Prairie Plants

Showing 57–64 of 86 results

  • Lobelia cardinalis Cardinal flower Z 3-9

    Ruby, cardinal red tubes with an upper lip split in half and a lower lip like a pixie’s apron encircle the spike from August to October beckon hummingbirds to feed.

    $10.95/bareroot

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    Ruby, cardinal red tubes with an upper lip split in half and a lower lip like a pixie’s apron encircle the spike from August to October beckon hummingbirds to feed.

    Size: 3’ x 12”
    Care: sun to part shade in fertile, moist soil. Moist soil important
    Native: Canada to Texas, Wisconsin native.
    Wildlife Value: attracts hummingbirds
    Awards: Received England’s Royal Horticultural Society Award of Merit & Missouri Botanic Garden Plant of Merit.

    Cherokee cured stomach aches, worms, pain, fever, nose bleeds, rheumatism, headaches, colds, and croup with Lobelia.  They used the root to treat syphilis.  Other Natives and colonists used the plant to induce vomiting. At the end of a funeral, Meskwaki Indians threw the dried and pulverized plant into the grave.  Meskwaki also chopped the roots and secretly put it in the food of “a quarrelsome pair.”  Allegedly “this makes the pair love each other again.”   Lobelia is named for Matthias L’Obel (1538-1616) French expatriate who immigrated to England and became physician to English King James I. Tradescant the Younger introduced this to European gardens when he sent it to England in 1637.  Offered for sale in Bartram Garden’s 1783 Broadside. In 1749 Swedish botanist Peter Kalm wrote that Indians used five species of Lobelia to cure venereal disease, “an infallible art of curing it.” Grown by Washington at Mount Vernon and Thomas Jefferson at Monticello. Pressed specimen in Emily Dickinson’s herbarium.

  • Lobelia siphilitica Great lobelia Z 4-9

    A striking, erect spike of sky to blueberry-blue blossoms. On top club-shaped buds, below trumpet-shapes, open flowers, made of a tube flaring open with the bottom divided into three, each segment pointed at the ends. From late summer to early fall.

    $12.75/bareroot

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    A striking, erect spike of sky to blueberry-blue blossoms. On top club-shaped buds, below trumpet-shapes, open flowers, made of a tube flaring open with the bottom divided into three, each segment pointed at the ends. From late summer to early fall.

    Size: 3' x 12"
    Care: Full sun to part shade in moist to moist well-drained soil
    Native: Connecticut to Wyoming, south to Texas then east to Georgia and all states in between, Wisconsin native.
    Wildlife Value: attracts bumble bees, hummingbirds and some butterflies

    Lobelia is named for Matthias L’Obel (1538-1616) a French expatriate who emigrated to England and became physician to English King James I.  Cherokee used the root to treat headaches, stomachaches, worms, nosebleeds, colds and syphilis.  1st collected by Rev. John Banister who moved to colonial Virginia in 1678.  A gunman mistakenly shot and killed him while he collected plants.   In 1749 Swedish botanist Peter Kalm wrote that Indians used five species of Lobelia to cure venereal disease, having “an infallible art of curing it.”  According to John Bartram (1699-17760) “The learned Pehr Kalm (who gained the Knowledge of it from Colonel Johnson, who learned it of the Indians, who, after great Rewards bestowed on several of them, revealed the Secret to him) saith, That the Roots of this Plant cureth the Pox much more perfectly and easily than any mercurial Preparations, and is generally used by the Canada Indians, for the Cure of themselves“ (Better than mercury!) Oneidas considered this good medicine for distemper. Sioux treated bloat, diarrhea and dysentery as well as a love charm by adding powdered root to the food of the intended.  Offered for sale in Bartram Garden’s 1783 Broadside, America’s 1st plant catalog.

  • Lupinus perennis Sun-dial lupin, Old maid’s bonnet, wild pea Z. 4-9

    Many flowered blue, pea flowered raceme May-June

    $10.25/BAREROOT

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    Many flowered blue, pea flowered raceme May-June

    Size: 1-2' x 12"
    Care: full sun in well drained soil. A legume, so it enriches the soil by adding nitrogen.
    Native: Maine to FL, Ontario to MN to Louisiana, Wisconsin native.
    Wildlife Value: Attracts both hummingbirds and butterflies. The only food for larvae of endangered species, Karner Blue butterfly.

    Lupinus is Latin from Lupus meaning “wolf.”  Likely sent from its native Virginia to England by Tradescant the Younger in 1637. Certainly collected by Frenchman Michaux, who scoured eastern North American over 11 years in late 1700’s.  Grown by Jefferson.  Grown at America’s 1st botanic garden, Elgin Botanic Garden 1811.The Cherokee used this to stop bleeding.  The Menominee fattened their horses with this Lupin and made them spirited.  They rubbed the plant on themselves to give power to control the horses.

