It’s good to have places to visit where you can see for yourself how native plants grow under human cultivation. Properly selected natives will perform beautifully in your yard, but every garden needs some tending.
In Billings, at ZooMontana (2100 Shiloh Road) features a medicinal garden, the Homestead garden & the Foster Wildfowl refuge area. The Montana Audubon Center (7026 South Billings Boulevard) has a beautiful native plant garden – their focus is on birds, but native plants are the foundation supporting their survival.
In Bozeman, there’s a pollinator garden in Langhor Park along the Gallagator/Linear trail – and quite a few other native plant gardens in the area, in Big Sky, Big Timber, Ennis, Livingston & Manhattan
In the Flathead, there are quite a few native gardens to see.
In Great Falls, visit Riverside Park (on River Drive) where specialized native habitat zones are designed to support wildlife and target the removal of invasive honeysuckle along the Missouri River banks, replacing them with native trees, shrubs, and local wildflowers. There’s a also thriving pollinator garden. The native plants and restoration projects are integrated into the connected River’s Edge Trail.
In & near Missoula, you can find …
- The Lackschewitz-Preece Montana Native Botanic Garden, just west of the University center. This garden has graced the campus for more than 50 years.
- An Ethnobotany Garden at the Payne Family Native American Center is also on the UM campus, on the SSW side of the Oval.
- The Montana State Arboretum also is part of the UM campus
- The Fort Missoula Native Plant Garden is out at the fort.
- And a more informal one, the 8th Street Pocket Park on the 1700 block.
- In Bonner, there’s a garden behind the post office on Highway 200
- In Stevensville, you can stroll through the Salish Encampment on the grounds of the Historic St. Mary’s Mission – here’s a list of what’s planted there.
Looking for sources of native plants, seeds or landscaping services?
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