Spring Showers, Meet Your Match: 5 Native Plants for Wet Yards

April Showers are upon us, and while they do bring May flowers, they can also bring wet yards! However, there are some plants that can help keep your landscape dry during those April showers. Check out our list of the top 5 native plants that will keep your yard dry this April!

Spring is a common time for Arborvine’s professional consultants to get called out to properties for drainage concerns. If you are seeing water pooling in your yard, getting into your home or causing erosion, you may need a professional site visit from our team to engineer a plan & solution. However, if you are simply looking for a way to help dry your yard up quicker, this list is for you! Arborvine installs a lot of engineered rain gardens, which are retention areas for water that are planted with carefully curated species & cultivars that don’t mind wet feet. These native plants are tried & tested to tolerate these conditions & may be a great addition to your home’s landscape!

1. Button Bush

A beautiful Delaware native shrub that has fragrant, white flowers during the summer months. This shrub is sure to attract your favorite pollinators! Buttonbush thrives in damp areas & can even handle mild pooling of water! A great choice as a foundation shrub or specimen feature!

2. Cardinal Flower

A naive perennial that tolerates full sun to partial shade. Use this perennial in a damp area and watch the vibrant flowers that produce stunning red spikes. The best part, these flowers are guaranteed to attract hummingbirds! A must have in a Delaware native landscape!

3. Winterberry

One of Arborvine’s favorite native shrubs to incorporate into our designs! A member of the holly family, this plant has smooth green leaves that shimmer in the summer sun. With cultivars maturing at multiple different sizes, this versatile plant can find a home in almost any landscape! The best part, in the winter, this plant stays true to its name offering one of a kind winter interest! Stunning red berries will remain vibrant all winter long. The perfect pop of color in a serene, snow covered winter landscape! Plus you may find one of your favorite birds snacking on the berries!

4. Joe Pye Weed

A unique perennial that can be used for meadows & perennial gardens. In late summer you can expect large, dusky pink flower heads which are butterfly magnets! Place this plant in a damp area and the roots will thrive! You may find this perennial lining one of Arborvines exquisite rock swales or dry creek beds throughout Delaware & Pennsylvania.

5. Swamp Rose Mallow

A true stunner to add color, texture & movement to your landscape! A mid to late summer bloomer with large, showy pink & white flowers. If you love color, this is a great naive perennial for you. Rose Mallow is not phased by damp soil conditions & will use this excess moisture to grow & thrive!

As April showers continue, the right plant choices can make a meaningful difference in how your landscape handles excess water. Incorporating native, moisture-tolerant plants is a simple and effective way to support better drainage while enhancing the beauty and ecological value of your yard. If you’re dealing with persistent pooling, erosion, or water making its way toward your home, Arborvine’s team is here to help. From thoughtfully designed rain gardens to fully engineered drainage solutions, we work with you every step of the way to create a landscape that performs as well as it looks.

Reach out today to schedule a consultation and get your property ready for the seasons ahead.

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Testimonials

Very flexible and hard working company. Reasonably priced and were able to transform our entire landscaping, front and back, in just a couple of days. Highly recommend!

James Hoffman

Wilmington, DE
We are very pleased with the quality of work that was performed on our drainage problem. They redid our front yard with a stone border and added a lot of new plants. They also take care of our mowing and yard fertilizing. Greg always keeps us informed with the progress of the jobs and responses to our texts and/or phone calls. We highly recommend them for all your landscaping projects!!

Sheila Moran

Wilmington, DE
We moved into a home that had not been upgraded outside and was in need of new landscaping. We
wanted to add an outdoor kitchen as well for our anniversary. The work in the front of the house and also the outdoor patio and kitchen were higher than our expectations. Arborvine has turned our backyard into an Oasis! Love the work that was done. We are keeping them for our maintenance. People are stopping us and praising the front of the house upgrade. Highly Recommend.

Laura Keller

Wilmington, DE
So very glad that we had the opportunity to work with Greg and his team to upgrade the gardens at our new house in North Wilmington as well as get a VERY thorough Fall clean up. Fabulous design, and redesign too, when our plans needed to change.

His team, headed by Alex who answered all of our questions about maintenance as well as the day to day work, were very responsive as well as conscientious. They were on top of things after they left as well – answering our email questions about watering in a very timely fashion to make sure that our investment was taken care of.

Would highly recommend them to anyone for installing new gardens as well as maintaining and cleaning up what you have.

Cheryl Kuchler

Wilmington, DE
Greg was very patient with our many questions and ideas for our front walkway landscaping. The workers were polite, prompt, and accomplished the work in the time stated. We have received many compliments from our neighbors!

Julia Rominger

Wilmington, DE
The whole team was professional, thorough, communicative, and did great work. No complaints.

John Cohn

Wilmington, DE
Greg and his crew did a phenomenal job on our landscaping. The customer service aspect of Greg and his crew were top notch. We had many additions to our plan and they were handled timely and professionally. I highly recommend Arborvine Landscaping for any of your landscaping needs!! Great service at a great value. We are so pleased with the outcome and how it changed the look of our property.

Pat & Dave Pearsall

Middletown, DE
I used Arborvine Landscaping this past Spring for major landscaping around my house. They leveled my front lawn and added sod, cleaned up and lined our flower beds with stone edging and removed dead wood, poison ivy, overgrown brush in the far back of the property and replaced it with arborvitaes and other plants. They also added a row of rocks to improve the water runoff and drainage. We are very happy with the results and we are still using this company. We get a lot of compliments from our neighbors about how nice our house looks.

Mike Levithan

Wilmington, DE
Love the workmanship, professionalism , design, and outcome of our outdoor project. Always on time, friendly, beautiful workmanship, cleaned up every day and on final day. Would highly recommend Arborvine for anyone. Thank you for an amazing outcome!

Karen Rockwell

Springfield, PA
Greg is a great communicator and makes sure everything you ask for is done. His team were perfectionists, and super efficient. Our yard looks beautiful. Definitely using them again in the future.

Phillip Marinelli

Newark, DE