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The Best Native Plants for Midwest Gardens

The plants that made the prairie, sized for your yard.

IA, IL, IN, KS, MI, MN, MO, ND, NE, OH, SD, WI148 native plantsUpdated October 6, 20269 min read

Living in the Midwest, want to start a native plant garden? Here is the garden inspiration you were looking for. These native flowers, shrubs, and trees are easy to find, easy to plant, and will look stunning in your garden. Scroll on to find plant ideas, alongside list of Midwestern nurseries and online plant sellers.

Little bluestem with blue asters and fluffy white seed heads in a fall garden
Even in the fall, a Midwest garden of native grasses and flowers is a showstopper

Before we introduce dozens of native plants, let’s start with a basic question.

What is a native plant?

A native plant is a plant that has grown in a region for thousands of years. They have lived through every drought, storm, blizzard, and heat wave. These plants’ DNA includes all the tricks and tips needed to thrive in Midwestern yards with minimal care.

Why plant native in the Midwest?

There are three big reasons to plant native:

  1. Wildlife support. Native plants give bugs, birds, and butterflies the needed food and homes.
  2. Enjoy beauty with lazy gardening. Once established, most rarely require water besides normal rainfall.
  3. Native plants are gorgeous, and some last for generations. Your neighborhood or yard will look incredible with minimal work.

There are thousands of plants native to the Midwest. If you’re looking for a huge encyclopedia of native plants, we highly recommend visiting other sites, like NatureServe Explorer and the USDA Plant Database, or exploring plants by pollinator profiles at Xerces Society.

Sometimes, these huge sites can feel overwhelming, especially on a tiny phone screen or if you’re beginning your native garden. That’s why we made this website!

We’re here to get you started

The Plant Native’s mission is to help beginner gardeners find their way. So we’ve kept this list short and stuck to Midwestern native selections that are widely known and found.

Find your plants

Native plants have lived through every drought, storm, blizzard, and heat wave.

Midwestern native gardening inspiration

Ok, that was a lot. Feeling overwhelmed? Let’s move away from the lists and look at this another way. Here are some garden pictures to help you visualize how to put it all together:

Wild bergamot in pale lavender behind purple blazing star spikes and a few purple coneflowers
Wild bergamot (in back) with blazing star and purple coneflowers
Blue vervain’s purple candelabra spikes with pink swamp milkweed in a wet meadow
Have a wetter area? Blue vervain + swamp milkweed is a great duo
Golden ragwort’s yellow flowers in front of ferns in a shade garden
Golden ragwort + ferns = no fuss, shade-friendly gardening
Blue mistflower’s fluffy lavender flowers beside penstemon’s red leaves and seed stalks
Blue mistflower + native penstemons are gorgeous
Pale purple coneflowers, drooping pink petals on tall stems in a sunny garden
Pale purple coneflower is one-and-done sunny landscaping

We hope you’ve a great list of natives you’ve fallen in love with. Let’s make finding them easy.

Where can I find native plants in the Midwest?

The sad reality is that finding native plants (especially if you’re not looking for cultivars) can be a challenge. But it’s much easier if you know where to look! We’ve put together an ever-evolving list of native-friendly nurseries. Time for a road trip!

300+ Midwest native nurseries include:

Illinois

Chicago Area

Northern Illinois

Central Illinois

Southern Illinois

Indiana

Northern Indiana

Central Indiana

Southern Indiana

Iowa

Eastern Iowa

Central Iowa

Western Iowa

Southern Iowa

Kansas
Michigan

Upper Peninsula

Northern Lower Peninsula

Western Lower Peninsula

Eastern Lower Peninsula

Southwestern Lower Peninsula

Southeastern Lower Peninsula

Minnesota

Twin Cities Metro

Southern Minnesota

West/Central Minnesota

Northern Minnesota

Missouri

St. Louis Metro

Kansas City Metro

Throughout Missouri

Statewide resources

Nebraska

Eastern Nebraska

Statewide resources

Ohio

Central Ohio

Northeast Ohio

Northwest Ohio

Southwest Ohio

Southeast Ohio

Statewide resources

Wisconsin

Central Wisconsin

Northwest Wisconsin

Northeastern Wisconsin

South Central Wisconsin

Southeastern Wisconsin

Find native plants for the Midwest online

Looking to start your native garden by buying online? We got you. Here are sources for buying native seeds and plants online in the Midwest:

Why do we keep including the city/town and state? Here’s why:

Sometimes, you want to get lost in a picture-filled book and scribble your garden dreams in the margins. Here are three of The Plant Native’s favorites:

Best native plant books for Midwestern gardens

The Plant Native has read a lot of books to create this website. Here our favorites for Midwestern gardens. Note: if you buy from the Bookshop links, we may receive a commission.

Cover of “Got Sun? 200 Best Native Plants for Your Garden” by Carolyn A. Harstad, with black-eyed Susans

Got Sun? 200 Best Native Plants for Your Garden

Carolyn Harstad, 2013

Carolyn’s writing feels like you have a friend beside you, chatting over coffee. An excellent resource for Midwestern gardens.

Cover of “Go Native! Gardening with Native Plants and Wildflowers in the Lower Midwest” by Carolyn Harstad

Go Native! Gardening with Native Plants and Wildflowers in the Lower Midwest

Carolyn Harstad, 1999

Such a fun book to read, although with few pictures in color.

Cover of “The Midwest Native Plant Primer” by Alan Branhagen, a grid of flower, bird and butterfly photos

The Midwest Native Plant Primer: 225 Plants for an Earth-Friendly Garden

Alan Branhagen, 2020

Like the other books in this series, this offers photo-filled portraits of individual native plants. Good for easy inspiration.

More online resources

Finally, many online resources are filled with Midwestern-friendly tips and advice. Some favorites include:

And that concludes our beginner-friendly round-up for planting native in the Midwest. We hope this inspired you to plant native plants and get excited about all the possibilities for your garden. We’re not with the inspiration yet! Explore our other native planting FAQs, peruse the Native Plant Profiles, and bookmark our ever-expanding resources for native gardening. Or, pick a thematic guide! We recommend Best Native Trees for Front Yards or Host Plants for Butterflies. Don’t forget to join your local native plant society and find your people (and plant sales…) Happy Midwestern planting!

Sources

Native flowering trees

Emily Lessard standing among white coneflowers in a garden

Written by

Emily Lessard

Founder & Editor, The Plant Native

Emily Lessard is the founder and editor of The Plant Native, the site that helps homeowners across North America get started with native plants. She holds a Sustainable Landscapes certificate through the Pennsylvania Landscape & Nursery Association, is finishing a Native Perennial Garden Design Certificate at Temple University, and is the author of Plant Native: A Practical Guide to Over 100 Native Plants of North America (Quarto, March 2027). She gardens outside Philadelphia in the 8.3 Southeastern Plains ecoregion.

Meet Emily

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