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A diverse native meadow designed for dry, rocky ground, with changing blooms from spring through fall and a generally waist-high appearance.
Dry ’n Rocky works well on dry uplands, rocky or shallow soils, dry clay, slopes, pond dams, roadsides, glades and construction sites. It is designed primarily as an attractive wildflower meadow, but its diversity also makes it excellent for pollinators, wildlife habitat, restoration and erosion control.
Soils: Dry to dry-mesic
Light: Full sun (roughly 0-30% shade)
Typical appearance: Generally waist-high, depending on growing conditions
Bloom season: Spring through fall
Winter interest: Native grasses provide rusty orange, reddish and silvery tones
Diversity: 20+ wildflower species when wildflowers are included, plus 4+ grass species when grasses are included
Dry ’n Rocky is designed to establish a full stand. Choose the size of your planting area under Coverage and your wildflower-to-grass ratio under Mix Balance.
If you’re purchasing for cost-share programs, visit our Cost-Share Shop.
Price range: $20.00 through $5,072.00
Choose how much emphasis you would like to place on wildflowers or grasses. The wildflower-dominated, balanced and grass-dominated options are all appropriate choices. The best option depends on the appearance, habitat and budget you have in mind.
A flower-heavy planting with enough native grass to add structure, enhance wildlife and pollinator habitat, provide winter color and help reduce weed pressure.
An even combination of wildflowers and grasses for a planting with a strong mix of seasonal color, structure, habitat value and winter interest.
A grass-heavy planting with a substantial wildflower component for seasonal color, pollinator value and diversity. This option may also be a good choice when erosion control or budget is a major concern.
The full Dry ’n Rocky Wildflower Component without the Companion Grass Component. This option is especially useful when you want to overseed wildflowers into an established native grass planting or strengthen the wildflower component of an existing planting.
You can also order Wildflowers Only for an all-wildflower seeding if that is specifically what you want. However, we generally do not recommend an all-wildflower seeding for a new stand-alone planting. Including native grasses usually provides better structure, stronger competition with weeds, additional habitat value and more winter interest.
The full Dry Companion Grass Component without the Dry ’n Rocky Wildflower Component. Choose this when you specifically want an all-grass seeding, when you want to overseed grasses into an established wildflower-only planting or when you want to strengthen the grass component of an existing native planting.
The percentages above show the estimated percentage of the stand represented by each component—in theory, the percentage of the ground covered by that component as the planting develops. They do not guarantee the exact percentage of mature ground cover. Soil, weather, management and individual species performance will influence how the planting develops over time.
Dry ’n Rocky is designed for the dry end of the soil-moisture spectrum.
A simple way to think about it is this: if you looked at the site and thought it would be frustrating to grow a vegetable garden there without considerable soil improvement and watering, it may be exactly the kind of ground Dry ’n Rocky likes.
Dry ’n Rocky is especially well suited to rocky hillsides, shallow soils, clay soils that become dry, pond dams, steep slopes, road cuts, dry roadsides, glades, exposed construction sites and areas where topsoil is thin or missing.
It can also work on dry-mesic ground. As a site becomes more average in moisture, there begins to be some overlap between Dry ’n Rocky and our Prairie Patchwork Meadow. On a truly mesic or average-moisture site, Prairie Patchwork may be the better starting point.
Dry ’n Rocky is primarily a full-sun mix, but full sun does not have to mean absolutely no shade. We are comfortable recommending it where there is roughly 30% shade or less, and individual species within the mix may tolerate considerably more.
As shade becomes a major feature of the site, a mix such as Shadows & Sunbeams Meadow may provide a better overall plant community.
Dry ’n Rocky would not normally be our first choice for wet ground, deep shade, highly fertile bottomland, shortgrass-prairie climates or a planting where very tall vegetation is desired.
It is also not normally a forage mix. It may occasionally have a place within a larger forage property—for example, around the house or another highly visible dry area—but its primary design goal is an attractive, diverse native meadow.
The distinguishing feature of Dry ’n Rocky is not simply that the plants tolerate dry soil. It was designed to make a beautiful native landscape on dry ground.
Rather than creating a planting dominated by very tall prairie vegetation, Dry ’n Rocky emphasizes species that generally create a meadow around waist height. Actual plant height will vary with rainfall, soil depth, fertility and other growing conditions.
The appearance also changes throughout the year.
Spring flowers give way to a different group of summer blooms. Those are followed by another palette in late summer and fall. There may be natural pauses between peak bloom periods, just as there are in native grasslands, but the goal is a succession of changing flowers rather than one short flush of color.
