Oklahoma Native Plant Corridor

Another garden I visited at Oklahoma State University was next to the Engineering Building.  It is composed entirely of native plants.  There is a nifty garden directory sign so you can identify every plant if you feel like it.  It was getting pretty hot, so I did a quick walk through and got back into the shade of the Student Union.

I love the Redshift Tickseed (Coreopsis); I could make an entire bed of various coreopsis cultivars.  Our side yard is filled with Plains Coreopsis and we let it bloom for about a month every summer.

Once it goes to seed and looks really raggedy we mow.

Since these are Oklahoma natives, they are well suited to our, shall we say, extreme weather conditions.  Once established they are fairly drought tolerant and attract our native pollinators.

It was nice to see an entire garden of Oklahoma plants to get an idea of just how many there really are.  I’m especially intrigued by the Tiger Eye Sumac and am thinking about adding one to our landscape someday.  It reminds me of a Japanese maple, but one that might actually survive in my yard.

Do you have a favorite native plant?