Native plants for naturalizing
Naturalizing means planting something that spreads and self-sows until it reads as a stand rather than a planting — the way to fill a meadow, a woodland edge, or a back acre without buying plants by the hundred. These natives establish and take over from there. Match the plant to the site and let it find its own borders; this is the wrong list for a tidy front bed.
Bedfellow lists 921 of these.
The 30 most-observed are listed here — see all 921 in search.
- Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca)
- Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum)
- Pin Oak (Quercus palustris)
- Common Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
- Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis)
- Christmas Fern (Polystichum acrostichoides)
- Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica)
- False Solomon's Seal (Maianthemum racemosum)
- Sassafras (Sassafras albidum)
- American Beech (Fagus grandifolia)
- Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana)
- Sensitive Fern (Onoclea sensibilis)
- Partridgeberry (Mitchella repens)
- American Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana)
- California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica)
- Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum)
- Selfheal (Prunella vulgaris)
- Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus)
- Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa)
- Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)
- Wild Geranium (Geranium maculatum)
- Northern Red Oak (Quercus rubra)
- Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis)
- Trumpet Creeper (Campsis radicans)
- Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia)
- Canada Mayflower (Maianthemum canadense)
- Firewheel (Gaillardia pulchella)
- Ponderosa Pine (Pinus ponderosa)
- White Snakeroot (Ageratina altissima)
- Bracken Fern (Pteridium aquilinum)