Try googling with the terms "orchids in situ" - plenty of orchids in the wild galleries returned when I tried it. Then, you can restrict with geographic-/species-specific terms. Hope this helps. alvin

This sounds great! If you are ten feet away from the house, you are golden. Good planning! Right now, the downspout flows onto the sidewalk anyway, right? So putting in a rain garden will make that situation better. The water has to go somewhere. So the overflow should be fine. When you do your infiltration test you will find out more that will address tracefloyd's comment above. If your infiltration rate is less than 24 hours, you can plant anything on the list. If it is more, then select the wet-loving plants. Even those people whose infiltration rate was "never" before teh rain garden, built a fine rain garden where water soaked in quickly. Once you add compost and native plants, the water soaks in much more quickly. Don't worry! Happy spring!

Hi KPgardens! A lot going on, sounds like. 1. The rain garden is at least 10 feet away from the house, right? Scratch that - you had water in the basement, so your NEW rule is 15 feet away from the house. 2. So this area is already wet, plus a new sump pump will also outlet here? If so, a couple of things. First, do an infiltration test here, to see what soils you have. Clay? If so, this will be a very wet rain garden. Second, make sure there is a safe overflow. It looks like the overflow would be over the walkway? That is not horrible, but in the winter, it would create ice, especially with sump pump water. You might consider piping the sump pump water under the path, and making the rain garden beyond the path. A sump pump garden is a little trickier than a typical rain garden. It needs a good overflow, and is generally wetter. So adjust accordingly.

This looks great! Sorry it took me so long to comment! Wonderful! and I love that you have labor help! :) Some unsolicited comments - feel free to disregard. All of these species will work just fine. :) Looks like it will be a very tall garden! Rattlesnake Master - accent plant Kobold Blazing Star - put in a bunch, for impact Swamp Milkweed - tall and can look spindly - plant something around its knees. Maybe the Black Eyed Susan? Switch Grass - big! so put in the middle of the bed. Black Eyed Susan - really the only short-ish thing here. So put along the border. Golden Ragwort Rose Mallow - huge at maturity - wants to be a shrub. Prairie Dock - also big! I would put it just outside of the Switchgrass - The big leaves will look great next to the grass. Canada Anemone - spreads like wildfire! So keep in mind it will try to take over in about 4 years. Can be good or bad, depending on your life circumstances. New England Aster or Prairie Smoke - oooo! Both are nice. Prairie Smoke is blooming right now and is tiny. NE Aster is fall and very tall. You will need to cut it down in June so it doesn't get too crazy. Hope this helps! Have fun with it!