Live in North Carolina and need a few native plants for your garden this season? There are a number of native plants will thrive, depending on what part of the state you’ll be planting them. In this article, gardening expert Liessa Bowen walks through her favorite native plants for North Carolina gardens!
North Carolina is a fantastic state for gardeners. With four distinct seasons and plenty of rainfall, there are ɱaпy plants that gardeners can grow with very little extra effort. But what’s even better is that North Carolina is home to a great number of beautiful and easy-to-grow native plants that make excellent additions to your home garden or landscape.
Native plants are well-adapted to their local growing conditions. Like any plant, pay attention to each plants’ preferred sun exposure and watering needs so you can provide them with ideal conditions. You can choose a few native wildflowers to incorporate into your garden, or you can plant your entire yard with native species; the decision is entirely yours.
Adam’s needle, also commonly called yucca, is a hardy and low-maintenance plant that adds a unique look to the landscape. The leaves are long and thin, forming a large rounded leafy mass.
The leaves themselves stay green throughout the year. In mid-summer, a tall flower spike appears, covered with a mass of large, showy, white blooms which attract butterflies.
Adam’s needle does best in full sun but also tolerates some light shade. This plant needs dry to medium moisture, well-drained soil, although it is not too picky about soil quality. Yucca is a tough plant that is tolerant of drought, deer, and rabbits.
American Beautyberry
American Beautyberry displays beautiful pink berries in the fall and winter months.
If you are interested in gardening with native plants, don’t forget about native shrubs. There are ɱaпy native shrubs that make excellent additions to a home landscape, and American beautyberry is the perfect example.
This plant is both attractive and easy to grow. It also looks great when incorporated into a wildlife garden, as a stand-alone shrub, or grown as part of a hedge.
American beautyberry is most prized for its showy pinkish-purple berries that line the stems in bunches from early fall into the winter months. These shrubs grow best in a sunny location but will also tolerate some shade. The plants are not bothered by deer or rabbits and the ripe berries attract fall and winter birds.
Bee Balm
The Bee Balms long tubular shaped petals make it easy for hummingbirds and butterflies to extract nectar from.
Bee balm is a member of the mint family and like other mints, has a square stem and uniquely fragrant leaves. The flowers are showy and red and bloom during the warmest summer months. Bee balm flowers are thin and tubular, the ideal shape to attract hummingbirds as well as butterflies.
This plant grows best in full sun with rich, moist soil. Bee balm is tolerant of soils that stay moist for extended periods but will do best in well-drained soil.
This plant isn’t bothered by deer and rabbits. Bee balm will spread by underground rhizomes and by self-seeding, so either give it plenty of space and allow it to naturalize or be prepared to do a little annual thinning.
Blazing Star
This plant will attract a variety of beneficial wildlife to your garden.
Blazing star is a beautiful native wildflower. The leaves are thin and fine, growing along tall upright stems. By mid-summer, the stems have developed a dense cluster of flowerheads at the top that burst into a literal blaze of showy light purple blooms.
The flowers attract butterflies and bees and are lovely cut flowers. In late fall and winter, the dried flowerheads are also showy and provide late-season interest, while attracting hungry, seed-eating birds.
Blazing star grows best in a sunny location with rich, well-drained soil. These plants look wonderful grown in groups. Incorporate them into a naturalized wildflower garden or give them the starring role in a butterfly and wildlife garden.
Brown-eyed Susan
This popular perennial wildflower is easy to grow and will self-seed the following season.
Brown-eyed Susan (R. triloba) and Black-eyed Susan (R. hirta) are familiar perennial wildflowers with similar looks and growing requirements.
Blooming from mid-summer until mid-fall, yellow flower petals surround dark brown or black centers. Flowers attract butterflies and bees, and the seed heads attract seed-eating birds such as goldfinches.
Brown-eyed Susans are easy to grow from seed. They can be started in pots indoors or simply sown directly into the garden. These plants are short-lived perennials, but because they freely self-seed it’s not uncommon for them to naturalize in a particular garden spot and return year after year.
Butterfly Milkweed
Butterfly Milkweed is the larval host plant for the Monarch butterfly caterpillar and a crucial part of their reproduction.
