Whether you bleed blue or root for the redbirds, use your green thumb to highlight your love for our hometown teams. Garden horticulturist and St. Louis sports fan Tyler Prestien has assembled an all-star lineup for your home garden with a simple theme in mind — local teams, local plants.
While these designs are divided here to showcase team colors, as a true #TeamSTL fan you should consider combining elements of both in a single garden. This combo will keep your garden bursting with blue and red throughout the year.
Click on the photos below to view the stats for each species, and scroll to the bottom to find out more about adding these plants to your garden’s roster.
Blues Garden
This first group of flowers will help you gear up for a playoff push — putting on a good show in March, April, and May. Consider a top line of blue-eyed Mary, bluebells, and celandine poppy — and add accents of white with bloodroot and dutchman’s breeches.
Don’t let your show of team spirit fade just because the season is over. Coreopsis, spiderwort, butterfly weed, and blue cardinal flower will add pops of blue and yellow to your summer landscape. Southern blue flag is a great addition near backyard water features or rain gardens. And the disco ball-like buttonbush flower may just signal an unexpected party on Market Street.
These plants will attract loyal fans (pollinators) such as butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds — and bring brilliant shades of blue and yellow to your home garden. Kick off the hockey preseason with blazing star, blue sage, and goldenrod. You can extend the color late into the fall with bottle gentian and witch hazel.
Grow Your Team Spirit Garden
Looking for some free agent flowers to fill out your home garden? The Shaw Wildflower Market offers the area’s widest selection of native plants. Shaw Nature Reserve also offers a Native Plant School, or you can pick the brain of a Master Gardener by visiting the Garden’s William T. Kemper Center for Home Gardening.
If you’d rather be a spectator, all of these species can be found growing at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Although locations vary from plant to plant, the Doris I. Schnuck Children’s Garden and several of the Center for Home Gardening display gardens are great places to view these native plants in bloom. Shaw Nature Reserve’s Whitmire Wildflower Garden is also a beautiful place to take in Missouri’s native flora.
Cassidy Moody – Digital Media Specialist
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