Native plants

Native Plants of North Carolina

North Carolina runs from the salt-sprayed coastal plain through the rolling Piedmont to the cool Blue Ridge, so its native plants are adapted to humid summers, clay soils, and a long growing season. Planting natives means less watering once established, fewer inputs, and a garden alive with pollinators and songbirds. The picks below are tough, regionally adapted perennials and shrubs that bloom across the seasons and feed local wildlife. Choose those suited to your part of the state and soil, and you build habitat that largely takes care of itself.

Native picks for North Carolina

1. Purple Coneflower

   Perennial

   A Piedmont prairie staple whose pink-purple daisies bloom through summer, drawing butterflies and native bees, while the spent seed heads feed goldfinches and other songbirds well into winter.

2. Butterfly Weed

   Perennial

   A drought-tough milkweed with brilliant orange flower clusters that serve as a host plant for monarch caterpillars and a rich nectar source for native bees and butterflies all summer.

3. Eastern Red Columbine

   Perennial

   Its nodding red-and-yellow spring blooms appear early in woodland edges and rocky slopes, timed to fuel returning ruby-throated hummingbirds and early native bees when little else is flowering.

4. Joe-Pye Weed

   Perennial

   A tall, moisture-loving native topped by mauve flower heads in late summer that swarm with swallowtails, monarchs, and bumblebees, making it one of the best nectar plants for a wet sunny spot.

5. Oakleaf Hydrangea

   Shrub

   A southeastern native shrub whose large white flower panicles draw bees and butterflies in early summer, with bold fall foliage and bark that shelter and feed birds and small wildlife.

6. American Beautyberry

   Shrub

   A shade-tolerant shrub bearing clusters of vivid purple berries in fall that are a favored food for mockingbirds, cardinals, and other songbirds, while its summer flowers feed native bees.

7. Cardinal Flower

   Perennial

   Spikes of intense scarlet blooms light up streambanks and damp beds in late summer, perfectly shaped to attract ruby-throated hummingbirds along with swallowtail butterflies.