How & Why We Source Our Plants
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Designs By Nature - Upper Peninsula Native Plants, LLC, is a State inspected and licensed nursery grower of native plants. We use seed or cuttings from the UP whenever possible to ensure hardy UP genotypes and genetic diversity. We do not sell plants taken from the wild and we do not over-harvest seed, even from our on-site production beds. We want wild native plants to thrive because of our efforts!
Using genotypes from the UP is important because it ensures the plants you buy are adapted to our climate and well-suited to our wildlife, birds, and pollinators. Climate change is here, but it doesn't simply make weather warmer, requiring the planting of southern species; it makes weather weirder and more extreme. That means more polar vortex events, more extreme snowstorms, more high winds... Our UP plants, insects, and animals need our support more than ever in these conditions. There is nowhere for our plants and insects to go. If we stop planting native UP plants in favor of southern species, our plants can't make the jump across the lake and will simply be extirpated from Michigan, or worse, become extinct. Trust UP plants to be able to handle the heat and stand Yooper tough against the rest - plant local genotype and don't give up on the ecosystems of the UP.
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We do understand that people have diverse gardening goals, so we also offer some plants desirable for landscaping that are native to the lower peninsula, or for which we do not have a current UP seed source. For those offerings, we use only Michigan native genotypes from Designs By Nature, LLC, in Laingsburg, Michigan, or when necessary, Michigan genotype seed purchased from Michigan Wildflower Farm in Portland, Michigan, or Native Connections near Kalamazoo. Select shrubs for which we do not have a UP seed source yet are purchased from several reputable, licensed and inspected, downstate nurseries. The description of each shrub will tell you if it grown in-house or sourced from another nursery.
Working Plant List
The plants we grow are listed below, and the table can be sorted by scientific or common name. It also tells you which of our plants are from a UP seed source. However, this is not a plants-for-sale list. Please check our Shop for availability. A number of plants listed below are not available in retail quantities this season.
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Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions!
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*Wild tobacco is not native to Michigan, but it has been cultivated here by Indigenous Peoples since before European settlement, and is naturalized in some parts of the lower peninsula. Judgement call?
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*Prairie Blazingstar is adventive to Michigan. It is a showy plains species that has escaped from cultivation or migrated along railroad tracks and other people-pathways from adjacent states.
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*Maximilian Sunflower is of uncertain origin. Michigan Flora says it is adventive from more western states. It is found throughout Michigan and has been observed in the UP since at least the late 1800s. The Biota of North America Program (BONAP) and several other sources list it as native to Michigan. It is more certainly native in Minnesota, and is naturalized in the UP, so we consider "regional native" as the worst-case scenario. For a strictly native garden, select one of our several other native Michigan sunflowers.
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*When we started the nursery in 2020, Michigan Flora listed Pale Purple Coneflower as native to Michigan and the UP, and Purple Coneflower as adventive. As of January 2023, Michigan Flora lists Pale Coneflower as adventive, and has Purple Coneflower listed as both adventive and native. All we know for sure is that Pale Coneflower grows wild in the UP, Purple Coneflower makes an excellent garden plant, and both are regional natives at a minimum. We will wait and see. Next year maybe both will be listed as native.