Native Plants

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Saturday - March 09, 2013

From: Alton, IL
Region: Midwest
Topic: Privacy Screening, Grasses or Grass-like, Shrubs, Trees
Title: Trees and other plants for privacy along lake shoreline
Answered by: Nan Hampton

QUESTION:

We are purchasing a new home that has a 2 acre lake. We would like to add some plants/trees for privacy around the shore line. Can you suggest something that would fill in nicely and is strong enough to withstand erosion at the waters edge. Our new home is located in central Illinois.

ANSWER:

The easiest way to find candidate native plants for your lakeside is by using the Illinois Recommended list that contains commercially available plants for landscaping in your area. You can use the NARROW YOUR SEARCH option to pick various kinds of plants under GENERAL APPEARANCE (e.g, Shrub, Tree, Grass/Grass-like), SOIL MOISTURE and any of the other criteria you wish. You should read the information under GROWING CONDITIONS on the individual species page to be sure that they match your site. Not all the plants on the Illinois Recommended list are known to grow in Madison County, but you can check their occurrence there by scrolling down to the bottom of the species page to the ADDITIONAL RESOURCES area and clicking on the link under USDA. This will take you to the USDA Plants Database page for the species. If you click on Illinois on the Distribution Map there, you will get a map of Illinois showing the plant's occurrence by county.

Here are a few choices from the Illinois Recommended list for shrubs, trees and grasses that should work well on the edge of your lake.

SHRUBS/SMALL TREES

Amorpha fruticosa (Indigo bush)

Cephalanthus occidentalis (Common buttonbush)

Cornus racemosa (Gray dogwood)

Hibiscus laevis (Halberdleaf rosemallow)

Hydrangea arborescens (Wild hydrangea)

Lindera benzoin (Northern spicebush)

Rubus occidentalis (Black raspberry)

Salix discolor (Pussy willow)

Symphoricarpos orbiculatus (Coralberry)

TREES