After flowering has finished, the grasses continue contributing to the landscape. Depending on species and conditions, dormant grasses can turn shades of orange, rusty red and bronze, while some carry silvery seed heads into winter.
Although Dry ’n Rocky was designed around landscaping and aesthetics, its diversity also makes it useful for pollinators, wildlife, restoration and erosion control.
The same flowers that provide color can provide nectar and pollen for bees, butterflies and other insects. Seeds, insects and vegetation provide food and habitat for wildlife. Deep-rooted perennial plants protect and occupy dry soils that can be difficult to keep vegetated, making the mix useful on slopes, pond dams and other erosion-prone sites.
When erosion is a major concern, we generally recommend choosing either the Balanced or Grass Dominated version. The additional grass provides more structure, root mass and ground coverage while still retaining a substantial wildflower component.
Wildlife and pollinators benefit from diverse plantings, and Dry ’n Rocky is designed to provide that diversity. The mix simply adds another layer of selection by emphasizing species that generally remain closer to waist height and perform well on dry sites.
Dry ’n Rocky is built around a full stand of perennial native plants, with annuals and biennials added for extra color and seasonal interest while the perennial community develops.
Annual and biennial species may bloom during the first or second growing season, while many of the longer-lived perennial species take more time to establish. Over time, the perennials become the long-term foundation of the meadow, allowing the planting to persist, reproduce and continue functioning for many years.
Dry ’n Rocky is not simply a few species planted together.
When wildflowers are included, the Wildflower Component contains at least 20 species of native wildflowers. When grasses are included, the Companion Grass Component contains at least four species of native grasses.
We intentionally combine plants with different sizes, rooting patterns, growing seasons, bloom periods and growth habits. A diverse community can make use of space in ways a monoculture cannot: smaller plants can occupy spaces around larger plants, cool-season species grow at different times than warm-season species, and plants use different portions of the soil profile.
We design this mix at a full seeding rate. Our goal is for the desirable native plants to eventually occupy the available growing space rather than intentionally leaving large openings between plants.
Some seedings are intentionally designed at partial rates so volunteer annual plants such as Ragweed, Foxtail and other annual vegetation have room to establish. That can serve certain specialized habitat or management goals, but it is not how we generally design HNO mixes, including our wildlife plantings. Most customers would rather have the species they planted filling the site than large openings occupied by volunteer weeds.
With this mix, we are aiming for a dense native plant community. If establishment goes well, as the planting matures – often around the third growing season and beyond – the desirable native plants should increasingly grow shoulder to shoulder. Fewer open spaces means fewer opportunities for unwanted annual weeds and invasive plants to establish.
A full seeding rate does not mean the planting will be weed-free. The existing soil seed bank will usually contain plenty of weed seed, and annual weeds can be especially noticeable during the first year while the slower native seedlings are establishing. The goal is that, over time, the desirable native plants occupy more of the available growing space and provide stronger competition.
The result is a planting designed as a plant community, not just a collection of seed.
The exact species and proportions in Dry ’n Rocky may change from batch to batch depending on seed availability, seed source, crop conditions and the seed lots available when a batch is made.
Rather than defining Dry ’n Rocky by one permanent recipe, we build each batch to meet the same overall design goals: a diverse collection of native species adapted to dry sites, with seasonal interest and a strong perennial foundation.
Species commonly used in the Dry ’n Rocky Wildflower Component include dry-site native flowers such as Pale Purple Coneflower, Leadplant, Purple Prairie Clover, White Prairie Clover, Button Blazing Star, Wild Quinine, New Jersey Tea, Hairy Mountain Mint, Slender Lespedeza, Tickseed Coreopsis, Common Black-Eyed Susan, Barbara’s Button, and other dry-site species.
The Companion Grass Component commonly uses shorter dry-site grasses such as Little Bluestem, Broomsedge, Splitbeard and other warm- and cool-season native grasses selected to share well with wildflowers.
Exact contents vary by batch. The seed tag supplied with your order lists the actual species in the mix you receive.
If the inclusion—or exclusion—of a particular species is important to your project, contact HNO before ordering and we can tell you what is in the current batch.
Dry ’n Rocky is your base mix—a complete planting designed for the site conditions described above. Enhancements allow you to add extra emphasis to additional goals without having to design a custom mix from scratch.
Choose your base mix for your site conditions, then choose enhancements for the additional goals that matter to you. Enhancements are selected for those goals rather than for a particular soil type.
You may select more than one enhancement.
Adds wildflowers selected especially for their value to butterflies, native bees, hummingbirds and other pollinators. Some species may grow taller than the typical Dry ’n Rocky meadow.
Adds species selected for their value to birds through seed, insects, habitat structure or other wildlife benefits. Some species may grow taller than the typical Dry ’n Rocky meadow.
