Showy Fleabane is an erect native Daisy (or Fleabane) with narrow leaves and cheerful purple that flowers in early to mid-summer. Usually occurs in woodland openings or edges. Attracts native bees and butterflies.
Tidy mounds of delicate lavender flowers with yellow centers. Choice rock garden or edging plant.
A beautiful mat-forming buckwheat topped with delicate round flowers–pale yellow, fading to pink or orange. Excellent rock garden plants. Supports native bees. Choice!
Arrow Leaf Buckwheat has big oval, pointed leaves basal leaves with leafless stems of cream to yellow pom-poms overhead. Thrives in hot, dry and poor soils. Unusually large buckwheat. More information here.
The largest of our Buckwheats, Lacy Buckwheat is an amazing fall bloomer. It forms large domes of finely divided woody branches that are covered with tiny white flowers Sep-Oct. Stunning! Supports honeybees and native bees. Prefers sandy/gravely soils and will tolerate poor soils. More information here.
An amazingly statuesque Buckwheat! Add elegant structure to your xeric flower garden with this native beauty! Off-white flowers top the long stalks in mid-summer.
A compact high elevation Idaho buckwheat with narrow leaves and charming yellow flowers.
Whorled Buckwheat has leathery leaves which form a basal mat sending up brilliant white, cream color pom-poms in early summer. Likes well-drained soil. Boise foothills native. Pollinators: butterflies, bees.
This Buckwheat forms large, dense mats covered with cream-colored to yellow flowers. It blooms during the heat of mid-summer when many other Buckwheats are done. Supports native bees.
Dense, flat clusters of tiny, woolly, gray-green leaves sending up spikes of airy white flowers in late summer. This gorgeous little Buckwheat is native to the Sierra and Western Great Basin of California. Lovely in a rock garden.
This small Idaho native is covered with hundreds of pinkish white flowers in late summer or early fall. Gorgeous rock garden plant.
This Buckwheat features white pom-pom like flowers over expanding tuffets on tight gray-green leaves. Choice!
This striking buckwheat bears long racemes of white or white/pink flowers atop tall, leafless stems. In its native habitat of low foothills and mountain dry meadows from New Mexico to Nevada, it can grow in colonies of hundreds or thousands. Supports native bees.
This beautiful little plant appears to be a variety of Sulfur Buckwheat. Its sculpted leaves and diminutive shrubby form make it an outstanding rock garden plant. Blooms earlier than our regular Sulfur Buckwheat.
Strict Buckwheat has gorgeous sprays of pinkish-white flowers that glow in the late summer/early autumn garden. Supports native bees and is a late season nectar source for honeybees. Boise foothills native. More information here.
Sulfur Buckwheat is arguably the best all-around landscape plant native to S. Idaho. Bright yellow flower heads rise over a mat of spoon-shaped leaves and mature into a lovely copper color over the summer. The basal leaves turn reddish-green in the fall and are attractive all winter long. Boise foothills native. Pollinators: butterflies, bees. Firewise.
A dense carpet of gray-green leaves topped with a cloud of delicate pinkish-white blossoms. Rock gardens. Tolerates clay.
Woolly Sunflower, also called “Oregon Sunshine” (in Oregon!), is one of the real standouts among native Idaho flowering plants. Relatively abundant but usually small in the wild, Woolly Sunflower grows to impressive size in the garden with a bit of extra water. It puts on a beautiful flush of yellow daisies in the late spring; foliage is semi-evergreen and handsome otherwise.
Yellow Stork’s Bill grows into long-lived, beautiful mounds of graceful foliage that are nearly evergreen. Delicate pale yellow flowers pop up in the early summer. Doesn’t mind heat and lean soil.
Amethyst Sea Holly has leathery, blue-green leaves with medium-tall stems bearing striking thistle-like, steel-blue flowers and matching bracts. The flowers appear in mid summer and remain effective until fall. An eye-catching garden accent!
This short, squat Sea Holly produces intense blue thistle-like flowers in mid-summer.
Steel blue thistle-like flowers on branched stems. Beautiful garden accent and cut flower. Thrives in poor soils.
Apache Plume is a sturdy multi-branched Southwest native shrub. Its small white, rose-like flowers emerge over a long blooming season and are a favorite of honey bees and other bees. It is our favorite bee plants! The flowers are followed by charming, fluffy seed heads that give the plant its name. More info here.
Idaho Fescue is a short, tufted bunchgrass with grey-blue blades. Cool season grass, grows early in spring and stays green in winter. Nice garden accent year-round. Avoid over-watering or fertilizing. Firewise.
Cheerful red flowers with yellow tips. Adaptable and reliable, this native wildflower blooms for most or all of the summer. Give haircut to in mid-summer to promote more flowering. Will seed out without being invasive. Tolerates a wide variety of soil types. Pollinators: native bees, honey bees. Firewise. More information here.
Gaura has long graceful spikes of pinkish or white blooms float on the breeze from mid-summer to fall. Long-blooming, dramatic, easy.
Lydia broom, a well-behaved flowering shrub, is a stunning sight in late spring,–covered with bright yellow pea-like flowers. Otherwise, the evergreen mound of wiry stems provide good structure year round. Tolerates clay. Don’t confuse with invasive Scotch Broom. Choice!
Sticky Purple Geranium makes a lovely addition to informal meadow-like landscapes. Native to higher elevations in Idaho and across the mountain west, it thrives in moist to dry settings. Blooming in mid-spring, it attracts a variety of native pollinators and honeybees. Firewise.
Prairie Smoke has early summer blooms, followed by distinctive feathery pink seed heads. Appreciates moderate water and does best in part shade, except at higher elevations, where it thrives in full sun. Pollinators: native bees. Firewise. More info here.
Broom Snakeweed has attractive deep green, finely cut foliage on this tough Owyhee County native. Plants are completely covered with tiny yellow blossoms, mid to late summer and into early fall. Evergreen.
Creeping Baby’s Breath is a delicate spreading ground cover, creeping around other plantings and falling down walls. Covered with a burst of pink or white blooms, late spring. Easy and rewarding.
Utah Sweetvetch is a low, sprawling plant with beautiful pea-like blossoms. Winds in and around larger plants. Supports native pollinators and fixes Nitrogen in the soil.
Maximilian’s Sunflower is a vigorous perennial sunflower that comes back from roots every spring and grows to 5 or 6 feet. In late summer a profusion of smallish sunflowers, cover the upright stalks. Excellent fall interest, great along fences. Late season nectar source for bees and butterflies.
A short perennial sunflower, perfect for meadows. May spread by rhizomes to form colonies. It produces nutritious seeds for birds.
A very short, mid-season sunflower, native to dry mid-elevation slopes in WY, Mt and SE Idaho.
Cheery daisy-like flowers continue blooming all summer, especially beautiful in informal native or prairie gardens. Can seed out but is easily controlled. Tolerates some shade. More information here.
Tall spikes of tubular red flowers in summer attract hummingbirds. The basal leaves are long and narrow, but not sharp as in a true Yucca. Needs well-drained soil.
Jones’ False Golden Aster is a little known dwarf aster from southern Utah. Gradually spreads to form flat mats of gray-green leaves studded with bright yellow daisies all summer. A fantastic rock garden plant, it thrives in the heat requires little moisture and is not invasive.
Hairy Goldenaster covers itself completely with small yellow aster-like flowers in early summer. Needs no water once established.
Coralbells has dramatic spikes of cream to white flowers rise from a base of scalloped deep green leaves. Favors rock outcroppings; great in full sun or dry shade. Very long blooming in our Boise garden. Firewise. Choice! More information here.