You're probably here after the lilacs are done, but lilacs were started in this country by the French on Mackinac Island, if my historical memory is correct. That would make them the ultimate "Michigan plant."
Other plants that love our climate are peonies, iris, coneflower (these allegedly grow wild), Shasta daisy, trilium, lily of the valley and daylily.
Purple loosestrife is choking out the natural flora in a lot of our waterways, but I don't think you want THAT. :) K.

hmmmmm, trilium sounds interesting, thanks karen

Do you have columbine in Indiana? We live on Lake Huron in the Thumb of Michigan, and they grow wild in the woods. I dug some out and planted them and they came up beautifully. Problem is they produce a whole bunch of seeds that are very small and you have to be careful or they can take over. It's not really very hard to keep them in check. If you see them coming up in a place you don't want, just pull it out. I don't think you'll be able to find any in bloom now tho, but if you wanted to try some, I have a zillion seeds. Let me know. I've seen them sold at nurseries for anywhere from $7 on up for one plant. Mine are a pinkish coral color.

Momcat2000:

I'd opt go for a plant that was actually "discovered" in Michigan - Zeeland, as a matter of fact, which is east of Holland.

Brunnera macrophylla 'Jack Frost' (PPAF) is an introduction from Walters Gardens, Inc of Zeeland, Michigan, a wholesale grower of perennials supplying garden centers, mail orders companies, and landscapers throughout the United States and Canada. This new introduction was discovered here in our greenhouses in a flat of Brunnera m. 'Langtrees' ('Langtrees' is characterized by a series of broken 'silver bars' between the veins of the plant).

Below the two links with information, history, and photos of this wonderful plant is one lovely photograph. I have two of these gems in my northwestern garden - their first year - and both are doing very well.

Given the possibility that you're living on the tallgrass prairie of Indiana (I'm originally from Illinois), I'd recommend that you give these plants plenty of organic mulch to insure their survival during your hot and humid summers.

Here's the first of two links:

'Jack Frost'Brunnera

And here is the second link, which is an excellent source of information. You should note the extensive information, several photos; and a link to more than a few midwestern sources from which this plant can be purchased.

Brunnera macrophylla 'Jack Frost'- Missouri Botanical Garden - PlantFinder

Here's a beautiful photograph of this highly recommended plant; it "inspired" me to obtain two of them for our garden.

{{gwi:150350}}

As a "companion plant" you might consider planting the "Woodland Poppy" near 'Jack Frost' Brunnera. Here's a link to a possible companion plant.

Stylophorum diphyllum; commonly known as Celandine poppy - Missouri Botanical Garden - PlantFinder

Hope these links and illustrations are more than useful in making a wise and beautiful choice for your Indiana garden.

Best wishes!

Bill

peter, i have columbine also. it sound like alot of michigan plants are also grown in indiana. i grew up in hammond on the south side of the lake and brought alot of plants from home down here to indianapolis.
bill, thanks for the info and story on the 'jack frost', it would go well by my shade pond area. i don't have good luck with the usual poppies, but i might give 'celedine' a try.

do you go to silver lake by any chance?

we're spending 2 nights in ludington........any good wineries around there, i'm traveling with 3 teenage boys and a husband and i might need something for the 'old nerves' LOL

momcat2000:

Some of the wineries are located north and northeast of Manistee.

Here's the source:

Michigan Wines

One place that I would recommend is Good Harbor Vineyards whose link can be found by scrolling down a bit once you come to their site. They make - among other good wines - an exceptional Cherry wine that would be excellent during the holidays.

If you travel northward to Manistee, turn right at the Burger King Restaurant just barely north of Manistee; it will be on the west (right) side of the road as you head up U.S. 31 North; after you have turned west before Burger King, head north on the road just after Burger King. It will connect you to Route 22. It's a lovely, winding, relaxing trip along the shores of Lake Michigan. Once you reach Frankfort, MI - head into town and enjoy a nice quiet lunch at The Fusion Restaurant located on the north (right) side near the middle of downtown Frankfort. It's oriental with a wide and generous selection of food, etc. for a moderate price; supper prices will be a bit more expensive, but not overly so. Not open on Mondays!

Head north again on Route 22 and you'll soon - within a few short miles - come across Crystal Gardens and do take the time to meander around a bit.