Adds flowering species selected especially for their attractiveness and usefulness to honey bees. Some species may grow taller than the typical Dry ’n Rocky meadow.
Adds native plants with known edible uses, including species with traditional food uses and plants featured in HNO’s edible native plant resources and recipes. Some species may grow taller than the typical Dry ’n Rocky meadow.
Adds desirable native species selected for strong competition in established native plantings where weed pressure is a concern. Some species may grow taller than the typical Dry ’n Rocky meadow.
This enhancement is intended to strengthen desirable native plant competition. It is not a substitute for appropriate weed management.
Some enhancements consist primarily or entirely of wildflowers. If you select Grasses Only as your base mix and then add a wildflower enhancement, your finished planting will contain the grasses plus the wildflower species included in that enhancement.
A native wildflower meadow develops differently than an annual flower garden.
Year 1: Much of the activity is happening close to the ground and below it. Annuals or biennials may provide some early flowers, but many perennial native plants are still putting energy into roots and establishment. Also, during this first growing season, if annual weeds are severe competition with the young seedlings, mowing high can be a helpful weed control tool; to learn more about it, check out our First-Year Mowing Guide.
Year 2: You should be able to see the perennial plants more clearly, especially if you know what to look for. There may still be annual and biennial blooms, depending on how those species develop and the conditions during the first two growing seasons.
Year 3 and beyond: Perennial blooms often begin to appear around the third year, although this is not guaranteed. Establishment depends on weather, weed pressure, soil conditions, management and other factors. As the perennial plants mature, they increasingly form the long-term character of the meadow. After this third growing season, you can also begin to use controlled burns to manage and invigorate the native plants.
A first-year native planting can look surprisingly weedy while the slower-growing native seedlings establish. Don’t judge the long-term success of the meadow by whether it looks like a mature wildflower planting during its first summer.
Good establishment starts before the seed is planted.
The basic goals are a clean, firm seedbed and good seed-to-soil contact. Existing vegetation should be adequately controlled before the native seedlings emerge. It is also important that the seed reaches the soil rather than getting caught in dead plant material, tree leaves or other surface debris.
Native wildflower and grass seed should be planted shallowly. The goal is seed-to-soil contact—not burying the seed deeply. In most situations, seed should be no deeper than approximately 1/8 to 1/4 inch, and some seed remaining visible on the soil surface is perfectly acceptable.
Winter is generally the preferred time to plant Dry ‘n Rocky. Many of the wildflowers and some of the grasses require a period of cold, moist conditions to break seed dormancy. Planting during winter allows the weather to provide this cold-moist stratification naturally.
Cold-moist stratification can also be done artificially in a refrigerator. See HNO’s Cold Moist Stratification Guide for instructions. Dry ‘n Rocky can be planted in spring without artificial stratification, but lower germination—especially among the wildflowers—should be expected.
Dry ’n Rocky may be broadcast by hand or planted with a drill or broadcast equipment capable of handling fluffy native seeds, depending on the size and condition of the site.
For detailed instructions, use HNO’s Establishment Timelines, Seedbed Preparation Guides and Seeding Method Guides to develop a plan for your particular site. Our New Dirt Work Establishment Plan also includes guidance for establishing native vegetation where topsoil has been removed or soil conditions have been substantially altered.
Dry ’n Rocky is intended primarily for the tallgrass prairie region and the tallgrass savannas and woodlands of the East.
It is generally appropriate across much of the central and eastern United States, from the central Great Plains eastward and from the upper Midwest south toward the Gulf Coast, where local soil, rainfall and climate are reasonably similar to the conditions described for this mix.
It is not intended as a shortgrass-prairie mix for the dry Great Plains farther west, and it should not be treated as a Florida-specific mix. If you are outside the general region described above, contact us before ordering. We may be able to recommend Dry ’n Rocky, suggest another mix or help you find a regionally appropriate option.
Yes—if the clay site is dry. Dry ’n Rocky can be an excellent choice for clay pond dams, construction sites and other clay soils that become droughty. Soil moisture is more important than whether the soil simply carries the label “clay.”
A soil test can help you determine whether fertility adjustments may be useful. For general guidance on fertility and establishing native vegetation in altered or newly constructed soils, see HNO’s New Construction Establishment Guide and Timeline.
Yes. Dry slopes, pond dams, road cuts and other exposed sites are some of the situations where Dry ’n Rocky can be especially useful. Proper seedbed preparation and seed-to-soil contact remain important.
Yes. Dry ’n Rocky is particularly well suited to many sites with shallow or missing topsoil because those sites often become very dry.
