Native plants of Wisconsin
Native plants for Wisconsin gardens
273 garden plants native to Wisconsin, with heights, bloom months and deer ratings. Enter your ZIP for garden centres near you.
Free. No account. Built from NOAA climate records, the USDA hardiness map and university extension guides.
Which native plants grow well in Wisconsin gardens?
273 garden plants are native to Wisconsin and either sold routinely by nurseries or rated for deer by Rutgers. The most recorded of those Rutgers rates for deer are Eastern White Pine, Butterfly Milkweed, Sensitive Fern, Swamp Milkweed, Eastern Redcedar.
Perennials
- Butterfly Milkweed Asclepias tuberosa B to 2 ft · blooms Jun to Aug
- Swamp Milkweed Asclepias incarnata B to 5 ft · blooms Jul to Aug
- Virginia Bluebells Mertensia virginica B to 2 ft · blooms Apr to May
- Common Sneezeweed Helenium autumnale B to 5 ft · blooms Aug to Sep
- Lance-leaved Coreopsis Coreopsis lanceolata B to 2 ft · blooms Jun to Jul
- Canadian Wild Ginger Asarum canadense A blooms Apr to May
- False Aster Boltonia asteroides B to 8 ft
- Common Milkweed Asclepias syriaca blooms Jun to Jul
Shrubs
- American Black Elderberry Sambucus canadensis B to 7 ft · blooms Jun to Jul
- Red-berried Elder Sambucus racemosa A blooms Apr to May
- Eastern Teaberry Gaultheria procumbens B under 1 ft · blooms Jul to Aug
- Red Osier Dogwood Cornus sericea B blooms May to Aug
- Winterberry Holly Ilex verticillata B to 9 ft · blooms Jun to Jul
- American Witch-hazel Hamamelis virginiana B to 20 ft · blooms Sep to Nov
- Bearberry Arctostaphylos uva-ursi A under 1 ft · blooms May to Jun
- Wild Rosemary Andromeda polifolia B blooms May to Jun
Trees
- Eastern White Pine Pinus strobus B to 150 ft
- Eastern Redcedar Juniperus virginiana B to 50 ft
- Red Maple Acer rubrum B to 68 ft · blooms Mar to May
- Red Pine Pinus resinosa A to 80 ft
- Paper Birch Betula papyrifera A to 70 ft · blooms May
- Balsam Fir Abies balsamea B to 60 ft
- Sugar Maple Acer saccharum B to 100 ft · blooms Apr
- White Spruce Picea glauca B to 100 ft
Grasses and sedges
- Indiangrass Sorghastrum nutans A to 6 ft
- Little Bluestem Schizachyrium scoparium A to 4 ft
- Switchgrass Panicum virgatum A to 6 ft
- Soft Rush Juncus effusus A to 7 ft
- Common Cottongrass Eriophorum angustifolium to 2 ft
- Sideoats Grama Bouteloua curtipendula to 3 ft
- Bladder Sedge Carex intumescens to 3 ft
- Woolgrass Scirpus cyperinus to 5 ft
Ferns
- Sensitive Fern Onoclea sensibilis A
- Ostrich Fern Matteuccia struthiopteris A
- Marginal Wood Fern Dryopteris marginalis A
- Interrupted Fern Osmunda claytoniana to 4 ft
- Common Bracken Pteridium aquilinum to 7 ft
- American Royal Fern Osmunda spectabilis to 4 ft
- Cinnamon Fern Osmundastrum cinnamomeum to 5 ft
- Crested Wood Fern Dryopteris cristata to 2 ft
Vines
- American Bittersweet Celastrus scandens B blooms May to Jun
- Virginia Creeper Parthenocissus quinquefolia
- Thicket Creeper Parthenocissus inserta
- American Groundnut Apios americana blooms Aug to Sep
- Riverbank Grape Vitis riparia blooms Jun
- Arrow-leaved Tearthumb Persicaria sagittata blooms Jul to Sep
Annuals
- Partridge Pea Chamaecrista fasciculata to 2 ft · blooms Jul to Sep
- Painted-cup Paintbrush Castilleja coccinea to 2 ft · blooms May to Jul
- Pinkweed Persicaria pensylvanica to 4 ft · blooms Aug to Sep
- Common Jewelweed Impatiens capensis to 5 ft · blooms Jul to Sep
- Pale Jewelweed Impatiens pallida to 8 ft · blooms Jul to Sep
Native status and bloom months: iNaturalist research-grade records in Wisconsin. Heights and nursery availability: USDA PLANTS. Deer ratings: Rutgers NJAES (A rarely damaged, B seldom severely). Invasive plants, weeds and plants that harm people who touch them are left out. Enter your ZIP above for the full list of 273 with garden centres near you.
Next questions: When is the first frost in Wisconsin? · When to plant garlic in Wisconsin
Your exact dates
Frost dates from the NOAA weather station nearest your ZIP, and the sowing and planting dates that follow from them for 34 vegetables and herbs.
What to do this week
The jobs that are open now for the crops you grow, the next one coming, and how many days are left before frost.
