I agree with everything in the post above, good points.

What is your goal: Pollinator garden? Woodland habitat? Bird Sanctuary? Low maintenance lawn replacement using natives? Pocket prairie? Restoration? Traditional home landscaping except wanting to use ornamental natives rather than imported nursery plants?

Its difficult to give tips generally and it would help if you narrowed it down. I live in the middle of the Great Plains so as is fitting I lean toward prairie plants and grasses which are well suited to our difficult conditions and weather extremes, I could possibly give tips in that direction, but I'd be hopeless on woodland type landscapes which are not my interest or goal.

Blue Oat Grass is native to the southern alps, its much too hot for it here to thrive in Oklahoma but I've never heard of it being invasive. Fountain Grass is African, it and Miscanthus grasses are common & popular as formal landscape plants but to my eyes they look imported and are over planted, neither looks even remotely native. I'd opt for native grass if you want to go in that direction especially since we have so many good American ones to choose from.

I think I can see why there is different ideas about native plants. I agree that even natives can easily become invasive in a back yard garden but even in the "wild" there is a "checks and balance" system that does keep these plants from taking over. Though some may spread more than others during different years. Even in a home perennial garden, some seasons yield more of some varieties than others. Last year I had tons of yarrow, this year it was tickseed. Some years it is cone flowers making the bigger showing. The other plants don't do as well. This is all having to do with conditions in the environment and what is favorable to that plants needs.

I however don't agree with not using soil amendments. Not every house has great soil. Think about a new construction site, there soil has been stripped of nutrients that may have supported a native plant. I'm all for testing soil to make sure it is the proper PH. In the woods, meadows and prairies certain things happen with the ecosystems within the decay and rebirth process that make it possible to support our native plants. Our back yard gardens simple don't have that same process. And everyone is not that lucky to have the best conditions for growing native plants. So I believe if you want to have a native garden it is best to make those conditions possible for the best growth and health of the plant.

Secondly my goal is to learn and not about what I want to plant in my yard. I want to make informed choices to my customers when they want to plant natives or suggest natives good for their environment if they ask. Too many times I have been at native plant meetings where they don't inform people that not all plants are going to work in their yards. It does take lots of planning to get it right. Though sometimes the mistakes can be just as helpful.

My goal in this topic is to get well around idea of things from those that are the hands on type. And so far these responses have been very helpful and I thank you both. So if you have anything else to add, just keep typing.

My experience has been that native plants which would usually grow in a meadow can get totally out of control in even just slightly good garden soil. They are used to spreading their seeds far and wide, and boy, can that do a job on a suburban garden (boneset & cup plant, I'm looking at you). The same goes for those plants that spread by underground runners - if you buy a nice little clethra, you are going to end up with a clethra thicket and you better be ready for it. On the other hand, I have Joe Pye weed that keeps itself in bounds, and New York Ironweed that has had one seedling in about 15 years. I have not found websites or catalogues to have reliable information on whether a plant, native or otherwise, is set on world domination, and it sure would be helpful.

I agree, I want my soil lean so the plants stay in check, the only amendments have been coarse sand for drainage--- no feeding ever. What looks great along the roadside can become a huge 'triffid' in your yard or a flopping mess, many plants loose their appealing character in amended soil. I've done a lot of trial and error---if it works, keep it, if it doesn't pull it out and do something different. Around here, grasses are essential for a natural looking native landscape because thats what you see around here. It seems to me like a lot of people using natives zero in on the more ornamental and flashy flowering plants, what I think of as accent plants and they snub the duller or common lowly plants. In the end the results seem too contrived, like a flower bed or conventional landscape. Low grasses tie everything together & it helps to have other common filler plants, ones that reseed easily and fill in spaces for continuity like in nature. My best filler plants besides grasses is Helenium annum (bitterweed), Talinum (Flameflower) and Dyssodia (Fetid Marigold). These are common low growing roadside weeds that bloom from spring to frost, the repeats add harmony.

I finally planted two Ironweed plants, Veronia Lindheimeri (Woolly Ironweed) sent to me by a friend in Texas. My understanding is its what goes on underground that is the problem rather than seeds but it depends on the variety. This variety is OK and very pretty, the leaves are narrow and silvery. I had read in a book about a woman who regretted planting ironweed because after several years the roots underground were so widespread and massive that it took over a small landscape and she understood why the name Ironweed was given to this plant because it had roots like iron and was not removable. I'm careful about planting the larger aggressive plants like that and Goldenrod due to space issues. I'm too dry for some of them like Queen of the Meadow or Joe Pye Weed anyway.

