Prairie Plants
Showing 41–48 of 85 results
-
Euphorbia corollata Flowering spurge Z 4-7
Small white flowers (bracts), like a baby's breath but better, July & August. One of the best prairie natives, but slow to mature.
Small white flowers (bracts), like a baby’s breath but better, July & August. One of the best prairie natives but slow to mature.
Size: 36' x 24" spreading slowly
Care: sun in well-drained to moist well-drained soil. Drought resistant.
Native: Canada to Florida and west through the plains, Wisconsin native
Wildlife Value: deer resistant. Its pollen & nectar feed endangered Karner Blue butterfly as well as other small butterflies, numerous bees, wasps and flies. Several birds eat the seeds.A favorite medicine among native Americans. Cherokee rubbed the plant’s juice on skin to cure cancer. Also used to remedy tooth aches and gonorrhea. Winnebago cut a 2.5” long root to clear stomach and steeped leaves for a baby’s colic. According to Breck (1851), “One of the most elegant species peculiar to the United States.”
-
Euphorbia marginata Snow-on-the-mountain reseeding ANNUAL Let seeds fall in autumn
Clean white variegated leaves and flowers (bracts), very showy midsummer to fall. Use caution with internal milky sap.
Clean white variegated leaves and flowers (bracts), very showy midsummer to fall. Use caution with internal milky sap.
Size: 18” x 10”
Care: sun moist well-drained soil, drought tolerant.
Native: Plains from Dakota to Texas
Size: Wonderful cut flower just be careful of the milky sap.Sioux crushed leaves in water and boiled it for a liniment to remedy swelling; boiled whole leaves in water to increase milk for new mothers. Collected on Lewis and Clark expedition three times, once July 28, 1806 along Marias River. A “most elegant species.” Breck, 1851.
-
Euphorbia myrsinites Donkeytail spurge Z 5-8
Chartreuse umbels at stem tips contrast succulent blue-gray foliage in early spring
Chartreuse umbels at stem tips contrast succulent blue-gray foliage in early spring
Can not ship to: Colorado.
Size: 4” x 12”
Care: Sun in well-drained soil, drought resistant
Native: Western Asia
Awards: England’s Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit.Euphorbia was named for Euphorbus, physician of Numibian King Juba, father of Ptolemy (c. 50 B.C. – 20 A.D.) Reputedly Euphorbus used spurge to remedy the King’s enlarged stomach. Euphorbus’ brother was Augustus Caesar’s physician. Myrsinites is a Greek word meaning “resembling myrtle.” This plant described by Swiss botanical scholar Conrad Gesner in his book Horti Germaniae published in 1541.
-
Euphorbia polychroma Cushion spurge syn. Euphorbia epithymoides Z 4-9
May - June flashy chartreuse flowers. In fall foliage turns orangey-red.
OUT OF STOCK
May – June flashy chartreuse flowers. In fall foliage turns orangey-red.
Size: 16" x 24"
Care: Sun, moist well-drained humusy soil. Drought tolerant.
Native: Central and Southern Europe
Awards: England's Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit.Polychroma means many colors referring to the fact that the plant changes colors with yellow-chartreuse flowers in spring and red foliage in fall. Named and described by Swedish botanist Linnaeus 1753.
-
Filipendula rubra Queen of the Prairie Z 3-9
Extraordinary frothy pink plumes, like cotton candy, blooming in midsummer
Extraordinary frothy pink plumes, like cotton candy, blooming in midsummer
Size: 4-6’ x 4-5'
Care: sun to part shade in moist well-drained to moist soil
Native: US East coast west to MN s to MO and NC, Wisconsin native
Wildlife Value: This creates pollen but not nectar limiting the pollinators to bees and flies (Butterflies and wasps want nectar.).Meskwaki Indians used it for heart ailments and as an aphrodisiac. Although the plant’s name has been changed five times, this was 1st described in 1768.
-
Filipendula vulgaris syn. F. hexapetala Dropwort or Meadowsweet Z 3-9
In early summer bundles of milk white ball-shaped buds and open blossoms atop clumps of finely-cut, fern-like leaves, both flowers and foliage fragrant, early to mid-summer.
OUT OF STOCK
In early summer bundles of milk white ball-shaped buds and open blossoms atop clumps of finely-cut, fern-like leaves, both flowers and foliage fragrant, early to mid-summer.
Size: 24" x 18"
Care: sun in moist to moist well-drained soil
Native: Europe, north and central Asia
Wildlife Value: attracts bees, beetles and fliesFilipendula is Latin from filum meaning thread and pendulus meaning hanging for small tubers hanging by threadlike roots. In the 1600’s Nicholas Culpepper described Meadowsweet’s medicinal uses as curing bladder problems, throat, lung diseases and “the falling sickness.” Filipendula vulgaris also remedied bloated stomachs “dissolving and breaking the wind.”
-
Foeniculum vulgaris ‘Purpureum’ Bronze fennel Z 4-9
Yellow blooms on flat-topped umbels in late spring into summer, features dusky purple, feathery, compound, aromatic purple leaves with needle-like segments.
Yellow blooms on flat-topped umbels in late spring into summer, features dusky purple, feathery, compound, aromatic purple leaves with needle-like segments.
Size: 4-5’ x 2-3’
Care: sun to part shade in well-drained soil. Drought tolerant.
Native: Mediterranean
Wildlife Value: attracts bees and birds. Nectar plant for Swallowtail butterflies. Flat-topped surface gives insects a landing pad.Ancient Egyptians used fennel as food and medicine. Considered a snake bite remedy in ancient China. During the Middle Ages it was hung over doorways to drive away evil spirits. Fennel is also associated with the origin of the marathon. Athenian Pheidippides carried a fennel stalk on his 150-mile, 2-day run to Sparta to gather soldiers for the battle of Marathon with Persia in 490 B.C. The battle itself was also reportedly waged on a field of fennel. The Gardeners Dictionary, eighth ed. 1768.
-
Geranium maculatum American Cranesbill, Wild geranium, Spotted geranium Z 3-8
Saucer-shaped, five rose-pink to lilac oval petals with darker veins to the center, guiding pollinators to its nectar, surround ten upright stamens bearing yellow pollen in the center bloom in mid to late spring and early summer if cool.
Saucer-shaped, five rose-pink to lilac oval petals with darker veins to the center, guiding pollinators to its nectar, surround ten upright stamens bearing yellow pollen in the center bloom in mid to late spring and early summer if cool.
Size: 24" x 18"
Care: Full sun to part shade in moist to moist well-drained soil
Native: East North America, Wisconsin native.
Wildlife Value: Nectar and pollen source for hummingbirds, bees and butterfliesNative Americans taught colonists to use the plant to cure diarrhea, dysentery and hemorrhaging. Also used on sores, open wounds, canker sores and sore feet. The Choctaw prescribed it for venereal disease. Sent to Europe in 1732 This species collected by French planthunter André Michaux (1746-1802) who spent 11 years collecting plants in the US. Jefferson asked John Bartram to obtain seeds, 1786. Pressed specimen in Emily Dickinson’s herbarium.
