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Garden plants native to Canada

Garden plants that grow wild in Canada, by province where VASCAN records it, with a sample bed planned from them.

These are the garden plants in the planner that grow wild somewhere in Canada, from the records of VASCAN (the database of Canadian plants) and USDA PLANTS. Where VASCAN records which provinces a plant grows in, the planner can narrow "native" to yours: choose your province on its setup screen.

Hardiness is the other half of the story. A plant native to southern Ontario may not be native to, or hardy in, the prairies: check each plant's zones against yours, using the USDA zone for your town (Canada's own zone map has different numbers).

219 plants: 110 perennials, 20 ferns, 1 bulb, 23 grasses and 65 shrubs.

The dozen to start with

  • Christmas fern

    Christmas fern

    20 in · grown for its leaves

    The most useful native fern: leathery, dark green fronds that stay green through winter, in a tidy clump that never spreads.

  • Ostrich fern

    Ostrich fern

    4 ft · grown for its leaves

    Tall, feathery fronds form an elegant green vase that gives height at the back of a shady bed.

  • Bee balm

    Bee balm

    3 ft · early July to early August · host plant

    Shaggy, colourful flower heads that draw hummingbirds, bees and butterflies.

  • Hardy hibiscus

    Hardy hibiscus

    5 ft · late July to mid September

    Flowers the size of dinner plates in red, pink or white from late summer, on a shrub-sized perennial that dies to the ground each winter and reappears very late in spring.

  • Creeping phlox

    Creeping phlox

    6 in · mid April to mid May

    A low, spreading mat that turns into a sheet of colour in spring.

  • Butterfly weed

    Butterfly weed

    24 in · late June to early August · host plant

    Flat clusters of vivid orange flowers in midsummer, covered in butterflies, on a low, bushy plant with a deep taproot.

  • Little bluestem

    Little bluestem

    3 ft · grown for its leaves · host plant

    Blue-green summer blades turn copper and bronze in autumn and hold their colour through winter.

  • Staghorn sumac 'Tiger Eyes'

    Staghorn sumac 'Tiger Eyes'

    6 ft · late June to mid July · host plant

    Deeply cut, ferny leaves that open chartreuse, turn bright yellow on fuzzy, rose-pink stems, and end the year in orange and scarlet.

  • Arborvitae 'Emerald Green'

    Arborvitae 'Emerald Green'

    13 ft · grown for its leaves

    A narrow, dense pyramid of bright emerald-green foliage that keeps its colour through winter.

  • Switchgrass 'Shenandoah'

    Switchgrass 'Shenandoah'

    4 ft · grown for its leaves · host plant

    Green blades turn wine-red from midsummer, topped by a cloud of fine, pink-tinged seed heads.

  • Ninebark 'Summer Wine'

    Ninebark 'Summer Wine'

    6 ft · late May to late June

    Deeply cut, wine-purple leaves on gracefully arching branches, studded in early summer with buttons of pinkish-white flowers.

  • Creeping juniper 'Blue Rug'

    Creeping juniper 'Blue Rug'

    6 in · grown for its leaves

    The flattest juniper: a silver-blue carpet only a hand high that spreads two metres wide and turns plum-purple in winter.

A bed planned only from these plants

The planner was given only the plants on this page that suit zone 5 and full sun, and designed this 16 × 8 ft (4.9 × 2.4 m) bed from them when the page was made.

A 16 × 8 ft (4.9 × 2.4 m) bed at eye level in early September: Lingonberry, Creeping phlox 'Emerald Blue', False sunflower, Smooth aster 'Bluebird', Globe arborvitae 'Danica', Gray's sedge, Pearly everlasting.
A 16 × 8 ft (4.9 × 2.4 m) naturalistic planting in zone 5, full sun, seen from the path in early September.
3. False sunflower33. False sunflower33. False sunflower34. Smooth aster 'Bluebird'44. Smooth aster 'Bluebird'44. Smooth aster 'Bluebird'45. Globe arborvitae 'Danica'51. Lingonberry11. Lingonberry11. Lingonberry11. Lingonberry11. Lingonberry12. Creeping phlox 'Emerald Blue'22. Creeping phlox 'Emerald Blue'22. Creeping phlox 'Emerald Blue'22. Creeping phlox 'Emerald Blue'22. Creeping phlox 'Emerald Blue'21. Lingonberry11. Lingonberry11. Lingonberry16. Gray's sedge66. Gray's sedge66. Gray's sedge66. Gray's sedge66. Gray's sedge66. Gray's sedge67. Pearly everlasting77. Pearly everlasting77. Pearly everlasting77. Pearly everlasting71. Lingonberry11. Lingonberry11. Lingonberry11. Lingonberry11. Lingonberry12. Creeping phlox 'Emerald Blue'22. Creeping phlox 'Emerald Blue'22. Creeping phlox 'Emerald Blue'21. Lingonberry11. Lingonberry11. Lingonberry1
From above, to scale. Each circle is one plant, as wide as the room it needs.

The plants

  1. 1 Lingonberry × 16, pink
  2. 2 Creeping phlox 'Emerald Blue' × 8, blue
  3. 3 False sunflower × 3, yellow
  4. 4 Smooth aster 'Bluebird' × 3, blue
  5. 5 Globe arborvitae 'Danica' × 1, green leaves
  6. 6 Gray's sedge × 6, green
  7. 7 Pearly everlasting × 4, white

Planned as a naturalistic planting: low grasses and groundcovers, the matrix, make up 62% of the planted ground. The back corners are held by smooth aster 'Bluebird' and false sunflower, the tallest plants on the plan. Lingonberry repeats along the bed to tie it together.

The planner's own design check: 9 Excellent, 6 Good, 1 Satisfactory. It flags one thing to watch: Nothing on this plan is highly poisonous or an aggressive spreader.

Open this bed in the planner Change its size, the sun or the style, move plants about, or swap one for another.

All 219 plants

Show all 219, by where they go in a bed

Front of a bed 58

Middle of a bed 74

Back of a bed 87

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