Garden-darling status makes native plants more accessible

You don’t have to be omniscient to know that any article on garden trends is going to include native plants. I’m not sure at what point native plants will stop being considered a trend, but more people than ever are looking to incorporate them in their gardens.

Unfortunately, simply being native doesn’t make a plant well suited to most gardens. Some perfectly lovely native plants can be thuggish in all but the largest gardens. Canada goldenrod (Solidago canadensis), which happily takes over roadsides in early fall, is a good example of a plant that is not well-suited to a garden.

Gardeners are likely familiar with many of the tried-and-true native plants for yards, but one of the benefits of the increasing popularity of natives is that more garden centers are offering selections that are less well known.

Flowering spurge (Euphorbia corollata) offers an airy texture similar to baby’s breath. Growing to a well-mannered 3 feet tall, it prefers full sun and soil on the drier side but is a pollinator magnet during it’s nearly six-week flowering period.

Ironweed (Vernonia) is having a moment, and thanks to more garden-suitable varieties of this prairie native, it’s about to be spotted regularly at garden centers. The species grows to great heights, but varieties like ‘Summer Swan Song’ and ‘Prairie Princess’ are scaled down to work in average gardens.

Of course there are many ornamental grasses that are native to our area, but purple love grass (Eragrostis spectabilis) is one that hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves.

The plant grows in a tight clump before producing see-through purple inflorescences up to 18 inches tall, creating a finely textured cloud of color in the perennial garden. It prefers sun and soil on the dry side and has a bit of a-bad-hair-day look when it emerges, so take care not to weed it out in spring.

For shadier spots, the delicate but tough woodland phlox (Phlox divaricata) is an excellent Wisconsin native that adds difficult-to-find color to the shade border.

Growing to about 12 inches tall and flowering in shades from blue to pinkish white, it spreads slowly by rhizomes. Don’t confuse it with the invasive, taller growing dame’s rocket (Hesperis matronalis), which blooms at the same time. Dame’s rocket has four petals while woodland phlox and other native phlox have five petals.

Another native woodland charmer is zig zag goldenrod (Solidago flexicaulis). This shorter, well behaved delicate cousin to the thuggish Canada goldenrod does a great job growing as an understory plant in a wooded area, providing beauty and serving as a groundcover to prevent weeds. These native plants have always been around, but before the native movement grew momentum, having them in your garden required growing them from seed or finding plants through small groups of native plant enthusiasts.

There’s less need to go to those measures now. All you need is a well-stocked garden center and your credit card.