Getting Started: Native Plants

Natural Landscaping
in Northfield and the Cannon River Region

Native Plants

“What does one go into the wild for to see? A reed shaken by the wind, if you please; but surely not geometric flower beds, nor mounds of the ubiquitous canna and castor bean."

Quoted from "Annals of a Wild Garden" by Eloise Butler
(in The Wild Gardener)

Both prairie and woodland ecosystems once ran across Rice County, Minnesota, so Northfield and the Cannon River region are located in a very unique position (Umbanhowar and McKone 2000). A wide variety of native prairie and woodland plants do well in this region, so you can have a lot of fun with your gardens!

This section offers a very small preview of all the available species of plants that are native to the woodlands and prairies of Minnesota. For complete lists of native species, consult the literature and websites cited in the Recommended Reading and Links page.

Fellow senior seminar student, Allison Lambert, also has native plant information on the website of her research project, Environmental Stewardship: The Cannon River Watershed.

Celandine Poppy
Stylophorum diphyllum

Red Trillium
Trillium erectum

Virginia Bluebell
Mertensia virginica

Large-flowered Trillium
Trillium grandiflorum

Bluestar
Amsonia tabernaemontana

Prairie Smoke
Geum triflorum

Wild Geranium
Geranium maculatum

Virginia Waterleaf
Hyprophyllum virginicum

Vanilla Grass or Sweet Grass
Hierchloe odorata

Fern-leaf Bleeding Heart
Dicentra formosa

A visit to the University of Minnesota's Landscape Arboretum and some local Northfield lawns provided me with these photos of beautiful spring-flowering plants.

For information on gardening no-no's and plants to avoid, please carefully proceed to the CAUTION!!! page.

plan your lawn with the step-by-step guide

Lawn History

A Landscaping Revolution

Getting Started

Step-by-Step

Native Plants