More Midwest Wildflowers for Rain Gardens
Clematis pitcheri is a vine bearing, drooping purple flowers. Better known as Leatherflower, Clematis pitcheri enjoy part shade and can climb as well as ramble along the ground. Eleocharis quadrangulata is an endangered sedge more commonly known as Square-stemmed Spike Rush. Spike Rush also grows in California and Oregon as well as the central United States. This sedge can grow 1 to three feet tall and indeed bears square stems. E. quadrangulata blooms in the late summer to early fall. Panicum virgatum is a tall, slender, prairie grass, more commonly known as Switchgrass. Switchgrass grows three to six feet tall and blooms late in the fall. It is used as great fodder for cattle, but can be lovely as a specimen Look for Panicum virgatum's cousin Vine Mesquite or P. obtusum. Sorghastrum Nutans is a lovely prairie grass known as Indian Grass. Indian Grass grows from Canada to Mexico, from the midwest and east to the coast and west all the way over the mountains. Sorghastrum Nutans grows to about three feet tall and seed heads attract birds late in the fall. Indian Grass sways dramatically in the prairie winds making a lovely, sweeping contrast to your wildflowers. Schoenoplectus tabernaemontani is a lovely wetland plant known as Soft-stem Bulrush. It grows well in standing water and blooms late in the summer. Bulrush grows five to six feet tall, though some say ten feet. Saururus cernuus is an interesting swamp-loving plant known as Lizard Tail. This lovely, bushy plant blooms with interesting flowering stems in the late summer. The stems bend over and dangle like a tail. Sparganium eurycarpum or Giant Bur-Reed is another insteresting water-loving plant. It's white to greenish flowers bloom in high summer. Bur-reed's flowers develop into bur-like nuts later in the summer. Giant Bur-reed grows up to six feet tall.
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