Native Plants in Washington
The native plants that belong in Washington gardens — for pollinators, by zone.
17 native species suit Washington's regions and hardiness zones. A selection:
Showy Milkweed
Asclepias speciosa
The West's monarch milkweed — bolder, fuzzier, and more drought-hardy than its eastern cousins.
Blue Grama
Bouteloua gracilis
A fine, low prairie grass with quirky horizontal 'eyebrow' seed heads — a great no-water lawn.
Prairie Smoke
Geum triflorum
Nodding pink spring bells that turn into smoky, feathered seed plumes — the show after the flower.
Pasque Flower
Pulsatilla patens
One of the very first prairie flowers, silky purple cups pushing up through cold early-spring ground.
Rocky Mountain Penstemon
Penstemon strictus
Spires of glossy blue tubes built for bumblebees, and one of the easiest western penstemons to grow.
Firecracker Penstemon
Penstemon eatonii
Scarlet tubular flowers timed to the spring hummingbird migration through the desert Southwest.
Blanketflower
Gaillardia aristata
Fiery red-and-gold wheels that bloom nonstop all summer on hot, dry, sandy ground.
Apache Plume
Fallugia paradoxa
White rose-like flowers and feathery pink seed plumes together on one airy desert shrub.
Western Columbine
Aquilegia formosa
The West's nodding red-and-gold columbine, the first big hummingbird draw of the mountain spring.
Douglas Aster
Symphyotrichum subspicatum
The Pacific Northwest's late-season aster, feeding bees into the first cool, wet days of fall.
Common Yarrow
Achillea millefolium
A near-continental native with flat flower heads that feed tiny beneficial insects, tough as a weed.
Red-Twig Dogwood
Cornus sericea
Grown for its fire-engine-red winter stems, with white spring flowers and berries birds devour.
California Lilac
Ceanothus thyrsiflorus
Sheets of true-blue spring flowers on an evergreen shrub that hums with bees on the West Coast.
Hairy Manzanita
Arctostaphylos columbiana
Sculptural mahogany bark and early urn-shaped flowers that feed the West Coast's first bees of spring.
Red-Flowering Currant
Ribes sanguineum
Cascades of rose-pink tassels timed exactly to the return of the rufous hummingbird each spring.
Oregon Grape
Berberis aquifolium
Holly-like evergreen leaves, fragrant yellow spring flowers, and blue berries — Oregon's state flower.
Bearberry
Arctostaphylos uva-ursi
A glossy evergreen mat that grips sandy, sunny banks where nothing else will hold, even by the sea.
The complete Native Plants & Pollinators of Washington
The native plants that belong in your yard — what to plant for pollinators, by zone, with bloom timing.