Native Plants Work
Grow Native! is the native plant marketing and education program of the Missouri Prairie Foundation.
Mosaic by Noppadol Paothong, goldrenrod by James Trager, Monarch butterfly by Justin Klingsmith, grasses and goldenrod by Frank Oberle.
What is the Lower Midwest?
Grow Native! helps protect and restore biodiversity by increasing conservation awareness of native plants and their effective use in urban, suburban, and rural developed landscapes of the Lower Midwest—Missouri, southwestern Illinois, northern Arkansas, and eastern Kansas.
Grow Native! Events
Short-Eared Owl Investigation
Short-Eared Owl Investigation
NATIVE PLANTS WORK
Choose native plants and put them to work for you:
- Beautify your surroundings and fill your landscape with life!
- Sustain the hundreds of species of pollinators of the lower Midwest
- Feed monarch butterflies and help ensure that their awe-inspiring migration forever remains a wonder of planet Earth!
- Support native songbirds
- Manage stormwater and protect streams
- Store carbon with deep-rooted natives
- Build healthy soil
- Provide drought-tolerant forage for livestock and use natives in other ways on farms
- Provide native edibles for people–pawpaws, elderberries, persimmons, walnuts and more!
- Create and enhance habitat for wildlife
Find out more on our Learn page.
Top Stories
News
2020 Grow Native! Ambassador Award Presented at Virtual Professional Member Conference
The 20-year-old Grow Native! program honored 2020 Ambassador Award winner Mary Voges for her contributions to the advancement and promotion of native plants and native plant landscaping.
Leave the Leaves this Fall to Benefit Wildlife and Build Healthy Soil
Autumn is officially here! Cooler weather is moving in and leaves are turning and falling to the ground. As you plan fall cleanup, consider the songbirds, butterflies, and other wildlife your yard can support and what they need to survive the cooler months. Leaving...
Earthworms Podcast Interview: Grow Native! Celebrates 20 Biodiversifying Years
Carol Davit, Executive Director of the Missouri Prairie Foundation, joins Jean Ponzi on the latest Earthworms podcast to talk about the 20th anniversary of MPF's Grow Native! program. "A 1999 vision seeded by two Missouri women sprouted, the next year, as a...
Be a Part of the 2020 Marker Match Campaign
Recognizing the importance of the work MPF does to protect prairies and expand prairie plantings, MPF lifetime members Susan Lordi Marker and Dennis Marker will match—to $20,000 —all donations of any amount given in 2020 to support prairie protection and prairie plantings.
