Native plants

Native Plants of Georgia

Georgia stretches from the Blue Ridge mountains through red-clay Piedmont down to the humid coastal plain, and its native plants are adapted to acidic soils, heat, and the long, wet Southern growing season. Planting natives means less watering once established, fewer inputs, and a garden alive with pollinators and birds. The picks below are tough, regionally adapted perennials, shrubs, and trees that bloom across a long season. Choose those suited to your part of the state and soil, and you build habitat that largely takes care of itself.

Native picks for Georgia

1. Eastern Purple Coneflower

   Perennial

   A Piedmont prairie native whose rosy daisy flowers bloom through summer, offering rich nectar to butterflies and native bees, while the spent seed heads feed goldfinches and other songbirds into winter.

2. Butterfly Weed

   Perennial

   A drought-tough milkweed with brilliant orange flower clusters, it serves as a host plant for monarch caterpillars and draws swallowtails, fritillaries, and native bees to its nectar through the summer heat.

3. Eastern Redbud

   Tree

   A small understory tree whose pink-purple blooms appear on bare branches in early spring, providing an essential first nectar source for emerging native bees and overwintered butterflies when little else is flowering.

4. Oakleaf Hydrangea

   Shrub

   Georgia's native hydrangea thrives in shaded woodland edges, its large white flower panicles drawing bees and butterflies in summer, while dense foliage offers shelter and nesting cover for small birds.

5. Cardinal Flower

   Perennial

   Spikes of intense scarlet blooms light up moist streambanks and rain gardens in late summer, perfectly shaped for ruby-throated hummingbirds and large swallowtail butterflies that pollinate the deep tubular flowers.

6. Coral Honeysuckle

   Vine

   A well-behaved native vine, unlike invasive imports, whose coral-red tubular flowers bloom spring through fall as a favorite of hummingbirds, followed by red berries that feed robins and other songbirds.

7. Black-eyed Susan

   Perennial

   A cheerful, sun-loving wildflower that blooms golden through the summer on lean soils, feeding native bees and butterflies, while its seed heads sustain finches and sparrows well into the fall.