Prairie Plants

Showing 41–48 of 86 results

  • Euphorbia colorata syn. E. collorata Perennial poinsettia

    Chartreuse bracts in spring and redish stems and leaves in autumn.

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    Chartreuse bracts in spring and redish stems and leaves in autumn.

    Size: 12-16 x 12
    Care: sun in dry to moist well-drained soil

    Root used as purgative according to Gould’s Dictionary of New Medical Terms (1905).  Collected on the Mexican Boundary Expedition c. 1850.

  • 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.

    $10.25/pot

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    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.

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    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 in early spring contrast succulent blue-gray foliage encircling the reclining stem.

    $12.75/bareroot

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    Chartreuse umbels at stem tips in early spring contrast succulent blue-gray foliage encircling the reclining stem.

    Can not ship to: Colorado.

    Size: 4” x 12”
    Care: Sun in well-drained soil
    Native: Western Asia
    Awards: Royal Horticultural Society Award of 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’s 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 a clump of flashy chartreuse bracts frame each flower altogether growing in a dome 12-18" tall and wide on erect, sturdy stems.  In fall foliage turns orangey-red.

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    May – June a clump of flashy chartreuse bracts frame each flower altogether growing in a dome 12-18″ tall and wide on erect, sturdy stems.  In fall foliage turns orangey-red.

    Size: 16" x 24"
    Care: Sun, moist well-drained humusy soil.
    Native: Central and Southern Europe
    Awards: Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit.

    Polychroma means many colors referring to the fact that the foliage changes colors.  Named by Swedish botanist Linnaeus 1753.

  • Filipendula rubra ‘Venusta’ Queen of the prairie Z 3-9

    Extraordinary frothy pink plumes, like cotton candy, blooming in midsummer

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    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.).
    Awards: Award of Garden Merit from England’s Royal Horticultural Society.

    Name is Latin filum pendulus meaning hanging by thread referring to threads on the roots of another species.
    Wildlife value: This creates pollen but not nectar limiting the pollinators to bees and flies (Butterflies and wasps want nectar.)
    Meskwaki Indians used the species for heart ailments and as an aphrodisiac. Although the plant’s name has been changed five times, the species was 1st described in 1768. Robinson, Rhodora, v. 8 pp. 202-205 (1907). “Filipendulina, a New Binomial,” The flowers of this cultivar are darker than the species. Described by German botanist Andreas Voss (1857-1922).

  • 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.

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    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 flies

    Filipendula is Latin from filum meaning thread and pendulus meaning hanging, small tubers hang 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.

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    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.
    Native: Mediterranean
    Wildlife Value: attracts bees and birds. Nectar plant for Swallowtail butterflies.

    Ancient Egyptians used fennel as food and medicine. Considered a snake bite remedy in ancient China. During the Middle Ages people hung it 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 reportedly waged on a field of fennel.  Miller’s The Gardeners Dictionary, eighth ed.  1768.