), these plants offer qualities that will beautify the landscape and attract pollinators, too. For people who live in prairie country, it may be easy to take our native plants for granted. Yet these plants, with their simple form and subtle beauty, can make attractive additions to the home landscape.

Water-wise plants

We don’t think often enough about the water we use. It is a precious commodity. Remember the 2011 and 2012 drought in Kansas? We were using tremendous quantities of water to keep our landscapes alive. It made us evaluate each plant according to its response to these extreme conditions. Obviously, some plants did better than others and we lost some plants those years. It made us think critically about our plant choices and irrigation practices. A beautiful and resilient landscape that uses little, if any, supplemental water is an achievable result. A few changes like adding some native plants can make a big difference.

Kansas gayfeather with tiger swallowtail butterfly
Photo by Janelle Flory Schrock

It seems to me that these trends for 2019 have something obviously in common – native plants. Native plants are not the “be all” and “end all” solution, but they provide a good starting point to solving some problems you encounter in the landscape. With so much to consider when designing or redesigning your landscapes, don’t overlook native plants. You will be rewarded time and again by their unique beauty and deep roots.

A few plants for your sunny spot

Posted on April 3, 2019 by Scott Vogt

Over the past several months, as I have been working on landscape designs for homeowners, I have been noticing a few trends.

First, homeowners are increasingly interested in native plants. They understand the benefits of utilizing native plants both to the environment and the wildlife they are trying to attract. The advantages of native plants have been noted in previous blog posts.
Secondly, they want something interesting happening/blooming in their landscape throughout the year.
Thirdly, they want native grasses incorporated into the design.

To help fill these needs, I have come up with a list of my favorite plants for the landscape that I try to work into most designs. If you need help with your landscape or have questions about using native plants, give us a call or come to the FloraKansas Native Plant Festival. We would be happy to visit with you.

As you know, each landscape is unique and only a handful of these plants will work in specific yards, but they are all hardy and easy to maintain. These sun loving perennials have beauty and landscape value too. Here are some of my favorite native or adaptable plants to use for a sunny landscape in South Central Kansas:

Switchgrass (Panicum ‘Northwind’)

This grass is incredible! Do you need a vertical element in the landscape? Then this is the grass for you. The upright clumps have wide steel blue leaves that turn a golden yellow in the fall. The unique flower panicles emerge in September and are held towards the middle of the clump close to the foliage. Ultimately, it reaches four to five feet tall. I love this grass because it will not fall over.

Threadleaf Bluestar (Amsonia hubrichtii)

This is an all-season perennial with fantastic ornamental features that make it stand out from other wildflowers. In May and June, clusters of small powder blue, star-like flowers top the strong stems. The stems are encircled with soft, narrow leaves resembling pine needles, making each plant look like a small shrub with feathery texture and incredible fullness. I have found them to be extremely hardy, drought tolerant and very low maintenance. Other forms worth considering are Amsonia ‘Storm Cloud’ and Amsonia ‘Butterscotch’

Prairie Dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis)

At one time, this was one of the top selling grasses nationwide. It is a favorite of mine because it is long-lived and tough. It is so tough they are planted en masse in street medians. The fine textured leaves and airy, fragrant panicles are a nice addition to any landscape. Each clump can reach 12-18 inches wide and up to 24 inches tall. The entire plant turns shades of orange and yellow in the fall, providing multiple seasons of interest. It is great in a border, as a groundcover, in an informal prairie setting, or as an accent to other short or mid-range perennials. I like to mix it with short heath asters, purple poppy mallow, evening primrose or Missouri black-eyed susan.

Purple Poppy Mallow (Callirhoe involucrata)

Some like it hot, but these like it really hot. The deep tap root of Purple Poppy Mallow sustains it during times of drought. These roots are starchy and supposedly taste like a sweet potato. (I don’t know if I am that hungry, but it may be worth a try.) The magenta cup-like blooms appear throughout spring and into summer. I like to interplant them with low grasses or shorter perennials that bloom later in the season, such as blazing stars or goldenrods. The stems hug the ground and ultimately spread 24-36 inches wide and 6-12 inches tall.

Penstemon ‘Dark Towers’ (Penstemon digitalis)

I love this penstemon in the perennial border. The pink flowers in spring have just a blush of white and develop interesting seed heads. It adds outstanding form and texture to any landscape throughout the year. Penstemon ‘Dark Towers’ is a beautiful selection of smooth penstemon with reddish-purple foliage that is attractive even when blooming is complete.

Aromatic aster (Aster oblongifolius)

This diverse wildflower grows throughout the state, and is more drought-tolerant than other aster species. Its name alludes to its fragrant purple/pink flowers and foliage that exudes a pungent aroma. This species typically grows about two feet tall, but shorter varieties also exist. Garden-worthy varieties include ‘Dream of Beauty’ (one foot tall with pink blooms), ‘October Skies’ (2’ x 2’ with light blue flowers) and ‘Raydon’s Favorite’ (3’ x 2’ with light blue flowers).

*Aster ‘Raydon’s Favorite’ in full bloom*

Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa)

Butterfly milkweed is a stout one to two foot tall perennial with a deep, coarse, fibrous root system. Flowers vary in color from deep orange-red in the eastern part of its range to lighter orange and finally yellow farther west and south in Kansas. Unlike the numerous other milkweeds found in Kansas, butterfly milkweed does not exude a white milky sap when the stem is cut or a leaf is removed.

Do your garden a favor and include some butterfly milkweed. Its many ornamental and functional assets, plus its rugged character will make it a focal point in the summer garden for years to come. Plus, you will be rewarded as pollinators such as Monarchs seek out this beautiful native wildflower.

I could choose many more garden worthy perennials, but I only have so much space. You can find these and many other native plants at our spring FloraKansas Native Plant Festival. CLICK HERE for the 2019 Native Plant Guide. These garden worthy perennials would be at home in any sunny spot in your yard. Why not give them a try?