Illinois Native Wildflower Seeds for Prairie, Wet Spots and Shade

There's a reason Illinois calls itself the Prairie State. Before the plow, tallgrass prairie and woodland covered this ground, and the wildflowers that grew there are still the best-adapted plants you can put in an Illinois yard. If you're shopping for Illinois native wildflower seeds, you're really choosing which piece of that old landscape you want to bring back: open prairie, a wet low spot, or a shady woodland edge.

Most yards have a little of all three. So instead of one long list, we grouped our picks by the conditions they love. Every species below is one we currently carry, and every one lists Illinois in its native range in our catalog.

Illinois native wildflower seeds for sunny prairie ground

Full sun and decent drainage? This is your prairie palette. These plants bring height, structure and a long season of nectar.

• Rattlesnake Master (Eryngium yuccifolium): one of the most distinctive prairie plants there is, with spherical greenish-white flower clusters wrapped in spiny silvery bracts. It grows 3 to 6 feet tall in full sun and blooms July through September. Deer tend to leave it alone thanks to its spiny texture.
• Compass Plant (Silphium laciniatum): a true prairie giant at 6 to 12 feet, with bright yellow sunflower-like blooms up to 5 inches across from July through September. Its leaves line up north to south. It may take 2 to 3 years to reach full size and bloom, and then it can live for decades.
• Meadow Blazing Star (Liatris ligulistylis): dense purple-pink spikes, 3 to 5 feet tall, that open from the top down from mid-summer through fall. It is a butterfly magnet, especially for monarchs and swallowtails, and it needs full sun.
• White Prairie Clover (Dalea candida): slender spikes of tiny white flowers from late spring through midsummer, 1 to 3 feet tall. It's a nitrogen-fixing legume with a deep taproot, happy in poor soil and full sun.
• Prairie Milkweed (Asclepias sullivantii): a tallgrass prairie native with large, fragrant pink-purple flower clusters through summer. It grows 3 to 5 feet in full sun to partial shade and handles clay, loam or sand. Monarch caterpillars depend on milkweed, so this one does double duty.
• Golden Alexanders (Zizia aurea): golden-yellow umbrella-shaped flower clusters from May through July, 1 to 3 feet tall. It handles full sun to partial shade and prefers moist to medium soil, which makes it a nice bridge between prairie and woodland edge.

For wet spots and rain gardens

Every Illinois yard seems to have one: the low corner that stays soggy after a storm. Don't fight it. Plant it.

• Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata): fragrant pink to rose-purple flowers from July through September on plants 3 to 5 feet tall. It prefers consistently moist soil and tolerates seasonal flooding, and it's a host plant for monarch caterpillars.
• Joe Pye Weed (Eutrochium maculatum): a 6 to 8 foot giant topped with large clusters of vanilla-scented pink-purple flowers in late summer through early fall. Its description calls it a critical late-season nectar source for migrating monarchs. It likes moist to wet, rich soil.
• Sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale): golden-yellow daisy-like blooms with drooping petals from August through October, 3 to 5 feet tall. Despite the name, it doesn't make you sneeze. It thrives in moist soil and tolerates seasonal flooding.
• Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis): spikes of brilliant scarlet-red flowers, 2 to 4 feet tall, from July through September. It loves consistently moist soil and is about as reliable a hummingbird attractor as you can plant.

For shade and woodland edges

Big shade trees are a gift in an Illinois summer. These natives make use of the shade beneath them.

• Golden Ragwort (Packera aurea): one of the first wildflowers to bloom each year, with bright golden-yellow daisy-like flowers from March to May. It grows 1 to 2 feet tall in partial to full shade and spreads by rhizomes into colonies that crowd out weeds.
• Eastern Red Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis): nodding red and yellow flowers with long spurs from April through June, 1 to 3 feet tall. It thrives in partial shade, self-seeds into colonies over time, and hummingbirds love it.
• Hairy Wood Mint (Blephilia hirsuta): whorled clusters of lavender-white tubular flowers in mid to late summer, 2 to 3 feet tall. It prefers partial shade and moist, well-drained soil, and its softly hairy leaves smell minty when you brush past.

How to fall-sow wildflower seeds in Illinois

Illinois winters are made for native seed. Several plants on this list come with long cold requirements: Rattlesnake Master recommends 60 to 90 days of cold stratification, and Compass Plant 30 to 60 days. (Cold stratification is a stretch of cold, damp conditions that breaks a seed's dormancy.) Sow in fall and winter covers all of that for you.

1. Time it after a few hard frosts. Late fall to early winter is ideal, any time before the ground freezes. Seed scattered on bare soil or a light layer of snow in winter works too.
2. Prepare bare soil. Clear grass and weeds and loosen the top inch or so. Native seedlings are small and need clear ground to get going.
3. Match depth to the seed. Cardinal Flower needs light to germinate, so don't cover it at all. Eastern Red Columbine goes on the surface with only a light covering. Compass Plant gets sown about 1/4 inch deep. When in doubt, sow shallow and press the seed in firmly.
4. Put wet-loving seed where water collects. Sow Swamp Milkweed, Joe Pye Weed, Sneezeweed and Cardinal Flower in the low spot, and keep the prairie plants on higher, drier ground.
5. Label everything. You'll want to know what's coming up in spring, and which tiny green things are weeds.

Converting a patch of lawn? Our guide to converting your first 100 square feet to native habitat walks through clearing the ground step by step.

Where to start

If we could hand every Illinois gardener just one packet, it would be Rattlesnake Master. It's pure prairie, it looks like nothing else in the garden, and with a 60 to 90 day cold requirement it's exactly the kind of seed that rewards fall sowing. It's also extremely low maintenance and long-lived once established, with a deep taproot that makes it very drought tolerant.

For a small starter bed, add Prairie Milkweed for monarchs and Golden Alexanders for early color. You'll have blooms from May into fall with three plants.

See everything we carry that's native to your state in our Illinois native seed collection.

Quick answers

When should I plant wildflower seeds in Illinois?

Late fall into early winter, after a few hard frosts and before the ground freezes, is the easiest time. Winter gives the seed the cold, damp period many prairie species need.

What Illinois native wildflowers grow in shade?

Golden Ragwort thrives in partial to full shade, and Eastern Red Columbine and Hairy Wood Mint both do well in partial shade.

What native wildflowers grow in wet soil in Illinois?

Swamp Milkweed, Joe Pye Weed, Sneezeweed and Cardinal Flower all prefer moist to wet soil, and Swamp Milkweed and Sneezeweed tolerate seasonal flooding.

Which milkweed should I plant in Illinois?

Prairie Milkweed suits sunny prairie ground with clay, loam or sand, while Swamp Milkweed is the pick for wet spots. Both are native to Illinois in our catalog.