NIU Grounds is embracing sustainable landscaping designs through the implementation of native perennial garden beds.
Native perennial plants featuring plants tolerant of shade and salt spray. Plants in these beds were grown in the Montgomery Greenhouse, Grounds Greenhouse, and outside using the milk jug method. This bed has a mix of wildflowers and grasses, including:
- Aquilegia canadensis (Columbine)
- Asclepias exaltata (Poke milkweed)
- Carex blanda (Common wood sedge)
- Carex sprengelii (Long-beaked sedge)
- Elymus hystrix (Bottlebrush grass)
- Eutrochium purpureum (Sweet joe pye weed)
- Geranium maculatum (Wild geranium)
- Penstemon hirsutus (Hairy beardtongue)
- Phryma leptostachya (Lopseed)
- Solidago caesia (Blue-stemmed goldenrod)
- Symphyotrichum lateriforum (Calico aster)
- Symphyotrichum shortii (Short's Aster)