Here are some suggestions for the best plants to use for your own prairie garden at home, from grasses to beautiful and bright flowering perennials.
Grasses for a Prairie Garden
Ornamental grasses are great for adding structure to a prairie garden. After all, the clue is in the name. Prairie gardens are often linked to grasslands.
Grasses add structure, and their lightness creates some beautiful movement. They can also develop backdrops, that draw you into the flowering perennials that fill the remaining space.
Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’
This ornamental grass is great for a prairie garden. Known for its tall and stiff composure. And it’s this that makes a wonderful backdrop for the rest of your garden design. Its other name, Feather Reed Grass, describes its downy foliage and tall stems. What’s more, this grass develops pinkish-purple flowers above the leaves. And these eventually run into golden seeds. Another sight to draw interest upwards.
- Clump-forming and deciduous perennial grass
- Flat and arching leaves
- Bronze flowering panicles that fade to pale brown
- Very hardy
- All aspects
- Full sun or partial shade
- Ultimate height: 1.5m
Panicum virgatum ‘Warrior’
This switchgrass not only provides structure but also has its own purple flowers in the summer. And come autumn, this grass will add cheerful colour to your prairie garden with shades of orange and red due to the plant being deciduous. Importantly, this grass is native to America which is where prairie garden styles come from, surely making it a perfect addition to your own design at home.
- A switch grass
- Flats and linear leaves
- Turn yellow in autumn, large purple flowering panicles
- Mostly hardy
- Prefers all aspects except north-facing
- Full sun
- Deciduous
- Ultimate height: 1m
Stipa gigantea ‘Golden Oats’
This grass’ golden shade provides a brilliant backdrop for a prairie garden. Because of its height, and a spray of foliage much like sunbeams, this grass is sure to make an impact. Plus, the oat-like seed heads dry out naturally and remain there in early winter. This is good news, as it ensures that the grass maintains interest in the colder months. That being said, this plant is known for its sharp-edged leaves, so make sure to wear gloves to protect your hands.
- A tufted evergreen grass with arching linear green leaves
- Large panicles of oat-like, long-awned purplish flowers which ripen to gold
- Hardy throughout most of the UK
- Prefers all aspects except north-facing
- Full sun
- Evergreen
- Ultimate height: 2.5m
Stipa tenuissima ‘Texas Needle Grass’
Otherwise known as ‘Pony Tails’ because of their soft, feathery appearance, this grass adds a fresh texture to a prairie garden. Plus, its lightness means it creates beautiful movement in the wind. Not to mention, its seedheads are a good source of food for birds in the winter. This is an important plant to grow for the local wildlife.
- Forms upright tufts of thread-like leaves
- Narrow, arching, and feathery flowering panicles in summer
- Hardy throughout most of the UK
- All aspects
- Full sun
- Deciduous
- Ultimate height: 1m
Flowering Plants for a Prairie Garden
The flowering perennials found in prairie gardens are perfect for creating drama. And this draws a lovely contrast to the greens and browns of the grasses that can be spread throughout the garden design.
Plus, their bright foliage and the elegance of the flowers create pockets of colour. Of course, prairie style is meant to show off the nature around it, so these flowers should sit comfortably against the grass around it. They should also sit well in their environment, but additionally, stand out.
Echinacea ‘Art’s Pride’
The orange shade of this particular variety of flowers ensures that it bursts out brightly for the viewer of a prairie garden featuring it. Its colourful petals are retained for a long period. And if the heads don’t fall off in autumn, then the blackened cones at the centre of the flower make a great food source for local birds. Nevertheless, if you don’t fancy them in your prairie garden, they make lovely cut flowers for inside your home.
- A colourful variety of coneflower
- Elegant tangerine-orange flowers with slender petals around a dark central cone
- Flowers carry a sweet-orange-tea fragrance, and are wonderful flowers for attracting pollinators
- Hardy in most of the UK
- Prefers all aspects except north-facing
- Full sun
- Deciduous
- Ultimate height: 1m
Eremurus ‘Oase’
This elegant foxtail lily really grabs the viewer. With peach-coloured flowers, they’re striking additions to a prairie garden and draw interest. Because their dramatic appearance only lasts a short amount of time, they are best planted among ground covers and later-flowering perennials. This allows you to hide any short-lived foliage. But regardless, these are worth growing for their beauty.
- A clump-forming perennial with fleshy roots
- Narrowly lance-shaped and mid-green leaves that die back after flowering
- Tall flower spike produced in early summer with pale pink flowers
- Mostly hardy
- Prefers south-facing aspects
- Full sun
- Deciduous
- Ultimate height: 1.5m
Achillea ‘Taygetea’
This lovely flower, more commonly known as ‘Yarrow’, is a beautiful addition to a prairie garden. Because of the lacy nature of the flowers, along with their puffy heads, these flowers lend themselves to a softer prairie theme. So, they’re perfect for making a calmer garden. Yarrow also has a history of being used as a good luck charm.
- A variable perennial
- Erect stems that bear flat heads of pale-yellow flowers in the summer
- May be susceptible to aphids
- Fully hardy
- Prefers all aspects except north-facing
- Full sun
- Evergreen
- Ultimate height: 0.5m
Chaerophyllum hirsutum ‘Roseum’
This lovely smelling perennial with fern-like leaves is another softening flower to add to your prairie garden. Because of their delicate bundles of flowers and finely divided leaves, these are best planted in groups. This will create a great impact. Most importantly, however, its flowers attract bees, butterflies, moths, and other pollinators. And it’s this that makes it such a great addition to your prairie garden.
- A perennial
- Attractively dissected and aromatic foliage
- Umbels of lilac flowers in late-spring/early-summer
- Fully hardy
- All aspects
- Full sun or partial shade
- Deciduous
- Ultimate height: 1m
Phlomis fruticosa
This award-winning flower is a brilliant and bright addition to your prairie garden or prairie borders in early summer. Interestingly, the leaves resemble sage leaves and its native to Turkey and Syria. This explains the origin of the name. Owing to its distinctive yellow flowers which are a cluster of rings formed around the stems on a vertical stalk, this plant creates a lovely effect. Plus, the shape of the flowers makes them popular with hummingbirds and butterflies. So, this could add some beautiful wildlife to your prairie garden space.
- Otherwise known as ‘Jerusalem sage’
- The erect shoots bear sage-like, grey-green ovate leaves
- Flowers hooded, deep yellow, in whorls from early-summer
- Hardy in most of the UK
- Prefers all aspects except north-facing
- Full sun
- Evergreen
- Ultimate height: 1m
Veronicastrum virginicum ‘Fascination’
Another name for this perennial is Culver’s root. Because of the wonderful spires of flowers, you can add colourful interest to your prairie garden from mid-summer to early autumn. Because of how the spires stand up tall, this plant adds elegance to your prairie garden. This is due to the resemblance to the candles of a chandelier. In addition, these colourful vertical lines stand out against the browns and greens of the foliage in your border or prairie garden display.
- Upright perennial
- Whorls of lance-shaped, toothed leaves
- Dense and branched spikes of small light violet-blue flowers in summer and early-autumn
- Fully hardy
- Prefers all aspects except north-facing
- Full sun or partial shade
- Deciduous
- Ultimate height: 1.5m
With these 10 plants in your prairie garden, you’re bound to create a bright, colourful space all year round.
David Domoney is a Chartered Horticulturalist, Broadcaster, and Author. David has worked with a number of the UK’s leading garden retailers as a plant buyer and strategic consultant. With more than 30 years experience, in horticulture, David is as passionate about plants now as he was when he bought his first plant at a village fete.
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