I do not know native plants in your area so can not give plant suggestions. There is a native plants forum that might be more helpful. Go to link for Garden Forums above your posting here for links to the many forums available.

chrysogonum virginianum

thermopsis villosa

cypripedium parviflorum

caltha palustris, or marsh marigold, is, I believe, native to much of the northern hemisphere. It's a beatiful flower but does need lots of moisture. There are several kinds. A friend of mine has one that does well in drier soil but spreads more rapidly. I have some planted in a bog garden that have barely reseeded/reproduced/moved in five years. I can't recall either variety off the top of my head. Both locations are about half-sun/half shade so they do well with that light. And both are dormant by about mid, maybe late, summer.

I second the chrysogonum - a lovely and, IMO, underused plant. Not sure if it is native to Nova Scotia though...?

NOVA = northern Virginia, I think.

How about some of the yellow-flowered Baptisias 'Carolina Moonlight', 'Screamin' Yellow', 'Lemon Meringue. There are both hybrids and selections of the native B. sphaerocarpa.

All great suggestions thanks!! Yes northern va- DC area here.

just want to revisit the coreopsis comment, because I've been told it's a North American native.

http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=COLA5

I mean I guess everyone has a different take on the native plant thing but what I want is American stuff which helps the animals here. (Bugs, birds, etc) going for a yellow theme with purple highlights in this garden. (Approx 75' x 15')

most importantly to me as I can't garden full-time or anywhere need it, I want the "natives" so I can throw them in and ignore them and they won't die.

thanks

Oh duh! That's what I get for reading too quickly! :)

You are right. I was thinking of the hybrid that you buy in a nursery. I found this site that should give you all the info you need. You put in where you live and bloom time etc. and they give you the species of wildflower. Getting the seed may prove to be another matter

http://www.wildflower.org/plants/

Uh, just because they're natives doesn't mean you can "throw them in and ignore them". What you'll get is likely a weedy mess. And natives die as readily as non natives.

I love the LBJ data base. Great research tool. If you can grow Lanceleafed coreopsis, Maybe Engleman daisy will work for you. It is a Texas Native. God knows what it will do up in Nova scotia. How about yellow trout lillie, Erythronium americanum, Packera area, Zizia area ( Golden Alexander).There is always the common dandelion and buttercups. I am supposing that you are in Nova Scotia. We have yellow columbine burt they might need really good drainage in your area. Daffodilsand jonquills will live without care forever. but they are not native.

Wildflower meadows aren't really an eastern ecosystem. You can find some open areas in places that are either too wet or too rocky for trees, but the dominant natural ecosystem is forest, forest, and more forest. So unless you can deal with normal forest succession, which generally looks a mess for the first few decades, you are going to be fighting the trees like the rest of us.

I'm in va, not Canada, sorry for the confusion...

that LBJ database search is exactly what I needed! Also great suggestions from all.

I think I'll diagram my plan and start another thread so you can comment on it with more suggestions. Now I am willing to weed once in awhile so that my yard isn't overtaken by the forest :) but I won't be installing irrigation, etc. if that makes sense. I also don't want to spray chemicals either if I can avoid it.

OH GOD, I should have known . My son went to college in Fairfax. I got my NOVA mixed all the hell up.

stylophorum. (Wood poppy. Greater celandine.) Not to be confused with lesser celandine the weed with a somewhat similar leaf that seeds with abandon all warm months.

Primroses...you'll have to research specific ones

Waldsteinia.... small not particularly effective small flowers, but an excellent moderately spreading groundcover....it needs a bit of water to spread well in the early years. Foliage is a good dark green

Columbine .... there are specific yellow varieties....the old fashioned ones look like what I call "real" columbines: substantial, graceful plant-parts.

Did anyone say yellow/gold hellebores? You'd have to get a named variety but its a plant you'll have forever and it only gets bigger and better.

Uvularia grandiflorum is lovely, and is native to North America, as are marsh marigolds (which like their soil damp). Both are yellow flowered. You would have to check whether they do well in your area. You might be too far south.

The yellow columbines , I know them as Hinkley's columbine. Agullegia chrysantha var hinkleyana. There is a A . longisima with 3" tails that I also have in my garden. They are spoken about here. I have found that they can take a bit quite a bit of sun... not all day sun but more than part sun.

Yes, the second name for the columbine. And thanks for the other names. I so love the long spurs/tails....flower parts. And at a friends house they seeded generously; lots more yellows unless there were different colored mates around.

I have them growing under small live Oaks that cast thin dappled shade on a high limestone hill and thin oak mulch for soil. They get no water in TX. and have lived with no water for three months and upper 90's. They are tough and their worst enemy is a heavy soil. I got the A longisima from High Country Gardens. I think I have seen their seed in other sources.

If you want to add lots of yellow add some annuals via seed to naturalize, you will have reliable, abundant swaths of yellow every summer and some in spring, more than you can ever hope for with just perennials. Yellow is more common summer through fall in nature & I let nature dictate the colors since it goes with the light and look of the seasons.

Some heavy blooming yellow annuals are: California poppy (early), Helenium amarum, Bidens polylepis, Lesquerella gordonii aka Gordon's bladderpod (very early). Plains coreopsis, Rudbeckia hirta and Thelesperma filifolium (Greenthread), Cowpen Daisy.

Add in Lazy Daisy (white), Horsemint (purple) and annual Gaillardia and you will add some other color and lots of easy bloom that will naturalize and come back reliably each year. Some of my gaillardia bloom solid yellow, some solid red but most are red flowers with yellow borders.

Two good yellow perennials: Missouri primrose, blooms early and keeps going as long as there is moisture, & Englemanni pinnatifida. If I see something nice along the roadside, I often make a mental note and come back later for seed.