7 plant species native to Edmonton you can grow in your garden

Garden season is finally in full blossom in Edmonton, and boy, are we excited.

While your local garden store may be filled with beautiful plants and flowers for you to grow, many are not local plant species.

Planting native species in your garden is a fantastic way to enhance your yard’s biodiversity and the environment overall. Bees love them, and they’re extremely simple to maintain because they are already primed for our climate.

Check out some of these beautiful flowers native to the prairies you can plant to spruce up your garden.

Wild Bergamot

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Wild bergamot is easy to grow, likes full sun, and is drought tolerant. With the exception of the Maritimes, most Canadian provinces have this flower.

Canada goldenrod

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The goldenrod is a relatively tall plant with clusters of yellow flowers on top that favours full sun or partial shade. As a bonus for bees, the flower blossoms much later in the season than other flowers and can be found all over the prairies.

Low Milkweed

Rachel Brown/Edmonton Native Plant Society

This pretty, small type of milkweed plant has creamy white flowers and grows up to 20 inches tall. It’s a great host for the endangered Monarch Butterfly and grows well under a variety of conditions.

Blanket flower

Rachel Brown/Edmonton Native Plant Society

These pretty yellow flowers prefer full sunlight and can be found across Canada. Pollinators love them, and they grow really well in sandy, dry spots.

Asters

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Some aster species, common across Canada, thrive in full sun and moderate shade. The petals of the flowers are blue or purple, and the centres are golden. Typically, asters blossom pretty late in the season.

Violets

Rachel Brown/Edmonton Native Plant Society

Violets flower early in the season, thrive in the shade, and attract bees and butterflies. Because they bloom so early, they are an important food source for bees once they wake up.

Tall Lungwort

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The plant, also known as tall bluebells, is indigenous to Northwestern North America and prefers shaded areas.

You can check out even more incredible plants native to the Edmonton area on the Edmonton Native Plant Society’s plant index.