Local to you
The garden centres near your ZIP, and the plants native to your state that deer usually leave alone.
How it works
- 1
Enter your ZIP
Your zone, frost dates and this week's jobs appear at once.
- 2
Pick your crops
Choose a starter garden or your own crops, and the page shows only their jobs.
- 3
Get your garden report
A free report each month, or twice a week with My Garden.
Free to start. $3 a month to go further.
Garden planners elsewhere cost $29 to $84 a year.
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- Your frost dates and hardiness zone
- This week's jobs and the full planting calendar
- Garden centres and native plants near you
- A garden report by email once a month
Most useful in spring
My Garden
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or $30 a year, two months free
- Everything in Free
- The garden report twice a week: your crops' jobs, and a midweek hint on spotting and treating pests and problems
- A frost alert when a freeze is forecast at your ZIP
- Your own schedule and a record of your garden, season after season
Opens in early 2027. Nothing is charged today.
Questions
Is it really free?
Yes. The page, your dates, the planting calendar and the monthly report are free, with no account. My Garden adds the twice-weekly report, frost alerts and your garden record for $3 a month or $30 a year.
Where do the dates come from?
Frost dates come from NOAA's 1991-2020 climate normals at the weather station nearest your ZIP. Zones come from the 2023 USDA hardiness map. Planting times come from University of New Hampshire and Purdue extension guides. Every source is named at the bottom of the page.
Does it work where I live?
It covers every ZIP code in the continental US. In the few places that rarely freeze, such as southern Florida and coastal southern California, frost-based planting dates do not apply, and the page says so.
Will you fill my inbox?
The free report comes once a month. My Garden members choose twice a week. Every email has a one-click unsubscribe, and your address is used for nothing else. Privacy.
What does "reserve" mean?
My Garden opens in early 2027. Reserving costs nothing and needs no card. We email you before it opens, and the price you reserved is held for your first year.
See your garden's dates in ten seconds
How to do it
ZIP
How these dates are worked out
What are you growing?
Pick your crops and the page shows only their jobs. Your picks are remembered on this device.
Or choose crops one by one
Your garden this week
Your free monthly garden report
Free. The first reports go out in early 2027. Every email has a one-click unsubscribe, and your address is used for nothing else. Privacy.
Want it twice a week?
My Garden sends the report for your crops every week, a midweek hint on spotting and treating pests and problems, and a frost alert when a freeze is forecast at your ZIP. It is $3 a month, or $30 a year.
My Garden
Your garden report twice a week, for $3 a month
- The jobs for your crops, every week, timed to ZIP
- A midweek hint on spotting and treating the pests and problems your crops meet at that point in the season
- A frost alert when a freeze is forecast at your ZIP
- Your own schedule and a record of your garden, season after season
Opens in early 2027. Nothing is charged today, and no card is needed.
Garden centres near you
Native plants for your garden
Planting calendar
Dates count from the cautious frost dates the extension guides assume: in spring, the date after which only one year in ten still has frost, and in fall, the date by which one year in ten has had it. Outside the Midwest, New England and New York they sit two weeks inside your typical dates. Crops marked ↻ do best sown or planted in several small batches through their window.
Plants deer usually leave alone
My Garden
Reserve your place
My Garden opens in early 2027. Reserve now and the price you choose is held for your first year.
Nothing is charged today and no card is needed. We email you before My Garden opens, and you decide then. Privacy.
Where the answers come from
- ZIP code locations: US Census Bureau, 2026 ZCTA Gazetteer and the 2020 ZCTA-to-county relationship file. Some PO-box ZIP codes are located with GeoNames (CC BY 4.0).
- Hardiness zones: the 2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map by ZIP code, from the PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University.
- Frost dates: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, U.S. Climate Normals 1991-2020, the date of the last spring and first fall 32 °F reading in half of years, at the nearest station that reports them. In the Midwest, New England and New York the page also gives the station's 1-in-10 dates, its 28 °F hard-freeze date, and its rain and snow.
- Soil: USDA NRCS Soil Survey (SSURGO) through Soil Data Access, the mapped soil at the ZIP code's centre point, for the Midwest, New England and New York.
- Planting times: UNH Cooperative Extension, Growing Vegetables: When to Plant, and Purdue Extension HO-186-W, Indiana Vegetable Planting Calendar.
- Deer resistance: Rutgers NJAES, Landscape Plants Rated by Deer Resistance.
- Garden centres: © OpenStreetMap contributors, every US place tagged as a garden centre, with national big-box stores and hydroponics shops left out. The list is available under the Open Database License.
- Native plants: iNaturalist establishment data (plants it marks native in your state, with research-grade sightings there) and its flowering records by month. In the Midwest, New England and New York the list keeps natives that nurseries routinely sell (USDA PLANTS, which also gives heights) or that Rutgers rates for deer, and leaves out weeds and plants that harm people who touch them. Elsewhere it is limited to plants on the Rutgers deer-resistance list.
- Seed shops: the links in the report open each shop's own search page. Garden by Address earns nothing from them at present.
Weather varies from year to year and garden to garden, so treat every date as a guide and watch your local forecast.