Welcome to Keweenaw Wild Ones Native Plant Sale!
Plant Your Own Pollinator Paradise
Create a wildlife oasis in your yard! The Wild Ones Keweenaw chapter is holding its first sale of the summer. We are offering a selection of native plants to get you started gardening for butterflies, birds, and pollinators.
Check out the plants below and think about what you’d like in your garden. Then visit our shop and place your order. Sales tax is included in the price.
How to order
- Go to our shop and pick out your plants.
- Check out. You may select PayPal or “pay on delivery,” i.e., pay when you pick up.
- When your order is complete, you will receive an email suggesting times you can pick up your plants.
After making an appointment, pick up your order at
1284 Hickory Lane, Houghton.
Our plant sales are online, but we are not Amazon. If you have trouble checking out, email your order to [email protected].
Love native plants? Want to take advantage of pre-sales and get a discount? Join the Wild Ones Keweenaw chapter! Sign up here!
Questions? Email [email protected]
Read about these fascinating plants, then visit our shop.
Looking for something not listed? Come back later; we are nurturing many other species that will be big enough to sell later this summer.
Biennial Gaura
Oenothera gaura
The delicate flowers of this short-lived denizen of the prairies start out light pink, then turn a vibrant red/pink color in the late summer to early fall. These colors make this statuesque plant attractive to butterflies. Treat it like a black-eyed Susan; it may disappear after two years, but it reseeds readily.
Big-Leaved Aster Eurybia macrophylla
This is your go-to groundcover for dry shade in the Keweenaw, though it doesn’t mind water at bit. Big-Leaved Asters have large, heart-shaped leaves and blossom in partial shade. The plant is very beneficial to birds: seeds are eaten by song birds in winter, seed fluff provides soft nesting material, Ruffed Grouse and Wild Turkeys eat the seeds and the foliage.
Big-Leaved Asters are a pollinator favorite and attract a wide variety of insects as well as feed the caterpillars of the Silvery Checkerspot and Northern Crescent butterflies. Nectar-collecting pollinators benefit late in the season when few plants are in bloom.
Black-eyed Susan Rudbeckia hirta
This beloved roadside wildflower tolerates nearly all sunny conditions. A biennial or short-lived perennial, it will return year after year if the seeds land in their happy place.
Boneset–New!
Eupatorium perfoliatum
OUT OF STOCK
Boneset offers so much for so little. For the gardener: lovely, airy, white flowers. For pollinators: abundant nectar and pollen. For beneficial insects: an excellent host plant. What more could you ask? Oh yeah, deer give it wide berth. What’s not to love?
Butterflyweed
Asclepias tuberosa
OUT OF STOCK–WE’LL HAVE SOME LATER THIS SUMMER
This dandy plant grows in miserable sandy soil in full sun; once established, it is hardy as stone. Beloved by pollinators and humans alike, its blooms are regularly bedecked by monarchs. Plant butterflyweed and help keep our favorite butterfly coming back year after year.
Buttonbush
Cephalantus occidentalis
OUT OF STOCK
If you are searching for a small tree/large shrub that likes wet feet, look no further. Buttonbush loves damp, swampy places. It has an interesting, twisted trunk, open crown and spreading branches. Butterflies and other pollinators are attracted to the long-blooming “button” flowers, and birds enjoy the seeds in the fall.
Common Milkweed
Asclepias syriaca
Will grow in nearly all soils, so long as they aren’t too wet. Plant in full to partial sun 1 foot apart. Beloved by butterflies, especially monarchs, which only lay their eggs on milkweed plants. Common milkweed is an aggressive spreader where it is happy, so give this plant some room to run and you won’t be disappointed.
Common Wood Sedge
Carex blanda
OUT OF STOCK–A FEW MIGHT BE AVAILABLE LATER THIS SUMMER.
Need a filler for shady areas? Carex blanda could be your plant. It’s not fussy about conditions (even full sun is OK) and deer and rabbits seem to find it quite unpalatable. Take advantage of its small stature to tuck it in amongst some forbs and enjoy the contrast.
Copper Shouldered Oval Sedge
Carex bicknellii
Adaptable, attractive sedge that tolerates drier conditions. Especially recommended for slopes, bioretention basins, rain gardens and sedge meadows. Does well in full sun to partial shade, and can be compromised if shaded by taller, aggressive plants. Named for the copper-colored seed heads, which are beloved by birds, including sparrows and pheasants.
Downy Wood Mint
Blephilia cilata
Does fine in sunshine as well as light shade and handles dry soils with aplomb. Downy Wood Mint is an early-season favorite of pollinators, not to mention certain gardeners, who delight in the pagoda-shaped blooms. The deer leave it alone, and it doesn’t take over. What more could you want?