Anyone wanting to attract butterflies should have butterfly milkweed in their landscape. This plant is the larval host plant for the Monarch butterfly caterpillar and, therefore, necessary for the conservation of Monarch butterflies.
This native North Carolina perennial is popular with ɱaпy other species of butterfly, as well as bees and other pollinators. This native plant is low-maintenance and can be easily started from seed. The flowers are bright orange, showy, and bloom from mid to late summer.
If your garden has a sunny location with well-drained soil, you can grow butterfly milkweed. Deer and rabbits tend to avoid milkweeds, so hopefully, the only critters who want to eat your plants are the Monarch caterpillars.
Eastern Bluestar
This flowering plant attracts butterflies and other beneficial pollinators.
Eastern Bluestar is an attractive perennial wildflower that is easy to grow in average conditions. It prefers full sun but tolerates some shade. It prefers medium-moisture, well-drained soil but tolerates a variety of soil conditions. Plants are also resistant to deer, so you can grow them just about anywhere!
The Eastern Bluestar has simple, oblong, pointed leaves that grow along tall stems. Until they bloom, they just look like a clump of leafy green stems.
In late spring, they bloom with loose clusters of pale blue star-shaped flowers. The flowers attract butterflies and other pollinators. If the stems grow too long, they may flop over and need to be staked to remain upright.
Eastern Columbine
Columbine will thrive best with partial shade and rich, moist, well-drained soil.
The unusual drooping flowers of the native eastern columbine bloom in late spring and attract hummingbirds. There are several colorful columbine cultivars available, but the slightly smaller, pinkish-red flowers are the native wildflowers.
The delicate, almost fern-like foliage is attractive throughout the growing season, although in warm and sunny areas, it may die back in the heat of the summer.
Columbine can be readily grown from seed, and plants will self-seed in the garden. Columbine prefers a setting with partial shade and rich, moist, well-drained soil.
If deer and rabbits are present, they may nibble the tops of the plants, but since columbine doesn’t seem to be a favorite for browsing herbivores, there are usually still plenty of flowers.
Ebony Spleenwort
The Ebony Spleenwort fern is often found in ravines or shady woodlands with rocky areas.
Ebony spleenwort is a common and widespread fern that is fairly easy to grow in the home garden. Give it a shady spot with well-drained soil. In its native habitat, this fern is commonly found in ravines or shady woodlands with rocky areas. Deer and rabbits don’t generally bother ferns.
The ebony spleenwort is an attractive fern that will spread slowly over ᴛι̇ɱe in ideal conditions. It would do well in a woodland garden or shady rock garden.
Fern fronds emerge as fiddleheads each spring, unfurling into long upright stems. These ferns stay green throughout the summer months, and their foliage compliments other plants nicely.
Green and Gold
This flowering plant prefers cooler temperatures with some shade and blooms in the late summer to early fall.
Green and Gold is an attractive native flowering plant for a shade garden. If you have a shady spot, particularly one with moist, well-drained soil, this would be an excellent choice. These native plants will form low-growing clusters and bloom throughout the summer months.
The green and gold plant is aptly named. It has rough green leaves and showy golden-yellow flowers. Plants don’t perform well in sunny locations or in the hottest months of summer, but if they are in a cool and shaded location, they will often bloom again in late summer into early fall.
Ironweed
Also referred to as ‘New York ironweed’, these flowers love to be in full sun with rich, moist soil.
Ironweed, or New York ironweed, is a hardy native wildflower that can become quite tall. It grows natively all across the Eastern United States, up through New York and the Northeast coast.
This would be a good plant for a low-maintenance naturalized area or along a moist stream bank or other wetland areas. Ironweed likes full sun and rich, moist soil. In ideal conditions, it will readily spread by self-seeding.
Ironweed flowers are purple and fluffy looking. They attract butterflies and other pollinators. Flowers develop in loose clusters at the tops of the tall leafy stems. The flowers bloom from late summer into early fall. Deer and rabbits don’t bother ironweed.
Jack-in-the-Pulpet
Jack-in-the-pulpet grows in rich, moist, shaded woodlands and will spread out by self-seeding.
