What Plant Categories Does Prairie Moon Nursery Use?

Prairie Moon Nursery organizes its catalog of over 700 native species into categories that let you filter by growing conditions, ecological function, plant type, and bloom season. If you know your site's light level and what you want the planting to do—feed pollinators, replace lawn, or extend color into fall—you can jump straight to the matching category rather than browsing the full list.

Categories by light conditions

These are the two broadest entry points and the ones most useful for matching plants to a specific spot.

• Natives For Sun — Described as the nursery's most popular, showy wildflowers for a spot that is sunny "at least most of the time."
• Natives for Shade — Woodland wildflowers for shade gardens, restorations, or a spot under a tree.

If your site is mixed—sun for part of the day, shade for the rest—start with the sun category and check individual species' light tolerances, since "at least most of the time" leaves room for partial shade.

Categories by ecological function

These groupings are organized around what the planting supports rather than where it grows.

• Pollinator Favorites — Plants chosen to attract birds, butterflies, and bees.
• Monarch Favorites — The nursery notes that Monarchs need more than Milkweed, so this category covers wildflowers that provide nectar from spring through fall.
• Eco-grass — Positioned as a lower-mowing alternative to conventional turf lawns, aimed at replacing energy-intensive grass.

The Monarch category is the more specific of the two pollinator groupings; if Monarchs are your focus, start there and supplement with the broader Pollinator Favorites list for season-long nectar.

Categories by plant type

• Grasses & Sedges — Grasses for color and texture that also provide year-round cover and food for wildlife.
• Eco-grass — Also appears under plant type, since it is a grass-based alternative to turf.

Grasses and sedges overlap with the Eco-grass concept, but the Grasses & Sedges category is the wider one—it includes ornamental and habitat grasses, not only lawn replacements.

Categories by season

• Spring Bloomers — Early bloomers described as important food sources for the first pollinators to emerge after winter.
• Fall Color — Fall-blooming plants that also serve as food for migratory birds and butterflies.

Season categories are useful for filling gaps in a planting that already has good mid-summer coverage, or for supporting pollinators and migrants at the edges of the growing season.

Quick reference

How to use these categories together

The categories are filters, not mutually exclusive bins—a single species can be a sun plant, a pollinator favorite, and a fall bloomer at once. A practical sequence:

1. Pick your light category (Sun or Shade) to narrow to plants that will survive your site.
2. Within that, choose a function (Pollinator or Monarch Favorites) if you have a specific wildlife goal.
3. Use season categories (Spring Bloomers, Fall Color) to make sure something is blooming across the whole season, not just in midsummer.
4. Add Grasses & Sedges for structure and winter cover, or Eco-grass if the goal is replacing lawn.

The nursery also sells seed mixes (such as Pretty Darn Quick and Pollinator Palooza) that bundle species for a given purpose, which can be a shortcut if you would rather not assemble a plant list category by category.