The Prairie Meadow: 15 feet x 23 feet Louise Engelstad, Landscaping With Native Plants, c 2014

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1 1 The Prairie Meadow: 15 feet x 23 feet Louise Engelstad, Landscaping With Native Plants, c 2014 According to Plants of the Black Hills and Bear Lodge Mountains, this area is classified as a mixed grass prairie. Grasses found here are western wheatgrass, blue grama, prairie junegrass, needlegrasses, and little bluestem. Flowers include coneflowers, goldenrod, yarrow, spiderwort, scurfpea, and others. If more moisture is available, leadplant, Maximilian sunflower, big bluestem, and switchgrass are also found. Pasque flowers (Anemone patens) Light: Full sun; tolerates part shade. Soil: Any except heavy clay or wet soil. Moisture: Little water and good drainage. Benefits: Butterfly nectar. Height: 1 foot mound. Blooms: April to May followed by feathery seed heads in June. Color: Lacy furry green foliage, light lavender flowers. Flowers push up through the soil before the leaves. Seed heads similar to prairie smoke. Whorled milkweed (Asclepias verticillata) Light: Full to partial sun. Soil: Dry, sandy. Moisture: Dry. Benefits: Monarch butterfly larval food. Height: 2 feet. Blooms: June to July. Color: Green to white and pink. Spacing: 2 feet.

2 2 Nodding onion (Allium cernuum) Soil: Sand, loam, clay. Moisture: Medium to moist. Benefits: Butterfly nectar. Height: 1 to 2 feet. Blooms: July to August. Color: White and pink. Spacing: 6 inches to 1 foot. This plant is long-lived, super hardy, and looks great in short prairie gardens and meadows. Plant in masses for a stunning late summer effect. It thrives in any moderately rich soil, from rocky hillsides to damp clay. Leadplant (Amorpha canescens) Light: Full sun, partial. Benefits: Butterfly nectar. Height: 2 to 3 feet. Blooms: June to July. Color: Purple. Spacing: 2 feet. Leadplant exhibits a unique display of both foliage and flowers. Spikes of iridescent purple flowers appear atop the delicate silver-gray foliage in the heat of mid-summer. Extremely long-lived, this is one of the few true shrubs of the prairie. Leadplant's deep taproot makes it extremely drought tolerant. Thrives in any well-drained soil.

3 3 Heath Aster (Aster ericoides) Benefits: Butterfly and moth nectar. Larval food for northern crescent butterflies. Height: 1 to 3 feet. Blooms: August to October. Color: White. Not only does Heath Aster produce a blizzard of bright white flowers in late summer and early fall, it will thrive on the driest sandy and gravelly soils. Creeping slowly by rhizomes to form small "bushes," Aster ericoides is one of the longest lived asters. Smooth Aster (Aster laevis) Benefits: Butterfly and moth nectar. Larval food for northern crescent butterflies. Height: 2 to 4 feet. Blooms: August to October. Color: Blue. This aster produces a profusion of deep blue, starlike flowers in late autumn after most other plants are long gone. Extremely hardy, it defies frosts and keeps on blooming, often well into November. A strong perennial, Aster laevis will grow in almost any soil.

4 4 New England Aster (Aster novae-angliae) Light: Full sun, partial. Soil: Sand, loam, clay. Moisture: Medium, moist. Benefits: Butterfly and moth nectar. Larval food for northern crescent butterflies. Height: 3 to 6 feet. Blooms: August to October. Color: Pink, purple, blue. Spacing: 1 to 1.5 feet. Tall and majestic, this aster s deep blue, purple, and sometimes pink flowers are highlights of the late season landscape. Aster novae-angliae is a critical fall nectar source for butterflies, especially Monarchs as they stock up for their long migration to Mexico. Northern Crescent Butterfly and caterpillar Butterfly overwinters as a partially grown caterpillar.

5 5 Sideoats Grama (Bouteloua curtipendula) Benefits: Wildlife cover and seeds for food. Larval food for Common wood-nymph butterfly and Crossline skippers. Height: 2 to 3 feet. Blooms: August to September. Color: Straw. Warm season grass. Purple Prairie Clover (Dalea purpurea) Soil: Sand, loam, clay. Benefits: Butterfly nectar, wildlife cover, and a s a legume, fixes nitrogen in the soil. Larval food for blues butterfly. Height: 1 to 2 feet. Blooms: July to August. Color: Purple. Melissa Blues Butterfly and caterpillar Overwinters as an egg.

6 6 Pale Purple Coneflower (Echinacea pallida) Soil: Sand, loam, clay. Benefits: Butterfly nectar and seeds for birds. Height: 3 to 5 feet. Blooms: June to July. Color: Purple. A deep taproot makes this long-lived plant capable of handling hot dry situations with aplomb. Prairie Smoke (Geum triflorum) Benefits: Pollinator nectar. Height: 0.5 feet. Blooms: May to June. Color: Pink. Spacing: 0.5 feet. A rock and sand garden favorite. The unique feathery pink seedheads make this a star of the springtime flowers. Geum triflorum spreads slowly by rhizome to form a low growing groundcover. Excellent for hot, dry spots, it thrives in any well-drained soil.

