A spring-blooming native bulb of the moist meadows of the Pacific Northwest and northern Rockies, common camas sends up a 2-3 foot scape lined with dozens of star-shaped blue-violet florets that open from the bottom up over basal grass-like leaves. It is the camas whose bulb was a staple food of Indigenous peoples across its range — the genus name comes from the Native American "kamas"/"quamash". The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center flags it as a plant of special value to native bees.

A clump-forming native perennial of the carrot family that opens flat-topped, compound umbels of tiny golden-yellow flowers in late spring, when little else is blooming. The toothed, twice-divided-in-threes (biternate) foliage and the bare central flower stalk on each umbel set it apart from other umbellifers. A documented larval host for the black swallowtail and an early-season nectar and pollen source for short-tongued native bees.

A native eastern North American clump-forming perennial with palmately-lobed foliage and clustered pink-to-purple five-petaled spring flowers. Among the most reliable native woodland perennials for cool-moist sites; tolerates a wide range of conditions and slowly naturalizes by self-seeding.

The native sundial lupine of eastern North American sand barrens and oak savannas — erect 1-2.5-foot stems carry showy spring spikes of blue, pea-shaped flowers above palmately divided leaves of 7-11 radiating leaflets. A nitrogen-fixing legume of dry, sandy, acidic soils, it is the sole larval host for the federally endangered Karner Blue butterfly and the Frosted Elfin, and carries the Xerces Society "special value to native bees and bumble bees" flag.

A native eastern North American perennial with fine threadlike foliage and abundant bright-yellow daisy flowers from early summer through fall. Drought-tolerant + long-blooming; among the most reliable native sunny-border perennials. The Moonbeam cultivar is the most-planted form.

A native eastern North American woodland aster with loose sprays of small white starry flowers in fall — among the few asters that bloom reliably in shade. Tough + drought-tolerant once established; among the best native fall-bloomers for shaded gardens.