Western White Yarrow is a tough native wildflower with fragrant, lacy foliage and dense umbels of tiny white flowers in summer. Can spread aggressively by seed. Great attractor of beneficial insects. Tolerates variety of soil conditions. Pollinators: Butterflies and native bees. Firewise. More information here.
Indian Ricegrass has 1-2 ft. flowering stems that are beautifully airy and graceful. A great accent in any part of a xeric landscape also suitable for meadows. Tolerates clay. The seed heads are attractive in dried arrangements and seed-eating birds love them. More info here.
King’s Sandwort: Long, evergreen, grass-like leaves support a delicate spray of tiny white flowers in spring. Ideal for a rock garden or edging a pathway.
Mountain Big Sage is a more compact, tidy version of the common big sagebrush. Grey-green foliage provides structure in the garden and winter interest.
The keystone species in our native landscape. Big sagebrush grows at lower elevations and needs no water once established. It is the principal food and cover for sage grouse. More information here.
Alpine Aster is an early-blooming aster with unusually large and showy purple/blue flowers. Neat and tidy in the garden after its glorious springtime show.
Hackberry is a deciduous native tree, growing on rocky outcroppings on dry slopes in Southern Idaho. Often gnarly, graceful and sculptural in form. Great tree for small areas; berries loved by birds; Native Americans crushed and ate the fruit with parched corn. Firewise.
This short, relatively compact shrub is closely related to Curleaf Mountain Mahogany, Fairly slow-growing and evergreen. More information here.
Mountain Mahogany is an attractive evergreen, large shrub to small tree with spreading open crown of thick, twisted branches and furrowed reddish brown bark This beautiful Owyhee County native will tolerate heavy pruning and is browsed into beautiful bonsai-like shapes in the wild. Firewise. More information here.
Fernbrush is a multi-stemmed native shrub to small tree with red, shredding bark. Fragrant fern-like foliage and white clusters of rose-like flowers in mid-summer. Adaptable to many soil types and requires little or no additional moisture once established. More information here.
This is the prostrate form of the native Mormon Tea shrub. Thin stems intertwine on the ground to gradually form a thick, sprawling, evergreen groundcover. In mid-summer dozens of bright red berry-like flowers appear, nestled down in the foliage. From Tibet, rare.
Mormon Tea is an evergreen shrub is native to the high desert of Nevada, Utah and other western states. The bare green stems are marked by the tiny brown ridges which are actually the plant’s leaves. Tolerates clay. Dramatic! Firewise.
Rubber Rabbitbrush is a tough native shrub covered with brilliant display of golden flowers in fall. Its upright form and graceful silver foliage make it an ideal foundation plant in the xeric garden. Supports butterflies & birds. Needs good drainage. Pollinators: butterflies, small bees. . More info here.
Desert Yellow Fleabane is a small native daisy with cheerful yellow flowers in summer. Grows in poor soil with little care.
Cheerful little Shaggy Fleabane (Shaggy Daisy) is native to the Boise Foothills. It will survive without additional water, but will flower much more vigorously if given a bit of extra moisture.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Gaura has long graceful spikes of pinkish or white blooms float on the breeze from mid-summer to fall. Long-blooming, dramatic, easy.
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.
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.
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.
Hairy Goldenaster covers itself completely with small yellow aster-like flowers in early summer. Needs no water once established.
Similar to the more common Ocean Spray, but growing in hotter, drier conditions. It thrives in dry rocky desert valleys and hillsides from Idaho south to Arizona and New Mexico. Foamy waves of white flowers cover this native shrub in summer. Supports native pollinators. Firewise.
Winterfat is a low-growing, compact xeric shrub. Produces tiny white flowers in summer followed by ornamental woolly white seed heads in fall. Exciting in dried arrangements. Attracts birds & tolerates alkaline soils. An eye-catcher.
Hoary Aster: The big purple daisies of this fall-blooming biennial light up the Boise foothills in fall. In the garden, the plants will flower vigorously, then self-sow and reappear the following year. Pollinators: bees, butterflies.
Fremont’s Mahonia is a large, evergreen shrub native to the deserts of S. Utah and Nevada. Prickly leaves shade from turquoise to purple in different seasons. Rare! More information here.
Fragrant Evening Primrose: Silken white blossoms unfurl each evening over shiny deep green mounds of leaves, slipping to a rosy tint with midday heat. The fragrance is sweet and exotic, contrasting sharply with the native surroundings of dry foothills, shrub steppe and pinyon-juniper. Tolerant of poor well-drained soils, and clay. Firewise. More information here.
This Boise Foothills native produces scads of lovely white flowers and, given a little extra water, can bloom all summer. The plants spread by root and could be invasive in the wrong situation. Needs no water once established. Firewise.
Showy Evening Primrose is a heat-loving beauty, thriving in sunny, dry areas. It can spread rapidly on shallow roots and can overrun smaller, less vigorous plants. Preferring unimproved, well-drained soils, this plant requires little extra water once established. Firewise. More information here.
Firecracker Penstemon bears tubular, bright scarlet flowers over dark green basal leaves. Prefers poor to moderately fertile, well drained soil and full sun. Great for dry desert-scapes. Pollinators: hummingbirds and bees. Firewise.
Intricately branched wiry shrublet forming somewhat prickly mound-like cushions. Completely covered with soft pink flowers in late spring.
Bitterbrush is a highly branched native shrub often with spectacular yellow spring bloom. Could replace forsythia in native, xeric gardens. Good wildlife habitat. Pollinators: butterflies, bees. Firewise. More info here.
This widespread native is an excellent pollinator plant, as well as being extremely drought tolerant once established. Its only drawback is that it spreads by root and can be quite aggressive in a well-watered garden.
This low-growing Globemallow travels by root and colonizes very dry areas with poor soil. Tolerates clay. Flower color can vary from orange to red. More information here.
Gooseberry Globemallow’s red-orange flowers bloom in spring & summer. Attracts all kinds of native pollinators.
Munro’s globemallow has dark maroon stems with dark-green, cut, lobed leaves and many heads of clear orange flowers.