A soil test can help you determine how much fertility you may want to add. For a general fertility recipe and establishment guidance for new construction sites, see HNO’s New Construction Establishment Guide and Timeline.
Yes, within reason. We are comfortable using it in light partial shade—roughly 30% shade or less. As the site becomes substantially shadier, consider a mix designed specifically for the combination of sunlight and shade, such as Shadows & Sunbeams Meadow.
Yes. Its diversity and long bloom season make it useful for pollinators. Customers who want to put even more emphasis on that goal can add the Pollinator Enhancement.
Yes. Native wildflowers, grasses and the insects associated with them provide food and habitat for many kinds of wildlife. Diversity is the key, and Dry ’n Rocky is designed to provide a diverse planting.
Think waist-high-ish, not lawn height and not a wall of tall prairie vegetation. Actual height varies considerably with rainfall, soil depth, fertility and individual species. Some plants will be shorter and some will rise above the general meadow canopy.
Enhancements may add species that grow taller than the typical Dry ’n Rocky meadow.
The goal is changing bloom from spring through fall, but a native meadow does not produce exactly the same amount of color every week. Different species take turns flowering, creating a changing seasonal palette with occasional natural lulls between peak bloom periods.
Choose the option that best matches the planting you have in mind.
If you really want a wildflower planting, choose Wildflower Dominated. However, if you want a grass planting with a few wildflowers sprinkled in, choose Grass Dominated. Or, if you want a nice mix of both, choose Balanced.
The wildflower component is more expensive than the grass component, so if budget is a concern, you may also want to choose a version with less wildflower seed, such as the Balanced or Grass Dominated option.
Grasses occupy spaces between wildflowers, add structure, enhance wildlife and pollinator habitat, provide fall and winter color, help reduce weed pressure and provide fuel if prescribed fire eventually becomes part of the management plan.
Yes. Choose Wildflowers Only under Mix Balance. This option is especially useful for overseeding wildflowers into an established native grass planting, strengthening the wildflower component of an existing planting or creating an all-wildflower seeding.
An all-wildflower seeding is generally not our recommended choice for a new stand-alone planting because grasses provide important structure, habitat, winter interest and competition with weeds. However, if you specifically want an all-wildflower seeding, you can order the Wildflowers Only option.
Yes. Choose Grasses Only. This option is useful for an all-grass seeding, overseeding grasses into an established wildflower-only planting or strengthening the grass component of an existing native planting.
Yes. You may combine multiple enhancements if several goals are important to you.
The species listed on this page are examples of plants commonly included in Dry ’n Rocky. Exact contents can change between batches.
The seed tag supplied with your order identifies the actual contents of the batch you receive. If a particular species is especially important—or if there is a species you do not want—contact us before ordering to ask about the current batch.
If your site falls between dry and average moisture, both Dry ’n Rocky and Prairie Patchwork Meadow may be possibilities.
Choose Dry ’n Rocky when the site tends toward the dry end and Prairie Patchwork when it tends more toward average or mesic conditions. If you truly feel that you are somewhere in the middle, you can also use both. For example, you could order enough Dry ’n Rocky for half the acreage and enough Prairie Patchwork for the other half, giving you enough seed to cover the full planting area.
If your site is somewhere between dry and mesic, you probably cannot go too far wrong with any of these choices. Contact us if you’re unsure.
Choose the Coverage that fits your project and use Quantity for multiples. For example, a 2,000 sq ft project can be ordered as two 1,000 sq ft packages.
If you’re not sure how many square feet or acres you have—especially with an irregularly shaped planting area—contact us and we can help estimate the area and determine how much seed you need.
Planning a larger project? Contact us before ordering. Larger quantities may qualify for additional quantity discounts.
Choosing native seed is easier when you match the plants to the site.
If you’re not sure whether your soil is dry enough for Dry ’n Rocky, whether Prairie Patchwork would be a better fit, which Mix Balance to choose or which enhancements make sense for your goals, contact Hamilton Native Outpost. We are happy to help you think through the planting.
To learn more about this mix, check out our videos about it and its uses.
Dry ‘n Rocky | Native Wildflower Mix
| Weight | N/A |
|---|---|
| Light | Full Sun |
| Soils | Dry |
| Height Range | 0 – 24", 25 – 48" |
| Height | 8"-42" |
| Bloom Month | May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct |
| Planting Season | Dormant |
Pure Live Seed (PLS) is the portion of good viable seed per pound. It is a measure of the seed that is alive and able to sprout into plants. This product is sold by PLS ounce/pound. To provide one ounce/pound of viable seed, you will receive more than one ounce/pound of product. Read more about PLS here.
