Prairie planting is naturalistic style of gardening that typically includes an appealing mix of grasses and perennials, planted in drifts or blocks of colour. It takes inspiration from the Prairie grasslands of North America, and is featured in Monty Don's American Gardens TV series starting on 10th January 2020 on BBC2.
Many Prairie plants can be grown from seed, providing large numbers of plants that help you achieve the drifts that make this style so distinctive. Echinaceas, Rudbeckias, Eryngium, Stipa and Anemanthele are a good plants to start with. Follow these links for some inspiration.
Blue False Indigo (Baptisia australis)
Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea, Echinacea ‘White Swan’ and Echinacea ‘Lustre Hybrids’)
Deam’s Coneflower (Rudbeckia fulgida v deamii)
Globe Thistle (Echinops ritro)
Macedonian Scabious (Knautia macedonica ‘Red Knight’)
Mexican Feather Grass (Stipa tenuissima ‘Pony Tails’)
Monarda citriodora
Pale Coneflower (Echinacea pallida)
Penstemon barbatus
Pheasant’s Tail Grass (Anemanthele lessoniana)
Rudbeckia hirta ‘Cherry Brandy’
Sea Holly (Eryngium planum)
Silver Mullein (Verbascum bombyciferum ‘Polarsommer’)
Sunflower (Helianthus annuus ‘The Sun’)
Turkish Sage (Phlomis russeliana)
Yarrow (Achillea filipendulina ‘Cloth of Gold’)
These are just a few ideas to get you started. Look for herbaceous perennials and grasses that appeal to you and meet the conditions in your garden. In particular focus on those that have sufficient height and add movement to your border.
