Native Plants Work
Grow Native! is the native plant marketing and education program of the Missouri Prairie Foundation.
Wildflower garden by Scott Woodbury, Plant sale by Felicia Brundick, Wild Blue Indigo by Mervin Wallace, grasses and goldenrod by Frank Oberle, Polyphemus by Linda Williams.
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
FINCA EcoFarm Tour at Lincoln University
FINCA EcoFarm Tour at Lincoln University
Tour of Lincoln University’s Native Plant Outdoor Laboratory
Tour of Lincoln University’s Native Plant Outdoor Laboratory
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
Native Plant Container Gardening
By Mervin Wallace I began growing native perennials in containers for outdoor display about ten years ago, as various native plant colleagues of mine had suggested. At Missouri Wildflowers Nursery, we now have decorative pots, planted seven to eight years ago, which...
Request for Proposals: Native Plantings in St. Louis
The Missouri Prairie Foundation seeks proposals from experienced contractors for several native planting projects in the St. Louis Area. These multi-year projects will be funded by the Missouri Prairie Foundation via grant funding. Please find the two Requests for...
Spring Native Gardening Tips from Grow Native! & Native Plant Sales
As the first official day of spring nears, you may find it hard to resist your garden “spring cleaning” urge. However, removing fallen leaves and dead plant stalks from plant beds too soon may in fact harm many of the native bees, overwintering moth cocoons, and other...
Protection & Restoration of MPF’s 400-acre Lordi Marker Prairie
An extraordinary $1 million lead gift from Susan Lordi Marker and her husband Dennis Marker, along with other generous gifts and financial backing from MPF, made this new MPF acquisition possible. Your gift of any amount—to be matched up to $25,000 from an additional gift from the Markers—will help us raise $50,000 in 2021 restricted to this project, which includes acquisition, restoration, and stewardship of this remarkable 400-acre property.
