Extension Publications

Nebraska Bioretention and Rain Garden Plants Guide

Sustainable Selection, Placement, and Management in the Northern Great Plains

By Steven Rodie, ASLA, and Kim Todd, both UNL landscape horticulture specialists, with Richard Sutton, FASLA, professor, and Andrew Szatko, graduate student, both in the UNL Department of Agronomy and Horticulture

EC1261

Plant selection is essential to developing an attractive and effective bioretention or rain garden for your home landscape. Featuring plants best suited to the northern Great Plains, this UNL Extension circular provides plant photos, descriptions, and tables of plant attributes to help you make a more informed plan before heading to a nursery. Sprinkled throughout this 64-page guide are photos of how recommended plants have been used in bioretention gardens in the Midwest.

The authors offer a short discussion of what plant attributes to consider when planning your garden and tables of plant attributes to help you narrow your search. Are you looking for plants to use on the top of your berm in full sun or at the bottom of your berm in full shade? Select the table that best fits this attribute and then use the information in each table to further explore and then narrow your options. Tables provide approximate heights for the varieties listed as well as their bloom time, bloom colors, and seasonal area of interest (for example, foliage color in the fall).

The next, larger section of this guide includes photos and information on form, foliage, flowers, height/spread, location, comments, and related species and cultivars for

• 78 herbaceous flowers and ferns
• 20 grasses, rushes, and sedges
• 14 shrubs and small trees
• 6 x 9 paperback.

To order

Nebraska Bioretention and Rain Garden Plants Guide (EC1261) is available for purchase on UNL Marketplace.