Colorado native plants
Colorado gardening means altitude, thin dry air, alkaline soil, and a growing season that can be interrupted by frost or hail almost any month. The natives here handle intense sun, wide day-night temperature swings, and about fifteen inches of rain a year on the Front Range.
Bedfellow lists 460 of these.
The 30 most-observed are listed here — see all 460 in search.
- Large Beardtongue (Penstemon grandiflorus)
- Common Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
- Tufted Evening Primrose (Oenothera caespitosa)
- False Solomon's Seal (Maianthemum racemosum)
- Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana)
- Sensitive Fern (Onoclea sensibilis)
- Boxelder (Acer negundo)
- Green Ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica)
- Selfheal (Prunella vulgaris)
- Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa)
- Firewheel (Gaillardia pulchella)
- Bracken Fern (Pteridium aquilinum)
- Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)
- Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa)
- Ponderosa Pine (Pinus ponderosa)
- Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis)
- Sacred Datura (Datura wrightii)
- Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii)
- Thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorus)
- Western Trillium (Trillium ovatum)
- Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides)
- Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata)
- Ebony Spleenwort (Asplenium platyneuron)
- Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana)
- Red Elderberry (Sambucus racemosa)
- Mexican Hat (Ratibida columnifera)
- Wild Sarsaparilla (Aralia nudicaulis)
- Great Blue Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica)
- Eastern Cottonwood (Populus deltoides)
- Starry False Solomon's Seal (Maianthemum stellatum)
Browse by what you want the plants to do
- Native plants for pollinators
- Native plants for butterflies
- Caterpillar host plants
- Milkweeds: monarch host plants
- Native plants for hummingbirds
- Native plants for birds
- Native plants for rain gardens
- Native groundcover plants
- Native plants for erosion control
- Native plants for hedges and screens
- Native plants for containers and pots
- Native plants for naturalizing