It would be nice if there were checks and balances in nature as tuben claims but unfortunately, that is simply not the case most of the time. Around here Smooth Sumac is a very pretty native and so is Red Cedar but unfortunately those so-called natural checks and balances don't keep either one in check (along with several other native trees), quite the opposite occurs. Unless someone intervenes grassland keeps disappearing. The native Americans used to intervene regularly to keep them intact and deforested but now so much is all broken up, fenced, paved, lawned, constructed on, cut down and otherwise broken up into little pieces that those old interventions (mainly that would have meant fire either natural or controlled) are suppressed. As is the case with prairies, fire suppression in forests is now proving to be a problem of misunderstanding, Smokey the Bear went a bit overboard from what I learned recently.

TR, I like the look of that Vernonia lindheimeri, hope it does well in your garden. The most common native ironweed in my area (in prairie preserves, etc.) seems to be V. baldwinii, but it's rough and weedy looking in my opinion. I have planted some V. lettermanii here, seems to be doing well though it's just in its first year and too early to tell whether it will hold a nice form or be too aggressive.

I agree with tuben that amendments are sometimes useful, especially when topsoil is missing and you've got heavy clay soils close to the surface. The amendments might be inorganic, though -- sand, grit, etc. -- depending on the site and what plants you're trying to grow there. Anything like finished compost I use only in shadier areas. I do leave some of the mowings on the ground in the sunny beds after cutting things down in the late winter, and I also try to have some legumes (Amorpha, Baptisia, Dalea, Chamaecrista, etc.) in every bed. This seems typical of native prairies I have seen -- heavy on grasses, composites, and always a legume or two.

The native tallgrass prairie had tons of organic matter in the soil (as evidenced by the dark color of the upper horizon of mollisols), but the density of plants was also very high, and their root systems were extensive. Competition kept the plants leaner. When you are planting a native prairie grass with several square feet all to itself, then the soil better be lean or else it's going to flop everywhere.

As texasranger says, it's trial and error that will tell you if that particular native plant will work in your particular garden. And you have to be resigned to shovel pruning, even if you loved that plant.

When topsoil is missing, and I have seen that in places during construction, the situation is way past amending, you'd have a hard time trying to establish new plants in that although it might be fit for installing a swimming pool surrounded by concrete. The solution is a truckload of top soil. Out back here there was an area that had been dug up for a new sewer line. The soil was put back upside down with red sticky clay subsoil on top. Amending was a waste of time. We hauled in a lot of sand and top soil and created three large mounds, between them is gravel for wide paths.

I started wondering if once the prairie grasses have been growing for years and roots are several feet down that maybe the quality of the topsoil is irrelevant to the growth and height of the plants? I was thinking of this recently when some 2 year old bluestem touted to be a non-flopper started flopping for the second year in a row. I wondered if the immature roots are feeding off the top layer causing faster, taller growth than what would happen in a mature plant. When roots are down 6 to 8 feet it just seems like the plants would be less inclined to react to whats at the surface.

Some of the best looking bluestem around these parts grows out of large red sandstone outcroppings along the highways. The reason its still there is because there is no topsoil making it impossible to plow them up for farming. The highway crews can't mow it, alien grasses and most weeds can't get roots started there so they remain as pristine bluestem areas. The grasses are spaced out rather evenly like exclamation marks and they don't cause visual problems like the dense and ugly weedy alien grass that has invaded elsewhere. I've seen other bluestem grass growing in dense clay that cracks and gets like concrete in summer and sticky gluey clay when there is a lot of rain, soil unfit for farming much of anything.

Woodstea, I have one Amorpha Lead Plant that was started from a rooted stem I got from a large plant in Kansas where there were drifts of them growing on private property (permission by owner). Its a slow grower, it just sat there for the last two years probably working on roots but it finally got bigger and bloomed some this year, its now about 3 feet wide. I was looking at Baptista but haven't purchased one yet. I saw some really pretty ones at the native garden at the History Center. They were quite large shrubs and as I have space issues I backed off. Purple Dalea is one of my favorites, its gently naturalizing out back, I find a plant here and there. I planted some seeds of white Dalea up front that I collected on the side of the road (right after they'd mowed it down!) but so far I haven't seen one. I had marked the spot planning to come back later for seeds and had to walk around quite a while before finding the stems laying on the ground.

I am adding plants that are native to my state. I am obtaining seeds from specialist nurseries online & a local 'native plant' nursery. I am also gathering a few seeds from plants that grow wild nearby. I see many 'non-native to US' invasive plants growing locally and I double-check before planting anything in my garden in case it is one of the invasive species listed in my state. My soil is not good - just a thin layer of topsoil on top of building rubble. Over the years I have improved the soil by adding compost & leaves & use organic plant food every year. I have found some 'native' plants do not survive, while other native plants thrive. So I am comfortable with a limited range of plants that grow very well & I am aiming for a full season of bloom. I still grow non-natives that are popular with insects & birds. My goal is to create a healthy ecosystem in my garden & provide wildlife habitat. I have noticed the native plants are tolerant of drought, attractive to insects & suppress weeds.