Along Route 22 North is a wonderful, high, look out area where you can stop and rest for either a picnic and/or a pit stop.

If you do find yourself in Traverse City, don't forget to stop by and enjoy both The Candle Factory and Folgarelli's - an Italian deli with all sorts of goodies meats, cheeses, wines, herbs, spices, noodles, breads, etc. These two places are within a few blocks of each other.

For more information on places to visit, see the contributions in the Great Lakes Forum entitled: Michigan in Spring! I've recently updated it.

And finally, even though your kids might be teenagers, you may wish to modify the following "game" that my former girlfriend, Nancy, taught me, when she and her former husband and two daughters went traveling.

All that is needed is a small spiral notebook and a pen.

List a small number of items/things that might be found along your journey. Each item might be given a number of points resulting in a wee bit of spending money. Nancy and I just played for "points".

At any rate, we would select about 6 to 8 items, such as the following:

Cemetaries;

Windmills;

School houses;

Working Farm Tractor;

Bridge - we decide whether we went over one or underneath one that would count;

Railroad Tracks - we'd decide whether we crossed one or saw one would count;

Named River;

Named Creek;

And so on and so forth.

Draw lines downward to include the person's name at the top and the names of the items on the left side. The person keeping score would mark an IIII and then a diagonal \ to mark five points. At the end of the trip or a time period, the scores would be added up and the winner declared.

Sometimes, when Nancy and her former husband went traveling - every item was given a single point, but one item would be given five points. Since their travels largely went East and West, they usually listed "Montfort trucks" as the five pointer since they were relatively rare and seemed to only travel east or west.

Nancy and I sometimes used "Roadway" trucks, but made them equal in points.

Sometimes, our road games made us weave a bit on the road - while we both visually searched for rural cemetaries or still intact windmills on the rural or state highways of Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin.

Long before dating Nancy, I dated a single women with two twin kids who were a little rough on each other. When we went down to the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis from Peoria, IL - I created an extensive "game" which involved maps, travel information, gas mileage; etc. There were about forty or fifty questions of different worth adding up to a grand total of $5.00 - this was back in the late 70's.

At first, they were very reluctant to start on the travel quizz, but with very little friendly persuasion on our part and the promise of our help, the two of them quickly settled down and began to work together to solve the quizz. Once they got started, there was no fighting.

The first question was "Name the city and state to which we are traveling". Answer: St. Louis, Missouri.

I believe the second question was: "Name the garden which we will be visiting". Answer: The Missouri Botanical Garden.

Of course, they also had to look at the Illinois map and basically name the several major routes available to travel from Peoria, IL to St. Louis, MO. They had to look at the MBO brochure to answer a few other general questions on the Missouri Botanical Garden as well.

At any rate, I was more than pleased that my imaginative late night efforts paid off and the two of them thoroughly enjoyed visiting the Garden, the Arch, and a few other places along the way.

I don't know if this will suffice for your teenage kids, but, hopefully, it might be of some inspiration.

Best wishes in your venture in this neck of the woods.

Bill

coneflower (these allegedly grow wild) - Allegedly? Maybe I'm misunderstanding you, but those things grow wild everywhere in the areas north of Lansing.

Mozart, thanks. We hit St.Julians right across the state line and loaded up.
We stopped at Crane's for lunch (Fennville) before going to Ludington.
We had recently bought a new van in which a "entertainment" system was included for free. This includes, get this, a dvd player, wireless headphones and video game player, cd player and other stuff i didn't get into. Yikes! All i had as a kid was the Cubs on WGN!
Game boys have been a lifesaver for a long time.
We stopped in Petosky for a few hours to view how the other half lives(!)
Mac Island was beatiful, sunny and in the 80's.
On the way back, we stopped in Marshall and toured the Honolulu House. I was out voted on alot of other stops i wanted to make. All in all, a real good time.

Sounds like a good time! Glad you had fun.

For early spring flowers let un never forget (no punn intended..hehehe....the fabulous "Forget Me Nots" I have them near my pond, and just about everywhere in the yard. Although they can and do become invasive at times they can be controled also. They are beautiful in the spring. I love the picture in the above post. I have pink and blue and they make my yard look like a picture.