All of the native plants presented below are indigenous to the Northeastern United States and nearby American states and Canadian provinces. They are best suited for landscaping use in perennial sun gardens or along the sunny edges of woodland gardens. Irises are one of the most exquisite perennials in the plant world. If you agree, then you may be intrigued by the prospect of growing a native iris in your landscaping. Northern blue flag (Iris versicolor) furnishes you with an opportunity to do just that if you are a resident of such areas as New England, Kentucky, Minnesota, Ontario, and Newfoundland. Purple love grass (Eragrostis spectabilis) is the odd-ball on this list. For one thing, it’s grass. Secondly, many people (even plant lovers) don’t pay much mind to it. Don’t ignore the masses of small, red flowers it produces. When it is present in sufficient numbers, it gives the appearance of a reddish haze hovering over the ground. When it’s done flowering, the stalk breaks off curiously, making it resemble a “native tumbleweed.” Since it grows wild along roadsides, it must be highly tolerant of poor soil, road salt, and other pollutants (which suggests a potential use for it in the landscape). Not everyone will love purple love grass. Most of you will relegate it to weed status. But there are worse ground covers that try to grow along the roadside on a large, rural property, where whatever you grow will be battered by road salt and other pollutants, and where growing conventional ground covers might be cost-prohibitive. But viewed objectively, goldenrod is a magnificent wildflower. Pretend you had never laid eyes on it before, before observing it in the photo. How could you not admire those large plumes of flowers in that bright golden color? Admit it: if goldenrod were native, instead, to some distant land, and you saw it for sale in a garden catalog, you’d probably be itching to buy it. If you do not live in North America and are considering growing goldenrod, be aware that, while it can naturalize readily, this vigorous spreader may naturalize so easily as to become an invasive plant.
Joe-Pye weedBlack-eyed SusanYarrowGoldenrod
