Microclimates, street salt, compacted soil, flooding, landscape ordinances and more —we have gardened it all! Below is a targeted list of native plant species that can stand up to some of Chicago's toughest urban conditions.
Great plants for sunny parkways
(keep it short here –no more than 2’ if possible)
Sporobolus heterolepis (prairie dropseed)
Dalea purpurea or candida (purple & white prairie clover)
Asclepias tuberosa (butterfly milkweed)
Bouteloua gracilis (blue grama)
Eragrostis spectabilis (purple love grass)
Rudbeckia fulgida or hirta (black eyed Susans)
Geum triflorum (prairie smoke)
Low back corner that catches all the water
(Sedges with spongy root systems are your friends here!)
Carex vulpinoidea (fox sedge)
Carex brevior (plains oval sedge)
Carex muskingumensis (palm sedge) + there are so many
Asclepias incarnata (rose milkweed)
Baptisia australis (wild blue indigo)
Eutrochium maculatum (Joe pye weed)
Aronia melanocarpa (black chokeberry)
Things that can stand up to bunnies
(think onion & mint families, grasses/sedges)
Allium cernuum (nodding onion) + there are others
Monarda fistulosa (bee balm)
Monarda punctata (spotted horse mint)
Pycnanthemum virginianum (mountain mint)
Blephilia ciliata (downy wood mint)
Bunnies love the asters, but one that may work is Symphyotrichum oblongifolium (aromatic aster)
North side of your house or garage
(dense shade that can be dry or inundated by runoff
–again let’s get some help from our sedges)
Carex blanda (common wood sedge)
Carex pensylvanica (Pennsylvania sedge)
Carex rosea (curly-style sedge)
Carex sprengelii (long-beaked sedge) + there are so many
Aquilegia canadensis (columbine)
Asarum canadense (wild ginger)
Eurybia macrophylla (big-leaved aster)
👏 Download this handy guide
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