These are the best fall native perennials for the mountain west and high plains.
There are clear winners this time of year.
These are the native perennials that have performed best for me this year.
Gardeners in the mountain west and northern plains should have similar growing conditions, and hopefully will enjoy these plants, too.
These perennials receive little to no supplemental water, require nearly zero maintenance, and look great. Plant them all up together and you’ll have an incredible show next fall.
When talking native plants, it’s important to be specific about growing areas. I grow in the foothills between prairie grasslands and the Black Hills, which are similar to growing in the foothills of the Rockies, but with a bit more moisture.
#1. Ratibida or prairie coneflower
Light Requirement: Sun
Soil Moisture: Dry , Moist
This is a drought tolerant plant that will reseed itself around the garden. It’s fast growing, easy to grow from seed, but it won’t bloom the first year from seed.
It is most common on the Great Plains and it’s just an airy, beautiful wildflower. I think it pairs best with blue and red-colored plants, like a picea pungens or blue spruce or the red seedheads of penstemon.
Trouble-free, easy going, it’s usually the last bloom in my garden to die back for winter, making it awesome in our short growing season
Pair it with lower-growing perennials that will hide its legs, like satychs or lambs ear or something for it bloom against, like a fence or a wall of evergreens.
#2: Antennaria neglecta
Native Range: North America
Zone: 3 to 8
Height: 2 inches
Spread: 0.50 to 1.00 feet
Bloom Time: June
Sun: Full sun to part shade
Water: Dry to medium
Antennaria is single best groundcover you can grow on the plains or mountain west, period. It needs zero supplemental water, grows in full sun but also the part shade conditions underneath plants, so you can use it under trees, shiny, sliver blue foliage, polite and wont crowd out others yet somehow also spreads quickly.
I don’t know why it isn’t popular yet, but I know it will be some day, it’s just too good.
There are tons of different species, and three grow here in the hills and they are all outstanding, I chose neglecta because of its wide natural range, but they are all great.
The plants are hosts to the painted lady butterfly and I’ve seen lightning bugs on them, too. The only maintenance is to cut back the dried flower heads if you don’t like them.
Buy a few plugs from a nursery and then you can easily propagate them yourself, new roots are easy to propagate from cuttings.
#3. Gaillardia Gay-lard-ia Blanket flower
Zone: 3 to 10
Native range North America
Full sun
At first I thought itd be a little much for my garden, as I have a small space and dig a more subdued palette, but when these are paired with a grass or burgundy shrub, it just slaps it’s so so good.
Try it with a ninebark or blonde ambition blue gamma grass.
#4. Picea glauca Weeping white spruce
What kind of northern gardener would I be without a conifer on my list?
Cold climate growers who love conifers can get seduced into all those fancy non-native species like pinus parviflora or cyptomeria.
I get it, I try with limited to success to grow them too. But at the end of the day, I would take the humble picea gluaca any day of the year. It’s gorgeous in its own right, completely drought tolerant, extremely cold hardy, and will not get winter burn, no matter what. This conifer does not get winter burn, period.
Zone: 2 to 6
Height: 12.00 to 40.00 feet
Spread: 5.00 to 8.00 feet
Sun: Full sun
Low moisture
If you google this plant, you might hear that it’s hard to grow. Nonsense! I suspect people saying that are growing it in the wrong climate. it can’t handle any humidity and really shouldn’t be grown lower than 5b. which is good news for the mountain west. This tree might be my favorite conifer ever. It’s elegant yet understated and so tough.
#5. Panicum
Zone: 5 to 9
Height: 5.00 to 7.00 feet
Blooms in fall
Sun: Full sun to part shade
Water: dry to moist
What can’t this important prairie grass do? Water, no problem, boen dry, no problem. Full sun to light shade? Yup. Mine get zero supplemental water and it’s not a problem at all. Apparently the seedheads are good forage for birds.
Pair it with a groundcover like lamb’s ears or antennaria or mass it together so the seed heads can make a cloud.
#6. Physocarpus Ninebark
This is technically a nativar, but not many gardeners know that the humble ninebark is actually native to a lot of the US. And we might all think of it as kind of an overgrown shrub, but that’s just not the case anymore. It’s had a lot of popularity, with smaller and more interesting cultivars being bred all the time.
Best in full sun in the northern part or its growing range, but I’ve found it will take an incredible amount of shade and still retain that deep red color.
If part of the reason you want to plant native plants is to increase biodiversity of your garden, consider planting a yellow-leafed cultivar or the straight species. That’s becuase In one study, researchers found that when you turn a plant leaf from green to red or purple, it makes it less palatable to insects.
#7. Rudbeckia hirta
Zone: 3 to 7
Height: 2.00 to 3.00 feet
Spread: 1.00 to 2.00 feet
Bloom Time: June to September
Biennial or short-lived perennial that is winter hardy to USDA Zones 3-7. It blooms in the first year from seed planted in early spring
Self seed freely around the garden and have no pest problems. Just an easy going, reliable self-seeder. I think the ones underplanted under my aspen are best–something about the bright yellow and the stark white bark really work well.
Alright that was 5 perennials that are best in fall, plus a shrub and a conifer. I hope you found a few new native perennials to try in your own garden. I chose plants that I grow together and personally think look really good together, so if you’re building a new garden bed, add some drought-tolerant spring and summer plants to this list and you’ve got yourself a low maintenance, perennial garden.
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