7 7 Blanket flower (Gaillardia aristata) Moisture: Full sun. Soil: Any except heavy clay or wet soil, especially in winter. Moisture: Dry. Too much water causes the plant to flop. Benefits: Butterfly and bee nectar and pollen. Height: To 1 foot. Blooms: June to September. Color: Flowers are yellow with red centers. Spacing: 2 feet. Forms a clump with erect stems. and rhizomatous. Maximilian sunflower (Helianthus maximiliani) Soil: Any. Moisture: Medium to dry. Benefits: Butterfly nectar and larval food for checkerspot butterflies. Height: Forms a clump with erect stems up to six feet high. Blooms: August to September. Color: Yellow. Checkerspot Butterfly Spacing: 2 feet. The flowers are all along the stem. The plant is tough, aggressive,

8 8 Western blue flag (Iris missouriensis) Light: Full sun to part shade. Soil: Loam. Moisture: It is the most drought-tolerant of the native irises only needing abundant moisture in the spring. Benefits: Provides an abundance of seeds. Flowers attract both insects and hummingbirds. Height: 1 foot. Blooms: May to June. Color: Pale lilac to whitish with lilac-purple veins. Junegrass (Koeleria macrantha) Soil: Sand, gravel. Moisture: Dry. Benefits: Wildlife cover. Height: 2 to 3 feet. Blooms: Early spring. Color: Gold. Junegrass produces lustrous silver-green seedheads in spring and early summer. The supporting foliage is an attractive green-gray color. This is a clumping, cool season grass that grows actively when soil temperatures are cool in spring and fall. It prefers full sun and dry, sandy soil. Junegrass will not grow in clay.

9 9 Meadow Blazingstar (Liatris ligulistylis) Soil: Loam. Moisture: Medium, moist. Benefits: Butterfly nectar and seeds for finches and juncos. Height: 3 to 5 feet. Blooms: August to September. Color: Pink, purple. Spacing:.5 to 1 foot. The widely-branched and numerous individual flowers bloom over an extended period of time. Monarchs on liatris Blue flax (Linum lewisii) Light: Full sun; tolerates part shade. Soil: Any except heavy clay or wet soil. Moisture: Moderate to little water and good drainage. Benefits: Butterfly nectar. Height: 2 feet. Blooms: June to August. Color: Bright blue. Spacing: 3 feet. Erect, airy, vase shaped plant with 1-inch skyblue flowers that open each morning and fall by late afternoon. Self-seeds readily and freely. Cut back brown foliage in late summer for repeat bloom.

10 10 Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) Light: Full sun, partial. Soil: Sand, loam, clay. Moisture: Dry, medium, moist. Benefits: Butterfly and moth nectar. Height: 2 5 feet. Blooms: July to September. Color: Lavender. Spacing: 2 feet. The intricate lavender flowers of Bergamot attract a plethora of butterflies, and the strong stems are sometimes used by indigo buntings to build their nests. Beardtongue (Penstemon grandiflorus) Soil: Sand, gravel. Moisture: Dry. Benefits: Bee and hummingbird nectar, food for butterfly larva, and seeds for juncos and finches. Height: 2 to 4 feet. Blooms: May to June. Color: Lavender. Penstemon grandiflorus requires excellent drainage, preferring dry sandy and rocky soils. Will not grow in clay.

11 11 Western sandcherry Pawnee Buttes (Prunus besseyi) Light: Full sun; tolerates some shade. Soil: All types except heavy clay or wet soil. Moisture: Tolerates a wide range from medium moisture through xeric. Very hardy. Benefits: Birds love the cherries. Height: 3 to 8 feet tall and wide. Blooms: May to June. Color: White, profuse, clustered flowers with silverygreen, shiny leaves. Fall color is bronze to red. Spacing: 5 feet. Black Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) Light: Full Sun, partial. Soil: Sand and loam. Moisture: Medium to dry. Benefits: Butterfly nectar and larval food. Height: 1 to 3 feet. Blooms: June to September. Color: Yellow. This biennial is easy to grow from seed. Transplants bloom the year they are planted, and will self-sow onto open soil.

12 summer, and then turns a striking crimson in fall. This warm season grass greens up when soil temperatures reach 55 degrees. Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) Moisture: Dry. Benefits: Skipper butterfly and Common ringlet butterfly larval food and wildlife cover. Height: 2 to 3 feet. Blooms: August October. Color: Bronze, red. The blue-green foliage provides a great backdrop for prairie flowers in 12 Common wood-nymph butterfly and caterpillar Hibernates as a newly-hatched caterpillar. Crossline skipper Overwinters as partially grown caterpillar.

13 13 Stiff Goldenrod (Solidago rigida) Soil: Sand, loam, clay. Benefits: Butterfly and bee nectar. Seeds for birds. Height: 3 to 5 feet. Blooms: August to September. Color: Yellow. Spacing: 1 to 1.5 feet. A Monarch favorite, stiff goldenrod is widely adaptable and thrives in even the most inhospitable soils, from clay to dry sand. The stems serve as perches for songbirds. Western Spiderwort (Tradescantia occidentalis) Benefits: Butterfly nectar. Height: 1 foot. Blooms: June to July. Color: Pink. This is an excellent groundcover for poor soils, spreading by rhizomes to form colonies that squeeze out weeds and explode in a riot of color in early summer. Grows in any well-drained soil in full sun or light shade.