Plants we use around the Bay
Plant lists by sun and moisture
Eight plants for each kind of spot. All are native to Maryland or the Mid-Atlantic. Your own list adjusts for your soil, your slope and what you want to see.
Full sun, dry to average
Open beds and sunny borders where the soil drains well. These are the long bloomers that bees and butterflies work from June to frost.
Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia fulgida)
Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa)
Little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium)
Wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa)
Smooth blue aster (Symphyotrichum laeve)
Mountain mint (Pycnanthemum muticum)
Purple lovegrass (Eragrostis spectabilis)
Full sun, wet or moist
The floor of a rain garden and the low corner where water stands after a storm. These roots take a few days under water, then a dry August.
Swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata)
Sweet Joe-Pye weed (Eutrochium purpureum)
Blue flag iris (Iris versicolor)
Cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis)
New York ironweed (Vernonia noveboracensis)
Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum)
Soft rush (Juncus effusus)
Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis)
Part shade to shade, dry
Under oaks and beside the house, where roots compete and the soil dries out by midsummer. Low, steady plants that knit together.
Wild geranium (Geranium maculatum)
Pennsylvania sedge (Carex pensylvanica)
Foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia)
Wild ginger (Asarum canadense)
Solomon's seal (Polygonatum biflorum)
Blue-stemmed goldenrod (Solidago caesia)
Golden ragwort (Packera aurea)
Woodland phlox (Phlox divaricata)
Part shade to shade, moist
Low spots under trees and the downhill side of a shaded downspout. Ferns, spring bloom and a shrub that feeds the birds.
Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica)
Cinnamon fern (Osmundastrum cinnamomeum)
Lady fern (Athyrium angustum)
Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides)
Spicebush (Lindera benzoin)
Great blue lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica)
Jacob's ladder (Polemonium reptans)
Golden alexanders (Zizia aurea)
Bay edge: salt wind and brackish soil
The strip nearest the shore, where spray, wind and a high water table take out most garden plants. Salt-tolerant natives that also hold the bank.
Northern bayberry (Morella pensylvanica)
Wax myrtle (Morella cerifera)
Seaside goldenrod (Solidago sempervirens)
Saltmeadow cordgrass (Spartina patens)
Marsh hibiscus (Hibiscus moscheutos)
Groundsel tree (Baccharis halimifolia)
Eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana)
Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum)
What the plants do
Every plant has a job
Feed caterpillars
Milkweeds, asters and goldenrods are host plants. Caterpillars eat them, and birds feed the caterpillars to their chicks.
Hold the water
Switchgrass, Joe-Pye weed and iris send roots deep. The soil under them opens up and takes in more rain.
Feed the birds
Spicebush and bayberry carry fruit. Coneflower and black-eyed Susan seed heads feed finches in winter.
Bloom in sequence
Bluebells and golden alexanders in April, bergamot and milkweed in July, asters and goldenrod into November.
Your list
Ask for the list that fits your lot
Every site visit ends with a plant list for the sun, the soil and the water on your lot, by name and count.
Native plants do best in fall and early spring. If you book a visit now, we can plan for the next planting window.
