Rain Garden Plants

Sunny Rain Garden Plants

Spring flowering:

Copper Iris (Iris fulva) 

Eastern Blue Star (Amsonia tabernaemontana)

Foxglove Beardtongue (Penstemon digitalis)

Shining Blue Star (Amsonia illustris) 

Summer flowering:

Blue Vervain (Verbena hastata) 

Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis)

Culver’s Root (Veronicastrum virginicum) 

Halberdleaf Rose Mallow (Hibiscus laevis)

Prairie Blazing Star (Liatris pycnostachya)

Showy Coneflower (Rudbeckia fulgida).

Spider lily (Hymenocallis occidentalis)

Fall flowering:

Blue Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica)

Rose Turtlehead (Chelone obliqua) 

Spiked Blazing Star (Liatris spicata)

Sedges:

We also suggest including one or more of our sedges to use as ground covers to occupy soil surface in the basin and on the berms and to minimize the encroachment of unwanted volunteer plants. For this, we like Fox Sedge (Carex vulpinoidea), Yellow-Fruited Sedge (Carex annectens), Globe Sedge (Carex grayi), or Palm Sedge (Carex muskingumensis).

Grow Native! has a nice sample design plan for a rain garden that you can take inspiration from. Or the Native Plants for Your Landscape booklet from MDC includes a section on rain gardens that you can use to help with design layout.

Full Shade Rain Garden Plants

Spring flowering:

Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis)

Jack in the Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum)

Golden Ragwort (Packera aurea)

Purple Rocket (Iodanthus pinnatifidus)

Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense)

Summer flowering:

Pinkroot (Spigelia marilandica)

Fall flowering:

Jumpseed (Persicaria virginiana)

Sedge:

Blue Wood Sedge (Carex flaccosperma)

Bush’s Sedge (Carex bushii)

Long Hair Sedge (Carex crinita)

Palm Sedge (Carex muskingumensis)

Sallow Sedge (Carex lurida)

Tussock Sedge (Carex stricta)

Fern:

Cinnamon Fern (Osmundastrum cinnamomeum) 

Sensitive Fern (Onoclea sensibilis)