Easy-to-grow wildflowers for the home garden

Published 3:33 pm Monday, March 9, 2026

Some wildflowers thrive in their native habitat, but they have specific and often complicated requirements that are hard to duplicate in a garden. Others are slow to mature, and even slower to multiply and spread. The beautiful, highly prized Trillium, for example, takes eight years to grow from seed to its mature size.

Other native perennials, just as beautiful, are less fussy. They are easy to grow, quick to multiply, and will be healthy and vigorous in a wide range of conditions.

Our native Columbine blooms in Spring, its coral pink and yellow flowers held high on delicate stems above the foliage. It prefers an alkaline soil and is especially vigorous when grown near bricks or concrete, which sweeten the soil. Rue Anemone is another seemingly delicate plant that is tougher than it looks. Dainty little white flowers in spring form many seeds that will quickly spread. Baptisia is a leguminous perennial. Its vigorous stalks emerge like asparagus in the spring from a deep taproot. It has attractive pea-like foliage and spires of white flowers in April. Sometimes the whole plant goes dormant in the heat of summer, but it reliably comes back in Spring. Blazing Star thrives in dry, sandy soil in full sun. It blooms in late summer, on tall purple spikes.

Birdsong Nature Center will be selling these easy-to-grow native perennials and many others at its last two Plant Sales on March 21 and April 4 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. This is the 20th year of these bi-annual sales, and we have decided that these two spring sales will be the final ones. It will be a beautiful day to shop for plants, visit with fellow gardeners, and celebrate the success of these mission-based fundraising sales. We thank our many customers for their patronage over the years and hope the plants you brought home have thrived and enriched your lives.

Please feel welcome to come out and shop for a special last plant, walk the nature trails, visit the Gift Shop, and enjoy the Bird Window. Admission is free, and there will be a $5-off membership special all day. We’ll look forward to seeing you!

For more information, please contact us at 229-377-4408 or birdsong@birdsongnaturecenter.org.