Here's a short list of items native to MN from the Do it Green website:

Prairie Flowers Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) Meadow Blazing Star (Liatris pycnostachya) Blue False Indigo (Baptisa australis) Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) Brown-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) Grey-headed Coneflower (Ratibida pinnata) Prairie Grasses Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) Sideoats Grama (Bouteloua curtipendula) Indian Grass (Sorghastrum nutans).

Thanks, duluth--! I grow all those. Which of them do you think would look attractive mixed in with asiatic lilies? All my natives look great interspersed with each other, but somehow my mind balks when it comes to envisioning them with cultivars!

That's a poser since I have only the Rudebeckia Hirta from the list and that is nowhere near any clumps of Asiatics. My Asiatics are some of the first things to bloom, and often there is nothing to compliment or clash.

Not natives but I've got lilies with Veronicas, salvias, nepetas, feverfew, peonies, phlox, ferns, and balloon flowers. A little more formal than cottage gardening, but natives and/or cultivars aside, over the many years of doing this, nature seems to make fewer mistakes with a blending of things together; and my sometimes less than studied planning precipitates some rather pleasing pairings.

The bright orange and striking red cultivars look stunning with native grasses...pair taller varieties with taller grasses. The native Agastache and other native blue flowering plants look wonderful with the white lilies (esp. the oriental Casa Blanca) It is not just the color but the variety of texture that is so striking. I also love love love yellow lilies with the purples of ironweed, blazing star (rough especially) and purple prairie clover. Once again, it is the texture as well as color, many of the natives have a very fine texture in leaf and flower that plays well with the large striking form of the lilies. In the autumn, the green of the lily leaves is nice with the yellows of the native foliage, if you deadhead the lilies they will retain that beautiful green, shiny, leaf.

Hope this helps, Helen.

It depends on how tall they are, but I think you can grow asiatics with anything. I have rougly 2 foot tall ones taht grow in a big bunch of physostegia. It gives color to it before it blooms, and it's dense enough that it keeps them from flopping. I also ahve some really tall ones in front of Karl Foerster grass and they look fantastic with that. I have lilies tucked in everywhere, though, and they complement jyust about everything, You just need to think about how to keep them upright if they're really tall and prone to flop, and also whether there will be a gaping hole when you have to cut out the dying stems in late Aug-Sept.