  • Monarda fistulosa Wild bergamont Z 3-9

    Whorls of hooded lavender tubes in July - August

    $12.75/bareroot

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    Whorls of hooded lavender tubes in July – August

    Size: 3-4' x 2' spreading
    Care: Sun to part shade any soil.
    Native: central U.S., Wisconsin native
    Wildlife Value: Checkered white, Tiger swallowtail, Giant swallowtail and Melissa blue butterflies relish Wild bergamot’s nectar. Supports over 70 bee species including Rusty patched Bumble Bee.

    Used medicinally by many Native tribes- Blackfoot, Cherokee, Chippewa, Choctaw, Crow, Dakota and Flathead. Cherokee: to cure colic, flatulence, nosebleed, measles, flu, hysteria and to induce restful sleep Blackfoot called it “Single-young-Man.”  Teton Dakotas boiled the leaves and flowers for medicine to cure abdominal pain. Ho-Chunk boiled the leaves to make a medicine for pimples.  Choctaws cured chest pain in children. The Flathead cured colds and sore teeth with Wild Bergamot. HoChunk inhaled fumes in a sweat bath to cure colds. Oneidas made a tea. For the Sioux it was nourishment and a panacea:  tea, stomachache, fever, indigestion, sore throats, fainting, whooping cough, wounds, sore eyes, ulcers, and snakebites. First documented by French explorers before 1635.  Plant exported to Europe by Tradescant the Younger in 1637.  Grown by Washington at Mount Vernon.  Today it is a flavor in Earl Grey tea.

  • Oenothera speciosa Evening primrose Z 5-8

    June to August pale pink saucer-like blossoms

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    ARCHIVED

    Note: This is a plant not currently for sale.  This is an archive page preserved for informational use.

    June to August ballerina pink saucer-like blossoms, excellent groundcover.

    Size: 12" x 12" spreader
    Care: Full sun moist well-drained to well-drained soil
    Native: Southwest U.S. to Mexico

    Another Thomas Nuttall discovery – 1819.

  • Packera obovata syn. Senecio obovata Round-leaved ragwort, Golden groundsel Z. 3-8

    Clusters of perky yellow daisies with sunny centers atop nearly leafless, erect stems, blooming late spring to early summer. Missouri Botanic Garden: “Vigorous spring wildflower for sunny or shady areas of the landscape. Large, naturalized plantings in woodland gardens can be spectacular in bloom. Cut off flowering stems after bloom and enjoy the semi-evergreen basal foliage which forms an attractive ground cover.”

    $12.75/bareroot

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    Clusters of perky yellow daisies with sunny centers atop nearly leafless, erect stems, blooming late spring to early summer. Missouri Botanic Garden: “Vigorous spring wildflower for sunny or shady areas of the landscape. Large, naturalized plantings in woodland gardens can be spectacular in bloom. Cut off flowering stems after bloom and enjoy the semi-evergreen basal foliage which forms an attractive ground cover.”

    Size: 1-2’ x 6-12” spreading
    Care: sun to part shade in moist to moist well-drained soil
    Native: curved swath from eastern Canada to FL west to IL and NM
    Wildlife Value: attracts bees. Deer resistant

    Obovata means egg-shaped describing the shape of its basal leaves. First named in 1803 from a plant of Rev. Henry Muhlenberg (1783-1815) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotthilf_Heinrich_Ernst_Muhlenberg,) Pennsylvania plantsman, sent to German botanist Carl Ludwig Willdenow (1765 – 1812). Packera named for a Canadian botanist, John G. Packer.

  • Parthenium integrifolium Wild Quinine Z 3-8

    Work-horse white cymes July through October

    $12.75/bareroot

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    Work-horse white cymes July through October

    Size: 2-3’ x 12”
    Care: sun in moist well-drained soil
    Native: Mass. To Georgia & Minn. To Arkansas, incl. WI
    Wildlife Value: provides nectar and pollen to native bees.

    Seeds are fragrant when crushed.  Named “quinine” because it was used to treat fevers similar to malaria.  Catawabe Indians used the leaves to treat burns and the flowers to treat fever.  1st described in literature in 1732.

  • Penstemon digitalis Foxglove beardtongue Z 2-8

    Palest of pink tubular bells in June - deadhead for rebloom. More vigorous and longer blooming than its well-known cultivar ‘Husker Red.’

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    OUT OF STOCK

    Palest of pink tubular bells in June – deadhead for rebloom.  More vigorous and longer blooming than its well-known cultivar ‘Husker Red.’

    Size: 24-48” x 18”
    Care: sun or part shade in fertile, well-drained soil
    Native: Nebraska, Wisconsin
    Wildlife Value: host for caterpillar of Baltimore Checkerspot butterfly.

    Penstemon is named for its five stamens, penta meaning “five” in Greek.  Used medicinally by the Dakota and Pawnee – to remedy chest pains, chills and fevers.  P. digitalis first sent to Europe when the son of the royal Spanish gardener sent it to Kew Botanic Garden in England, 1793.