What actually survives in a Fort Leonard Wood yard
Just PCSed to Fort Leonard Wood? Whatever grew at your last duty station, the Ozarks plays by different rules, zone 6b/7a in the Ozarks, rocky clay a pickaxe respects, steamy summers, honest winters, and deer everywhere the woods touch your yard. Here's the straight list, from Sprigwise, a veteran-founded app that matches plants to yards for a living.
Every plant below is one of the 500 species in our fact-checked database, no guesses, no filler.
Ten that make it here
Full disclosure: "makes it" still means you water it through its first summer. After that, these mostly fend for themselves.
🌸 Eastern Redbud
An Ozark native that grows out of rock ledges on its own, in a yard it's the first purple of March, no coddling required.
What to buy and when to plant it here →
🌼 Flowering Dogwood
Missouri's state tree, at home on these wooded slopes, give it high shade and it gives you April.
What to buy and when to plant it here →
🌸 Purple Coneflower
Native to Ozark glades, thin rocky soil is its natural habitat, not a hardship.
What to buy and when to plant it here →
🌼 Black-Eyed Susan
Missouri's state flower, effectively unkillable in clay once its first summer is watered.
What to buy and when to plant it here →
🌾 Little Bluestem
Little bluestem grows wild on every dry Ozark hillside, copper fall color and zero maintenance in a yard.
What to buy and when to plant it here →
🌾 Switchgrass
Takes clay, wet springs, and dry Augusts, then holds its shape through snow, a four-season native screen.
What to buy and when to plant it here →
🧡 Coral Honeysuckle (Trumpet Honeysuckle)
The polite native honeysuckle, hummingbird traffic without the invasive takeover of its Japanese cousin.
What to buy and when to plant it here →
💐 Smooth Hydrangea (Annabelle)
Wild smooth hydrangea grows in Ozark hollows naturally, the 'Annabelle' in your bed is the local made fancy.
What to buy and when to plant it here →
🌿 Christmas Fern
Evergreen native fern for the shady, rooty, rocky spots, and the deer leave it alone, which matters here.
What to buy and when to plant it here →
🌼 Common Witch Hazel
Witch hazel blooms yellow in November woods when everything else has quit, a native that likes these slopes.
What to buy and when to plant it here →Five that will break your heart
All five get sold around here anyway. The nursery isn't lying to you, the label just wasn't written for the Ozarks.
🌺 Crape Myrtle
Zone 7 wishful thinking at the 6b line, it dies to the ground in a real winter and spends every summer starting over.
🌼 Confederate Jasmine (Star Jasmine)
The evergreen vine from a Southern duty station is zone 8, one Ozark January ends it, roots and all.
☠️ Oleander
Gulf Coast hardware in a zone 6 winter, it's a patio pot here or it's compost by March.
🌴 Sago Palm
Sold every spring anyway; rated zone 8. The first single-digit night turns it bronze, then brown, then gone.
🌼 Lantana
A perennial in Louisiana, an annual in the Ozarks, enjoy it May to frost and budget to replace it.
Every yard on post is different.
Shade from the trees, drainage, which way your fence faces. Run yours through the matcher and get odds for YOUR exact yard, free.
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