The Best Wildflowers to Plant in all 50 States

Field of colorful wildflowers in the hills of Henry W. Coe State Park, California
Sundry Photography/Shutterstock.com

Written by Nina Phillips

Updated: February 24, 2025

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Wildflowers are found across all 50 states. When planting a garden, or filling a field with stunning flowers, it’s best to use flowers native to the area. This prevents any invasive plants from taking over and attracts the local pollinators. The best wildflowers to plant are both beautiful and practical.

Native wildflowers have another added benefit, which is that they do very well when left alone. These flowers are used to growing in the area on their own, so all you have to do is throw the seeds in some dirt, water them, and let them do their own thing.

Unfortunately, wildflower mixes you can buy in stores are often generic and not tailored to your state specifically. There are exceptions, but they are hard to find. Thankfully, you can make your own wildflower mixes using some of the local flowers. Keep reading to learn some of the prettiest and easiest-growing wildflowers in your state to find out where to get started in making your own wildflower garden.

Alabama

Indian Blanket Wildflowers cover a field in the Texas Hill Country outside Bandera, Texas.

Indian blankets are beautiful wildflowers found in Alabama.

Best Wildflowers: Indian blankets, purple coneflower, and New England aster.

Alaska

Despite the cold temperatures, Alaska has beautiful wildflowers.

Best Wildflowers: Evening primrose, fireweed, and forget-me-nots.

Arizona

Get a whole rainbow of wildflowers in Arizona.

Best Wildflowers: Bluebonnets, scarlet flax, and California poppies.

Arkansas

Columbines are large and beautiful flowers.

Best Wildflowers: Columbines, forget-me-nots, and shooting stars.

California

In California, you have plenty of flower options to choose from.

Best Wildflowers: California poppies, golden lupines, and tidy tips.

Colorado

Coreopsis are not only gorgeous but easy to take care of.

Best Wildflowers: Blue columbines, cosmos, and plains coreopsis.

Connecticut

Coneflowers attract many important pollinators.

Best Wildflowers: Catchfly, purple coneflower, and Siberian wallflower.

Delaware

Sweet William is a beautiful flower that enjoys full sun and does well in Delaware.

Best Wildflowers: Sweet William Tall, cosmos, and Russell lupine.

Florida

Florida is home to a beautiful flower known as

butterfly

weed.

Best Wildflowers: Butterfly weed, yellow coneflower, and gray goldenrod.

Georgia

Scarlet sage salvia plant blooming in a garden.

Scarlet sage is as brilliant red as the name suggests.

Best Wildflowers: Sulphur cosmos, scarlet sage, and Indian blanket.

Hawaii

Morning glories comes in a variety of colors.

Best Wildflowers: Morning glory, crocosmia, and antana.

Idaho

Indian paintbrushes are beautiful flowers.

Best Wildflowers: Christ’s Indian paintbrush, syringia, and arrowleaf balsamroot.

Illinois

Shooting stars get their name from their unique shape.

Best Wildflowers: Field Pussytoes, prairie coreopsis, and amethyst shooting star.

Indiana

Dwarf wildflowers are small and beautiful.

Best Wildflowers: Rough blazing star, dwarf larkspur, and lyre-leaved sage.

Iowa

Phlox flowers are small but eye-catching.

Best Wildflowers: Common blue violet, blue phlox, and Jack-in-the-pulpit

Kansas

Leucanthemum x superbum 'Becky' Shasta Daisy Flower White

Daisies are classic white flowers perfect in any yard.

Best Wildflowers: Blue hearts, butterfly milkweed, and lazy daisy.

Kentucky

Phlox flowers can easily cover a garden or field in beautiful colors.

Best Wildflowers: American bellflower, southern blazing star, and Carolina phlox.

Louisiana

Asters are another subtle and simple wildflower.

Best Wildflowers: Hairy white aster, bearded beggarticks, and American bellflower.

Maine

Close up of Queen Anne's Lace flower blooming in the summertime.

Queen Anne’s lace is made up of hundreds of little white flowers.

Best Wildflowers: Oxeye daisy, Queen Anne’s lace, and buttercups.

Maryland

Bergamot smells and looks beautiful.

Best Wildflowers: Wild bergamot, great blue lobelia, and moss phlox.

Massachusetts

Virginia bluebells offer a stunning blue color.

Best Wildflowers: Thimbleberry, bloodroot, and Virginia bluebells.

Michigan

Trilliums are a great flower to grow in Michigan.

Best Wildflowers: Bloodroot, common trillium, and blazing star.

Minnesota

New England asters are great for attracting pollinators and look stunning.

Best Wildflowers: Pasqueflower, New England aster, and Large-flowered beard tongue.

Mississippi

Catchflies are small but bright.

Best Wildflowers: Foxglove beardtongue, Bulbous buttercup, and scarlet catchfly.

Missouri

blue false indigo

Missouri is home to blue false indigo, like above.

Best Wildflowers: Lanceleaf coreopsis, blue false indigo, and Missouri coneflower.

Montana

Wild geraniums give you a beautiful garden look with native wildflowers.

Best Wildflowers: Bee balm, bitterroot, and wild geranium.

Nebraska

Close-up of a Wild Wood's Rose Blossom

Wild roses come in bright pink perfect for any garden.

Best Wildflowers: Western wild rose, black samson, and prairie spiderwort.

