Central Street Neighbors Association Est. 2007

Midland Shootingstar (Dodecatheon meadia), one of about a dozen or two shootingstar varieties, a type of primrose, is a popular wildflower found throughout the eastern US, including most Illinois counties, and a really cool perennial.

For more about Midland Shootingstar and native plants for the Midwest, especially those that do well in shade/moist areas, see the "book" on this website, Gardening with Native Plants in Shady Evanston.

Prairie trillium (Trillium recurvatum), found in every county in Illinois, has become one of my favorites. A bulb-based lily family member that likes shade and humusy soil in hardwood woodlands, it has three mottled or speckled leaves and a small, delicate dark red flower that appears in mid spring and never fully opens. A shy plant that needs some help to keep the lilies of the valley, scilla, and other bulb-based competition away. Supposedly hard to get going, but reportedly will self-colonize and form large masses given the right conditions.

Canadian Wild Ginger, Asarum canadense, as its name might imply, is most commonly found in Canada, where it may have originated. It has spread, and the USDA lists its distribution as throughout most of the eastern half of the US. A hardy shade perennial that needs moisture, it has violet-like leaves on slightly fuzzy stems, and grows about 4" above the ground, forming a nice cover. In masses, it's a good native alternative to pachysandra, and looks beautiful as a low border in front of ferns.

I suspect that the scary-sounding name of Sanguinaria canadensis, a member of the poppy family, is the main reason you don't see this shade perennial much in gardens or even in nurseries. I found it listed in some native plant guides as yet another candidate for my shady, moist woodlands area, and finally got some from an elderly greenhouse worker in Chicago who brought me some from her own garden.

The common blue violet (Viola sororia), also called dooryard violet, meadow violet, or sister violet, is overlooked by many gardeners these days, perhaps because it appears unwanted in lawns and gardens, but back in the day it was beloved, and it has been the state flower of Illinois for 100 years, following a 1907 contest in which it was selected by Illinois schoolchildren.

Shown here is False Solomon's-seal, Smilacina racemosa. This fellow has delicate alternate-leafed plants that do well in in partial-shade to shady areas, but tend to flop over if not using a tree for support. It develops pyramidal clusters of small blooms that turn into little round red berries a little smaller than BBs. This is a slow grower but hardy; my wife planted a specimen about 17 years ago in a difficult shady area and it returns every spring.

Jacob's-ladder (Polemonium reptans) is another perennial native to Illinois that met my requirements of being able to handle a fair amount of shade and moisture, and it's flourished in a spot where all its predecessors died. A member of the phlox family, featured in the Botanic Gardens Native Plant Garden, and approved for Illinois highway planting by the Federal Highway Administration, it produces handsome little bushlike sprays of up to 1-1/2' tall, with light blue flowers in mid spring and beyond.