Cutleaf coneflower

Canada lily (Lilium canadense) is the best native lily most gardeners have never grown, and the honest reasons for that are worth stating before the flowers are. It is genuinely uncommon in the nursery trade, it takes several years from seed to a flowering bulb, it resents being moved once settled, and in the wild it is going backwards. Wikipedia records heavy white-tailed deer browsing in developed landscapes as a population pressure, and both the Native Plant Trust and Utah State University Extension name a second and newer one: the lily leaf beetle (Lilioceris lilii), a Eurasian scarlet beetle established in North America since 1943 and now in nine provinces and fourteen states, has been recorded feeding on Canada lily specifically. Its larvae are the destructive stage and they feed under a shield of their own wet excrement, which is both the identifying feature and the reason people miss them until the stem is skeletonised. Set against that, the plant itself is superb. The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center describes a 3-to-8-foot stem carrying tiers of flat, whorled, lance-shaped leaves and up to twenty nodding flowers in June and July, yellow on the outside and reddish-orange with dark spots inside, each hanging on a long arching pedicel. Go Botany names the ruby-throated hummingbird as its pollinator, which is exactly what a nodding, long-nectaried bell with recurved tepals is built for. Two practical facts separate it from the tulips and daffodils it shares a bulb bench with. Its bulb is a naked stack of loose scales with no papery tunic, so it dries out in storage and must go straight into the ground. And it is a stem-rooting lily - the Flora of North America treatment records stem roots present and often very many - so it is planted deeper than its own size suggests, which is the difference between a plant that persists and one that quietly declines. Note also that Missouri Botanical Garden's Plant Finder, primary source for most records in this catalog, carries seventy-eight Lilium entries and no page for this species, so this record is built on the Wildflower Center instead.

A long-lived native perennial of central and eastern US woodland borders and prairie meadows with deep blue pea-shaped flowers in late spring, blue-green leguminous foliage, attractive black seed pods for winter interest, and a nitrogen-fixing root system (Fabaceae). Larval host for 6 documented butterfly species per NC State (orange sulphur, clouded sulphur, frosted elfin, eastern tailed-blue, hoary edge, wild indigo duskywing) - among the highest Lep-host-count perennials in the eastern flora.

A short-lived native perennial of wet woodland edges, stream banks, and ditches across the Americas, named for the brilliant scarlet-red flowers that rise on erect, unbranched terminal spikes from mid-to-late summer. Each tubular, two-lipped bloom is shaped for the hummingbird tongue - the plant depends on ruby-throated hummingbirds for pollination because most insects cannot work the long flower tube. It demands constant moisture and tolerates brief flooding, but its foliage carries alkaloids that are very toxic to humans if eaten.

A native upright perennial of central + eastern North American prairies, woodland margins, and open woods producing tall vertical spires of white tubular flowers in late spring. The species name "digitalis" honors a flower-shape resemblance to true foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) - but Penstemon digitalis is NOT toxic in the same way (NC State explicit: "lacks the toxicity associated with foxglove"). Specialist Penstemon mason bee (Osmia distincta) relationship per NC State. The popular 'Husker Red' cultivar adds burgundy foliage for foliage-color design.

A bold, moisture-loving native perennial of eastern North America that dies back to a woody base each winter and returns to throw up stout 2 to 6 feet stems topped with enormous 4-8 inch saucer-shaped flowers - white, pink, red, or burgundy, each with a contrasting central eye - from June into September. NC State Extension describes a herbaceous perennial hardy across USDA zones 4a-9b that thrives in wet to constantly moist soils, tolerates heat, humidity, and even brief flooding, and draws hummingbirds, butterflies, and other pollinators. The tropical-looking dinner-plate blooms make it a dramatic focal point for rain gardens, pond edges, and the back of a sunny border.

A more refined garden-behaved cousin of common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) - same monarch host status and ecological value, but clumping rather than aggressively spreading, well-suited to rain gardens and consistently moist sites. Pink fragrant flower clusters from mid-summer through early fall; 2005 NC Wildflower of the Year. NC State tags Poisonous (cardiac glycosides) - the same toxicity that makes monarch caterpillars unpalatable to vertebrate predators.

A pollinator-supporting palette of eastern North American natives with broad hardiness ranges and wide native distributions. Built for gardeners who want a planting that can handle warming zones without giving up wildlife value.