There are dozens if not hundreds of midwestern native plants that will thrive in Upper Michigan gardens, including the Keweenaw Peninsula. Many garden favorites are not native to the Keweenaw Wild Ones’ region but still do very well and support wildlife, such as purple coneflower and dense blazingstar.
Should you stick to plants native to your county or choose from a broader plant palette? That’s a question only you can answer. In the meantime, here’s a list of resources to get you started.
Picking the right plant
Upper Peninsula Regional Plant List—Put together by the Michigan State Extension Service, this handy little list is a great place to start if you are wondering what native plants will work in your landscaping.
Pollinator Partnership A great resource for choosing the right plant for your place. They have guides for ecoregions; just type in your ZIP code and find out what’s native to your neck of the woods.
Michigan’s Natural Communities—Stoke your inner ecologist. Michigan State Extension has put together this list of various plant communities, from bogs to wooded dunes, along with the plants found in each. Got a few oak trees and want to enhance your savannah with the right plants? This is your go-to site.
Audubon Native Plants Database—Type in your ZIP code and find the best native plants for birds in your area.
Native Plants of North America—Maintained by the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at the University of Texas, Austin, the layman’s definitive guide to American wildflowers.
Missouri Botanical Garden—An awesome reference for all kinds of plants. If you are debating whether or not to grow a plant in your yard, this is a go-to, unbiased source of information.
Michigan Flora—Highly technical; a great tool for finding out if a plant is native in your area. Click on “Search” to figure out if a plant is native to your county or to search for plants native to your area.
Grow Native (Missouri Plant Foundation)—Lots of good information on midwestern natives, many of which grow in the Upper Great Lakes Region.
USDA Plants Database – This searchable database provides lots of information about a plant’s native range as well as plant guides.