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Native Prairie Plants

11 years ago

I am trying to incorporate more prairie natives in my garden beds. One of them is the Narrow Leaved Sunflower or Maximillian's Sunflower. It grows quite tall and unfortunatly seems to flop at blooming time. Does anyone else grow this plant? I wondered if I pinched it back earlier in the season if this would help prevent it from flopping to the ground. I have had to give it a lot of support to keep it upright but that takes away from its natural look. I also wonder if it needs more sun than I am giving it; it gets about 6 hours of eastern sun. Other prairie natives I am growing are Prairie Smoke (Geum Triflorum), Swamp Milkweed, Iris Versicolor, Marsh Marigold, False Solomon Seal, and Meadow Rue. What Prairie natives are others growing?

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Comments (4)

davidpeaceriver__2b
11 years ago
Hm, that's unfortunate -- it's an attractive flower. Have you thought about growing Jerusalem Artichoke in a patch? It's too sturdy to flop (and this may be a different problem), and it's a very late bloomer (mine don't even think about starting to bloom until September), and so it'll add a touch of fall colour to your garden.

I added opuntia fragilis to my garden this year.
northspruce
11 years ago
I grow Geum triflorum - it loves my yard! Also false Solomon's seal, Opuntia, and Smilax herbacea (carrion vine). I keep trying to start milkweed but it hates me. Maybe I should just buy a plant.
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I hope you'll stick with me while I post a few more pictures. Although the leaves look very much like the Pale Indian Plantain, it's never developed a flower stalk and shows no sign of doing so although it is admittedly still early in the season. I took some pictures with hopes it will help identify it. These unknowns came up right next to the daylilies and I didn't want them there anyhow so they got selected for culling out. The same plants shown with most of the roots still attached and shovel to show scale. And the underside of the plant: The soil it's growing in is pretty much heavy clay. Thanks for looking and for assistance. Traudi
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arrgh. MAde a special trip with the digital camera to get a few shots of the plants, and to my amazement and disgust, the township had mowed the roadside clear up to the banks. Usually out here in the sticks the weeds would be so high you couldn't see oncoming cars at a lonely intersection and now in the middle of a drought they mowed. I found only one scrawny, pathetic survivor and got a few shots, but my camera skills are not worth discussing and the camera no better. I am wondering now if it might be whorled milkweed after all. Wish I had been there ahead of the bush hog. BTW...esh ga, it's definitely not a spurge, although that is a good suggestion. The biggest specimen already had pods on it, and had I not procrastinated I could have shown them to everybody.
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I'm putting a link below to the National Wildlife Federation's page on having your yard become a Certified Wildlife Habitat. Hope that helps. My yard isn't certified but I know if you do a search of that title on Gardenweb, you'll get several matches. You might want to research about becoming a certified Monarch Waystation too. If your yard does look weedy from the road, you might be able to make it look well-kept without making too many changes. Maybe you could post a photo in one of the forums to get suggestions on what you could do. Asking in the Natives forum is a good idea and also, the perennials forum might be a good place to ask since it's pretty active. I realize of course that your yard may look wonderful and you just have a nasty neighbor that would complain no matter what. If you can get certified that will help with that problem. Best of luck. Here is a link that might be useful: NWF
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Comments (19)
spp. = species. sorry and as to the 'thatch' on remnants, let me explain. firstly, i am talking about tall grass, mid size grass eastern prairies. not the sand or the dry prairies of the west but the thicker ones of the east. i dont know if this is true out there but my guess it is just to a lesser extent. on a newly planted prairie, when we burn it, there is a defined soil line, easy to see that its not root, rhizomes etc but soil like surrounding soil. clay, silt or sand and any combo of the 3. but when u burn a long standing remnant, that soil line is much harder to discribe or define. a shovel full of it shows that the O layer is much different. firstly, there IS an O layer. this layer is comprised of what was once alive and is now; charred, 1/2 digested, not quite alive but maybe not fully dead, full o bacteria, worms and any other biota that i can think of. (forgive me but its been a LONG time from soils and i never really did well in it anyhow. so if im not using the jargen correctly...) u can feel this layer when even walking thru a remnant. even a newly burned one has a 'soft' feel to the soil surface. vs what i like to call 'worked soil'. this worked soil includes just about anything we now live on. a plow mashes up all the layers into one and humans ped's them with salt and other human workings, like farming, lawns, road easements, old fields that were once farmed...again, just about anything that was touched by a plow relatively recently and not allowed to regain the O layer. and its this O layer that im discribing as important to hold up smaller spp. (species) as a type of support. and also allowing big bluestem to grow to a height of 12 ft. vs maybe 6-7 ft on newly planted lands. yes, age is important, again as with iceburgs, the bigger the iceburg, the more stable the top will be. this is also true with plants. the O layer only comes with age. froggy
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FrozeBudd_z3/4
11 years ago
I have two selections of false Solomon's seal, one of my own and one just received from a friend, hers is particularly outstanding.

I live in a forested plot with many desirable native plants, including three types of ferns, all being very attractive species. There's also one I've never before seen anywhere, the base of the stems have a unique yellowish orange color and foliage is upright. I must mark and move several of the rough fruited fairy bells, these are attractive foliage plants with glowing colored fruit. I also need to take advantage of bunchberry!

Thanks for posting this Debbie, it makes me realize I must utilize many of the attractive native plants already found in my literal backyard!

Terrance
debbiecz3
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks David, I have looked at Jerusalem Artichoke but have no space for it at present; am hoping to establish a new sunny bed for mostly prairie natives but life keeps getting in the way! I would love to have a bed with big and little bluestem, prairie coneflower and rudbeckia etc.; guess more of a late summer blooming bed.I was very excited to see the Monarch Caterpillars on my Swamp Milkweed but they did not seem to stay around for long this year; last year they stripped the plant completely. I have also made a few acquisitions to go into a shaded bed: a spring bluebell whose name escapes me, barren strawberry (good for dry shade I hear) and a few others. Prairie Originals just outside Selkirk is a great source for prairie natives and seeds. The owner also sells plants at the St. Norbert Farmers Market just outside Winnipeg for those in the area. Gillian, I have seed pods on my Milkweed if you are interested in trying them again from seed let me know and I would be happy to send you some.

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