Nevada

Silvery lupine produces purple flowers.

Best Wildflowers: Scarlet paintbrush, silvery lupine, and bloomer’s goldenbush.

New Hampshire

Bee balm looks a little like fireworks.

Best Wildflowers: Crimson bee balm, thimbleberry, and chicory.

New Jersey

A selective focus macro image of a small grouping of tiny American Bluehearts, Buchnera americana, wildflowers, a native species of Louisiana.

Bluehearts aren’t big statement flowers, but they still add a splash of color.

Best Wildflowers: Common dewberry, plains bluehearts, and sulfur cinquefoil.

New Mexico

Anemones are big flowers with hints of purple and pink in them.

Best Wildflowers: Angel’s trumpets, common yarrow, and tuber anemone.

New York

Despite the name, jewelweeds are rather neat.

Best Wildflowers: Beach rose, shaggy golden-aster, and spotted jewelweed.

North Carolina

Black-eyed Susans steal the spotlight in many wildflower mixes.

Best Wildflowers: Garden phlox, black-eyed Susan, and goldenrod.

North Dakota

Evening primrose flower

Evening primroses are often bright yellow.

Best Wildflowers: Arrowleaf balsamroot, Asiatic dayflower, and common evening primrose.

Ohio

Blackfoot Daisy

Blackfoot daisies are little white flowers with layers of petals.

Best Wildflowers: Blackfoot daisy, Indian blanketflower, and orange coneflower.

Oklahoma

Purple, five petaled wildflower,Tall Bellflower (American Bellflower), grows in the glade of a mid-western United States of America forest.

tall bellflowers look like bright blue stars.

Best Wildflowers: Foxglove beardtongue, tall bellflower, and red clover.

Oregon

Orange tiger lily (orange-spotted lily)

Tiger lilies are bright colors with brown spots.

Best Wildflowers: Columbia tiger lily, western wood anemone, mountain Indian paintbrush.

Pennsylvania

California iconic poppy field: Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve State Natural Reserve, the wildflower bloom generally occurs from mid-March through April The orange and yellow California poppy

A field of poppies is sure to stun for miles.

Best Wildflowers: Crimson bee balm. Indian blanketflower, and California poppy.

Rhode Island

3 bright orange flowers of common daylily in June

A daylily is the perfect central flower in a garden.

Best Wildflowers: Foxglove beardtongue, chicory, and common daylily.

South Carolina

South Carolina is home to purple asters.

Best Wildflowers: Late purple aster, Indian blanketflower, and wild bleeding heart.

South Dakota

Chicory

Chicory

isn’t only a drink, but a blue flower.

Best Wildflowers: Chicory, Asiatic dayflower, and slender gerardia.

Tennessee

Lenten roses start a cream color before turning purplish-pink at the tips.

Best Wildflowers: Cardinal flower, large-flowered trillium, and Lenten rose.

Texas

Drummond phlox

If you’re looking for red flowers, Drummond phlox is a great option in Texas.

Best Wildflowers: Bluebonnet, Indian paintbrush, and Drummond phlox

Utah

Sego Lily - Official State Flower of Utah

The

sego lily

is the state flower of Utah.

Best Wildflowers: Elephant’s head, Utah columbine, and sego lily.

Vermont

Bachelor's Button

Bachelor’s button grows in big blue clumps.

Best Wildflowers: Red trillium, common milkweed, and bachelor’s button.

Virginia

Yellow lady's slipper orchid, Cypripedium parviflorum

Lady’s slipper orchids get their name from their unique shape.

Best Wildflowers: Yellow lady’s slipper orchid, purple phacelia, and dwarf larkspur.

Washington

Purple Saxifrage, Saxifraga oppositifolia, Spitsbergen Island, Svalbard, Norway, above the Arctic circle, it is able to grow in the most northerly location in the world

Saxifrage stays low to the ground and works as a colorful groundcover.

Best Wildflowers: Fireweed, Calypso orchid, and purple mountain saxifrage.

West Virginia

Bloodroot, Sanguinaria canadensis flowers, perennial, herbaceous flowering plant. Close up.

Bloodroots are fragile but beautiful.

Best Wildflowers: Wild blue phlox, marsh marigold, and bloodroot.

Wisconsin

Blossom of the orange hawkweed

Orange hawkweed creates small little bursts of orange amongst other wildflowers.

Best Wildflowers: Dame’s rocket, orange hawkweed, and Virginia bluebell.

Wyoming

Colorado Blue Columbine - A bunch of wild Colorado Blue Columbine blooming at side of Isabelle Glacier Trail in Indian Peaks Wilderness, Colorado, USA.

Colorado columbines can be white, purple, and a mixture of both.

Best Wildflowers: Colorado columbine, sagebrush mariposa lily, and Parry’s bellflower.


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About the Author

Nina Phillips

Nina is a writer at A-Z Animals, FIDIS Travel, and Giant Freakin Robot. Her focus is on wildlife, national parks, and the environment. She has been writing about animals for over three years. Nina holds a Bachelor's in Conservation Biology, which she uses when talking about animals and their natural habitats. In her free time, Nina also enjoys working on writing her novels and short stories. As a resident of Colorado, Nina enjoys getting out in nature, traveling, and watching snow hit the mountains from her enclosed porch.

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