Grasses

On the top is Elymus canadensis, Canada Wild Rye, and the bottom picture is Bottle Brush Grass, Hystrix patula. Both can handle full or part sun and are easy to grow from seed.

More Blooms

This is the Pale Purple Coneflower, Echinacea pallida, whose reflexed ray flowers I can't resist, though it's native to places south of Minnesota. In the foreground are leaves of Astragalus canadensis, Canada Milk Vetch, just preparing to bloom now on July 7th. In the background is the lively Prairie Sage, Artemisia ludoviciana. This one runs heartily, so plant a little and watch it cavort ! I find that any native plant that runs like this is easy enough controlled by pulling the runners, but of course if you mistakenly planted alot of it, well, you might be busy for awhile each season. Many milkweeds run like this also, but the Butterfly Weed is very well behaved, just expanding into a nice clump.

Recent Blooms

on the left is Purple Prairie Clover, Petalostemum purpureum, aka Dalea purpurea. Easy to grow from seed, pollinators love it, and it's really pretty.

Butterfly Weed, Asclepias tuberosa and Narrow-Leaved Coneflower, Echinacea angustifolia, the only Purple Coneflower that is native to Minnesota. Neither Echinacea Purpurea or Echinacea pallida; Purple Coneflower, or Pale Purple Coneflower are native to the state, just the diminutive Narrow-Leaved, which hardly reaches 18" in height, and whose ray petals tend to to remain much more horizontal to the disc.

Cottonwoods belong by the River

I have been planting flats of 2" plug pots with native seeds since May 25, and some of them are sprouting. However, I have a couple decent sized (maybe 40 plus feet) Cottonwood trees within 2 houses of mine, and they started blowing their seeds around in the past week or so. They drop so much seed with its attendant fluff that it piles up in drifts like snow ! It also settles in my plug pots, and because I am diligently watering them in this droughty Spring that we're enduring here in central Minnesota, the seeds are sprouting within 4 or 5 days of settling. And this is before some of my natives sprout. So, in some cases it becomes confusing as to what might be a Cottonwood seedling and what might be a Shooting Star or an Aster seedling. In one little pot there are as many as 15 or 20 Cottonwood seedlings. Nature is abundant in this seeding thing, for certain. Now Cottonwood trees are native Minnesota plants, I will admit. But a tree this large and messy, like the fast growing but ungainly native Silver Maple, might better be left in something more near it's native habitat, which would be a river bottom, not an urban back yard. I spent 20 minutes today picking the seedlings out of just one flat of pots, and am hoping I didn't also eradicate the unsprouted desirables I planted. I will employ some kind of protective barrier for my flats next planting season, possibly window screening stretched over them to keep the Cottonwood seeds impotent. I have been using frames of 1 x 6 or 8 inch boards covered with chicken wire to foil the disruptive digging of the grey squirrels for a couple years and may augment this with the window screening. I'll post a few pictures soon to illustrate some of my struggles and solutions with these issues.

Natives Now Blooming

The legume flowers of Lupinus perennis, Wild Lupine, top, and Cream Wild Indigo, Baptisia leucophaea, bottom, are blooming now along with the white lacecaps of Viburnum trilobum, American Cranberrybush, middle picture. The Cream Wild Indigo's own leaves are immediately below the flowers, while above it are young leaves of Pale Purple Coneflower and to the left are Canada Milk Vetch.

Beneficial insects

Here's a link on plants that attract beneficial insects:

Beneficial Insects

At least one of the recommended plants is highly invasive however, and exotic, so I ask you to not go there. The plant is Daucus carota, Queen Anne's Lace. Also, note that Maximilian's, or Prairie Sunflower, is native to Minnesota, so plant away ! Some references show this species as needing cold moist stratification to break dormancy on the seeds. However, I found the seeds sprouting in the bag in my refrigerator after just over a week or so of this treatment, so it doesn't need as long as may be recommended. And it may not need any stratification at all, though I haven't tried that. It could also be considered invasive, though native.

Where to Purchase Native Plants

May is prime gardening season ! Who has time to blog ??? And it's so much easier to just cruise around, gawking at the other wittier and more sophisticated blogs, admiring their amazing close up photos of rare butterflies or birds which pass through their yard for only 2 hours a year. But I want to mention a few places where you can get your hands on plants or seeds to grow plants that are native to Minnesota. ( no, I haven't forgotten my unfinished post on what is a native plant, but it's GARDENING SEASON, so the whole issue will be on hold for awhile, maybe 'til the snow flies again.) First I will mention Prairie Moon Nursery, in Winona, MN. This is the place where I have obtained most of the seed from which I have grown most of the native plants that are in my yard at this point. Their online catalog boasts nearly 600 species and they have tons of cultural information on their website and in their paper catalog. They show alot of pictures and they also explain the steps to establishing a native plant community using seed. They offer 2 open houses a year, both Saturdays, this year in June and August. I highly recommend these as a fantastic day trip from the Twin Cities. You can take a guided tour of their gardens and restorations with one of their knowledgable staff, and you can also walk through their seed storage building. It's still not too late to order bare root or potted plants for immediate delivery, or even seeds for forbs or grasses which don't need stratification. (you could probably even order seed that needs to be stratified for 30 days or less and still have some growing season left for it.) Prairie Moon, highly recommended!
I have also ordered seed from Prairie Frontier in Waukesha, WI a few years back with fine results, but I don't know if you can order anything other than packets of seeds from them; I didn't see any other amount available.
I have visited Dragonfly Gardens in Amery, WI and Louie has helped me find the few things I was too impatient to grow from seed. My 2 American Hazelnuts and Chokecherry are coming along fine this Spring, along with the Fragrant Sumac. They also have a wide range of other garden plants for those non-natives you can't live without.
I have a couple plants I bought from Landscape Alternatives when they were in St. Paul, but haven't visited their newer location in the St. Croix Valley.
Other options as yet untried by me are Oak Prairie Farm, Pardeeville, WI, Kinnickinnic Native Plants, River Falls, WI, Morning Sky Greenery, Morris, MN, Outback Nursery, Afton, MN, Prairie Meadows, Lonsdale, MN, and finally, Prairie Restorations, 6 locations around Minnesota. Alot of info here to begin or continue your pursuit of a connection with the beautiful plants that graced the woods and prairies of Minnesota before the Europeans arrived. Visit, read up, and then order yourself a few species to enjoy in your own yard. Finally, I usually have my own plant sales a couple weekends in mid to late summer. Watch here for announcements.