False Sunflower
Heliopsis helianthoides
Easy to grow and very pretty, false sunflower (aka early sunflower) loves sun and just about any soil or moisture condition, though it does appreciate a little extra dampness. It can form a focal point at the back of the garden and is beloved by pollinators and birds. Bonus! Beautiful sunflower-type flowers without sunflowers’ tendency to spread.
Foxglove Beardtongue
Penstemon digitalis
OUT OF STOCK–HOPEFULLY WE’LL HAVE MORE IN LATE SUMMER
Extra-pretty early summer bloomer that likes most kinds of soil so long as it’s not too wet or too dry. Looks especially nice with Ohio spiderwort. Add some grasses and later-blooming forbs (like purple coneflower) to extend the season of interest.
Golden Glow
Rudbeckia laciniata
Found in damp, partly shady places in the wild, this eye-catching plant (AKA green-headed coneflower, yellow coneflower) does fine in full sun with some moisture. The flowers float on the end of long, graceful stems. Golden glow can grow to statuesque heights–six feet, for example. It’s great for the back of the border or filling in a big spot with very little effort.
Lance-leaf Coreopsis Coreopsis lanceolata
Lance-leaf coreopsis is the hands-down workhorse of the summer garden, throwing an exuberant display of flowers when it seems like every other plant has thrown in the towel. Dead-head to keep the show going on, and on, and on. As you would expect, lance-leaf coreopsis is not fussy. It just likes lots of sun and not too much water.
Little Bluestem
Schizachyrium scoparium
One of our most eye-catchiing ornamental grasses, it sports attractive blue-green foliage that turns a striking burgundy red in fall, with stems topped by pale, silvery seed heads. Like most native grasses, it appears impervious to deer.
New England Aster Aster novae-angliae
TEMPORARILY OUT OF STOCK; WE’LL HAVE MORE LATER IN JUNE
Tons of gorgeous pink to purple blooms in the fall are a late-season godsend for butterflies and other pollinators. Good luck counting how many species you can find at one time nectaring on this aster. Can get tall and leggy, so if that bugs you, pinch back in early summer or put in the back of the border. Likes sun and partial shade and almost all soils, so long as they aren’t super dry.
Pearly Everlasting
Anaphalis margaritacea
This underused plant thrives in sun and sandy soil with a bit of moisture. It’s a great filler, and the blossoms are charming. It is a host plant for caterpillars of the American lady butterfly, but it can handle being munched on once it is established. These two species have known each other for a long time.
Purple Coneflower Echinacea purpurea
The gateway plant leading to a lifelong addiction to native gardening. With a handful of other natives (black-eyed Susan comes to mind), purple coneflower can lure even the most conventional gardener to consider transforming a corner of their yard into a wild paradise. It’s gorgeous, familiar, adaptable, and well-behaved. Not to mention easy to grow in average, well-drained soil in full sun to partial shade.
And yes, even though purple coneflower looks like it could have leapt off the pages of a conventional seed catalog, it is definitely loved by birds and pollinators—not just us humans.
Red Milkweed
Asclepias incarnata
OUT OF STOCK
Also known as Swamp Milkweed or Rose Milkweed, Red Milkweed has a lovely fragrance and is a host for Monarch and Swallowtail butterflies. It’s flowers are less red than rose and are held above the plant, where you can watch pollinators of all stripes settling in for a banquet. Red Milkweed is happy in damp and will tolerate temporary flooding. But it is pretty adaptable; I’ve seen it growing in a hot, dry strawberry bed. However, don’t expect to be able to transplant it once it grows up. It has a taproot and would rather die than change its address.
Spotted Bee Balm
Monarda punctata
OUT OF STOCK
Spotted Bee Balm, a pollinator magnet, has been designated as having special value to native bees according to the Pollinator Program of The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. Preferring drier conditions, Spotted Bee Balm is more drought tolerant than other monardas and readily self-seeds on open, sandy soils. This is a good thing, because you will want lots of this plant.
Spotted Bee Balm, also known as Dotted Horsemint and Dotted Mint, is aromatic and avoided by deer and rabbits. The plant is attractive when paired with butterfly weed and lead plant, or wherever it pops up.
Wild Bergamot
Monarda fistulosa
TEMPORARILY OUT OF STOCK TILL OUR PLANTS GET A LITTLE BIGGER
A showy addition to the native garden, wild bergamot has a special advantage in being on deer’s do-not-eat list. The flowers are gorgeous and a favorite of hummingbirds. The long bloom period provides a continuing source of food for many pollinators.
Fair warning: It is susceptible to mildew. Good air circulation helps, as does dividing large plants every two to three years. That said, a little mildew is a small price to pay for this treasure. Maybe plant some pearly everlasting in front as a modesty skirt.