If you have a moist shade garden, Jack-in-the-pulpet would be an excellent plant to grow. Jack-in-the-pulpet is a rather unusual-looking plant. In the spring, stems with 3 leaflets each emerge from the ground in small clusters.
At the center of the leafy cluster, the flower stalk emerges with a prominent and unique tubular green flower with an overhanging lip. By mid-summer, the leaves go dorɱaпt again, and only a few single stalks with developing clusters of berries will remain until fall, as the berries change from green to red.
In its native habitat, Jack-in-the-pulpet grows in rich, moist, shaded woodlands. Over ᴛι̇ɱe, large colonies form as the plant spreads gradually by self-seeding.
Jack-in-the-pulpet can be grown from seed, but they may take several years from planting until the first bloom. This would be a choice plant for a naturalized shady woodland garden featuring native plants.
Lanceleaf Coreopsis
The Lanceleaf Coreopsis flower is a staple in most butterfly gardens.
The lanceleaf coreopsis is an excellent plant for a wildflower garden or butterfly garden. The flowers are showy, bright golden yellow, and bloom from late spring through early summer. Deer and rabbits don’t bother this plant, and butterflies and other insects will visit the flowers.
The leaves are thin and bright green and have a tendency to sprawl into a leafy green mass by mid-summer. Spent flowers that are left to develop seeds will allow the plant to self-seed freely and spread.
You can control its growth by deadheading or pulling any unwanted seedlings each spring. Grow lanceleaf coreopsis in a sunny location with rich, moist, well-drained soil.
Narrowleaf Mountain Mint
As a member of the mint family, these flowers will repel pests but attract pollinators.
Mints have a reputation for being aggressive growers and taking over a garden plot. The narrowleaf mountain mint certainly can grow vigorously, but with regular thinning (or planting it in a container), it’s not too hard to control.
This is a valuable plant to include in a native plant garden or naturalized wildflower area. The flowers attract numerous butterflies and other pollinators, and it not bothered by deer or rabbits.
Grow mountain mint in a sunny location with well-drained soil. This plant has sweetly minty-scented leaves and small white flowers atop tall square stems, characteristic of the mint family. Plants are quite attractive and will eventually form dense clusters.
New England Aster
The New England Aster is a fast-growing plant and will reach a height of 3 to 6 feet.
If you have a space for a larger aster plant that will dazzle you with a profusion of showy purple flowers each fall, go with the New England aster.
This plant does well in full sun and rich, well-drained soil. In ideal conditions, it will grow quite large and bushy. Growth can be controlled by pinching back in early summer. Pinching back may delay flowering, but it will also reduce the need to stake this vigorously growing plant.
The New England aster is a variety of native wildflower for a naturalized garden or anywhere you want a larger showy fall flower. The flowers attract butterflies and bees, but plants are not bothered by deer and rabbits. Plants bloom from late summer until frost.
Nodding Onion
The nodding onion will help deter rabbits and deer from bothering your garden.
The nodding onion is indeed a native variety of onion. It can be easily grown from a bulb or from seed. The leaves are long, narrow, and have a characteristic onion scent.
The flowers are showy clusters of drooping pinkish-purple flowers that attract butterflies and bees. Leaves will die back after flowering, but don’t worry, they’ll grow back again the following spring.
Plant your nodding onion in a sunny location in an herb garden, rock garden, or native wildflower garden. Plants do best in full sun but will tolerate some light shade. Soil should be dry to medium-moisture and well-drained. Deer and rabbits won’t bother onions.
Northern Maidenhair Fern
The northern maidenhair fern will thrive best in a location with full to partial shade.
Ferns are an excellent choice for a moist woodland garden or shade garden. The northern maidenhair fern needs a location with full to partial shade. Give it moist, well-drained soil with plenty of organic matter. Given ᴛι̇ɱe, this fern will spread to form an attractive colony, but it won’t take over the garden.
Maidenhair ferns are pretty plants. Thin dark stems emerge from the ground, and the fronds branch out from the top of the stem into a flattened semi-circular array.
These plants may look delicate, but they’re actually quite tough, as long as they have the right environmental conditions. Ferns are generally not bothered by browsing deer and rabbits.
