THESE NATIVE PLANTS TO MARYLAND CAN THRIVE IN YOUR YARD
You can use these 3 native Maryland plants to create an amazing yard. Your friends will be asking you how they can do it for their yard too.
They include wild anemone, yellow ladies slipper orchid, and Carolina lupine.
You can see what these plants look like further down. There’s also a list of more plants native to Maryland at the bottom of this post.
IT’S TIME TO GO LOCAL
“You know, we haven’t planted any native Maryland plants in our yard in a long time.”
Joe looks over as Kathleen breaks their comfortable silence. They’re taking in their front yard as they sit on the porch with their morning coffee.
“True, we haven’t. Do you think we should now?” Kathleen answers with a nod and takes a sip of her coffee. Joe swirls his coffee around, saying “Well let’s find some plants native to Maryland that we like, get them, and plant them.”
They could also hire a professional landscaper to do their plantings for them.
Looks like they have their Saturday plans. The couple pulls out their phones to find plants they like. By the time they finish their coffee they have a list put together.
Here are the 3 Maryland native plants they are planning on putting in their yard.
1. WILD ANEMONE
“Too bad Nemo nor any other fish live in this native Maryland plant,” Joe jokes.
These beautiful white flowers simply scream spring. You can use them to create a carpet of green and white groundcover in 1 growing season. It’s an early spring perennial so it blooms early year after year:
They grow best in shade to part sun (which there is plenty of in this couple’s yard) and well-drained soil.
Kathleen loves the look of these native Maryland plants. They’ll look lovely between their shrubs and along their walkways.
Now, let’s see what Joe found.
2. YELLOW LADY’S SLIPPER ORCHID
“An orchid? I love the way you think, Joe” Kathleen says excitedly.
The flowers on this plant look like, well, like yellow slippers. It’s like no flower bloom you (or any of your neighbors) have ever seen before:
It likes partially shady areas with moist, acidic soil. They’ll grow to be about 16 inches tall so they’ll be hard to miss.
“They really do look like slippers, I almost can’t believe it,” Kathleen says in amazement. “Me either,” Joe replies.
Here’s the 3rd of the native Maryland plants the couple has found for their front yard.
3. CAROLINA LUPINE
“Reminds me of home,” Joe says nostalgically.
This bright yellow flowering plant offers vibrant pea-like flowers and fuzzy foliage. It’s a perennial so it’ll keep coming back year after year:
They grow fairly tall, anywhere from 3-5 feet (though mostly 3-4 feet). It blooms during the early summertime and loves being in full sunshine.
The couple looks out over the front yard again, imagining how it’ll look when they put in their new native Maryland plants.
LET’S GET GOING
Saturday rolls around and the couple goes out to pick their plants. They already have a design for them so they get home and start working right away. In the end, their front yard looks beautiful, almost as good as these professionally done plantings.
MORE NATIVE MARYLAND PLANTS
Fern:
- Dennstaedtia punctilobula – hay-scented fern
Grasses or Grasslike Plants:
- Andropogon virginicus – broomsedge
- Elymus canadensis – Canada wild rye
- Elymus hystrix – bottlebrush grass
- Panicum amarum – coastal panic grass
- Schizachyrium scoparium – little bluestem
- Sorghastrum nutans – Indiangrass
Herbaceous Plants and Groundcovers:
- Asclepias syriaca – common milkweed
- Asclepias tuberosa – butterflyweed
- Aster laevis – smooth blue aster
- Aster novae-angliae – New England aster
- Aster pilosus – white heath aster
- Baptisia tinctoria – wild indigo
- Chrysopsis mariana – Maryland golden aster
- Coreopsis tinctoria – tickseed sunflower
- Coreopsis verticillata – threadleaf coreopsis
- Desmodium paniculatum – panicled tick-trefoil
- Eupatorium fistulosum – Joe-Pye weed
- Heliopsis helianthoides – ox-eye sunflower
- Liatris graminifolia – grass-leaf blazingstar
- Monarda fistulosa – wild bergamot
- Monarda punctata – horsemint
- Rudbeckia hirta – black-eyed Susan
- Saxifraga virginiensis – early saxifrage
- Silene stellata – starry campion
- Sisyrinchium graminoides – blue-eyed grass
- Solidago caesia – blue-stem goldenrod
- Solidago nemoralis – gray goldenrod
- Solidago rigida – rigid goldenrod
- Solidago speciosa – showy goldenrod
- Viola pedata – bird’s foot violet
Shorter Shrubs:
- Hypericum densiflorum – dense St. John’s wort
- Rosa carolina – pasture rose
- Rubus allegheniensis – Allegheny blackberry
- Viburnum acerifolium – maple-leaved arrowwood
- Shrubs (medium):
- Aronia arbutifolia – red chokeberry
- Hamamelis virginiana – witch hazel
- Rhus aromatica – fragrant sumac
- Rhus glabra – smooth sumac
- Vaccinium corymbosum – highbush blueberry
- Viburnum dentatum – southern arrowwood
Taller Shrubs:
- Ilex decidua – possom haw
- Kalmia latifolia – mountain laurel (evergreen)
- Rhus copallina – shining sumac
- Rhus typhina – staghorn sumac
Small/Medium Trees:
- Chionanthus virginicus – white fringetree
- Crataegus crus-galli – cockspur hawthorn
- Juniperus virginiana – eastern redcedar (evergreen)
- Prunus americana – American wild plum
Tall Trees:
- Carya glabra – pignut hickory
- Diospyros virginiana – common persimmon
- Nyssa sylvatica – black gum, sourgum
- Pinus echinata – shortleaf pine (evergreen)
- Pinus rigida – pitch pine (evergreen)
- Pinus strobus – white pine (evergreen)
- Pinus virginiana – Virginia pine (evergreen)
- Quercus prinus (montana) – chestnut oak
- Quercus rubra – northern red oak
- Quercus velutina – black oak
- Robinia pseudoacacia – black locust
Vines:
- Campsis radicans – trumpet creeper
- Clematis virginiana – virgin’s bower
- Lonicera sempervirens – coral honeysuckle