Purple Coneflower
Purple coneflower is a familiar and well-loved native plant. It’s also quite easy to grow in the home garden. Plants grow readily from seed, and young plants are often available at nurseries and garden centers.
Coneflowers grow best in a location with full sun and rich, well-drained soil, but they are tolerant of less-than-ideal conditions.
If growing from seed, coneflowers won’t start blooming until their second year. Once they start blooming, expect flowers to last throughout the summer months and bloom each year reliably. The flowers are large and showy and grow on tall stems. The pinkish-purple blooms attract butterflies, bees, and birds, and they also make excellent cut flowers.
Purple Lovegrass
Purple lovegrass is perfect for larger areas that receive full sun and have dry to medium-moisture soil.
Ornamental grasses can look wonderful in the home landscape. Grasses add diversity and interest to a flower garden or native plant landscape. The purple lovegrass is a good grass for a larger naturalized area with full sun and average, dry to medium-moisture soil.
Purple lovegrass is a clumping grass that makes leafy masses and spreads over ᴛι̇ɱe. In mid to late summer, flowers bloom in soft masses, creating the effect of a pale pinkish haze above the grassy leaves.
After flowering, the seed heads turn brown and provide food for browsing birds. The plant bunches continue to provide dense ground cover and erosion control during the winter months.
Rattlesnake Master
The Rattlesnake master will add a unique texture to your yard or garden.
Rattlesnake master is an unusual plant that makes an excellent addition to the native wildflower garden. Grow it in a sunny location with average, well-drained, dry to medium moisture soil.
Plants can be grown from seed or young plants can be separated from established clumps. Rattlesnake master sends down a long taproot, so only try to dig up small plants that are less well-established.
Rattlesnake master has long, thin, stiff, yucca-like leaves that grow in dense clusters. In mid to late summer, mature plants send up a tall flower stem with somewhat bristly-looking greenish-white orblike flowers. The flowers aren’t showy in a traditional sense, but they are interesting and add a unique texture to the garden, plus they attract pollinators.
Stokes’ Aster
Stokes’ Aster is a hardy, low-maintenance flower, that will bloom in late spring through the mid-summer months.
If you happen to like purple flowers, you will enjoy the Stokes’ aster. This native wildflower grows best in a location with full sun to partial shade.
Extreme heat and sun may cause the leaves to wither after blooming, and if this is the case, you can trim back any dead foliage as desired. Deer and rabbits don’t generally bother these plants.
The Stokes’ aster flower is fairly large and showy. Light purple blooms appear from late spring through mid-summer. The frilly petals look delicate, but the plants themselves are hardy and low-maintenance. The flowers also attract butterflies and other insects.
Swamp Rose Mallow
The Swamp Rose Mallow is the perfect choice for any sunny spot that soil tends to stay wet and moist.
If you have a moist sunny area, perhaps near a wetland or any location that stays relatively moist, the swamp rose mallow would be a good choice.
This plant can grow quite large and shrublike. It can be pruned heavily to maintain a more compact and bushy appearance. Although it prefers constantly moist soil, it also does well in more moderate soil conditions as long as it receives regular deep waterings.
The swamp rose mallow has large leaves and produces ɱaпy large showy flowers. The flowers bloom anyᴛι̇ɱe from late summer through early fall and attract butterflies and other insects. Flowers are up to nine inches wide and white to pink, with darker pink centers.
Swamp Sunflower
The swamp sunflower loves full sun to partial shade and will reach a height of 2 to 4 feet tall.
Swamp sunflower, also called narrowleaf sunflower, is a beautiful showy yellow wildflower. There are several native varieties of sunflower, and any would be a welcome addition to a native wildflower garden.
Swamp sunflower does best in a location with full sun and moist, well-drained soil, but it will tolerate a range of growing conditions.
Swamp sunflower can grow into a relatively tall and bushy plant. From late summer into early fall, flowers bloom atop tall stems. Flowers are bright yellow with large dark brown centers. The blooms attract butterflies and other pollinators and also make good cut flowers.
Twinleaf
The Twinleaf will thrive best in a shady area that has consistently moist soil.
Twinleaf is a great little plant for a shade garden location. It’s easy to see how twinleaf got its name. Long stems emerge from the ground with a single divided leaf that, for all appearances, looks like a pair of leaves perched atop a stem. The plant grows in loose clusters and will eventually spread to form an attractive ground cover.
In spring, flowering stems emerge from the ground, producing single, showy white flowers. After flowering, an oddly-shaped little green seed pod develops in place of the flower.
Keep this plant in a location that is both shaded and consistently moist. You may want to give it extra waterings during ᴛι̇ɱes of drought.
White Turtlehead
These showy flowers attract hummingbirds and other beneficial insects.
White turtlehead is an attractive wildflower that does well in a partially shaded location with rich, moist soil. In their native environment, they are frequently seen growing along woodland streams. Try to keep their soil moist and give them a bit of extra water during periods of drought.
The white turtlehead blooms from late summer through mid-fall. Flowers are white to slightly pink atop erect leafy stems. The flowers are showy and attract hummingbirds and insects. Flower stalks can become a bit top-heavy and may benefit from staking if they start to lean over.
White Wood Aster
The White Wood Aster will attract a variety of different pollinators and are tolerant to rabbits and deer.
The white wood aster may not be as showy as some asters, but it is a very worthwhile plant to grow. For starters, it will grow in the shade. Plant the white wood aster in average, dry to medium moisture, well-drained soil. Plants are tolerant of deer and rabbits.
The white wood aster is a low-maintenance plant. From late summer into early fall, it blooms with dainty white flowers that attract butterflies and other insects.
Over ᴛι̇ɱe, plants will spread and become an attractive ground cover. During blooming, they will display a loose carpet of white flowers.
Wild Geranium
Wild geranium is low maintenance and can thrive in full sun or partial shade.
Here is an easy-to-grow, low-maintenance wildflower for your native plant garden or butterfly garden. Wild geranium grows well in full sun or partial shade. Plant it in a location with moist soil and plenty of organic matter. Deer and rabbits don’t bother these plants.
Wild geranium has showy flowers that attract butterflies and other pollinators. The flowers are 1.5 to 2 inches across with pinkish to purplish 5-petaled flowers that fade to white towards the center.
In ideal conditions, wild geranium plants will spread to fill in an area, creating an attractive cluster of plants that look especially stunning during full bloom.
Wild Ginger
This plant grows best in shady, moist areas and makes a perfect companion plant to ferns and columbine.
Wild ginger should not be confused with culinary ginger. This plant is a low-growing ground cover that is an excellent addition to a moist, rich shade garden.
The patterned heart-shaped leaves are evergreen and provide leafy interest throughout the entire year. The flowers are at ground level, pinkish or brownish, and inconspicuous, but if you happen to notice them while they are flowering, they are quite interesting!
This plant grows well in the shade, particularly in moist, well-drained soil. They look nice growing with ferns, columbine, and other shade garden native plants. They will slowly spread by rhizomes to form an attractive colony of leafy wild ginger.
Woodland Stonecrop
Woodland stonecrop makes a wonderful ground cover along borders and walkways.
This low-growing, thick-leaved plant makes an excellent ground cover. It grows best in full sun but tolerates partial shade. Soil should be average quality, well-drained, and medium moisture. Use woodland stonecrop in a rock garden or along borders and edges of a perennial garden, butterfly garden, or native plant garden.
Woodland stonecrop has thickened, succulent-like leaves. In spring, white star-shaped flowers bloom and attract butterflies and other insects.
Woodland stonecrop will spread over ᴛι̇ɱe, making an attractive cluster to fill in shady gaps. Woodland stonecrop can grow quickly, but don’t worry about this plant taking over your garden, it is easily thinned by removing any unwanted new growths.
Final Thoughts
If you live in North Carolina, or anywhere in the southeastern or eastern United States, ɱaпy of these native plants would make excellent additions to your perennial wildflower garden. Within their climate range tolerances, native plants are hardy and well-adapted to local conditions.
You can combine plants with different bloom ᴛι̇ɱes for a prolonged season of beautiful flowers, or you can allow plants to naturalize and spread for beautiful displays of leaves and flowers. However, you decide to arrange your garden, enjoy selecting some native plants for your landscape.