You’ve stood at the edge of a yard, a field edge, a sunny slope – and felt that pull. What should be growing here? What belongs here?
That question is exactly what Presto was built to answer. Prairie Restorations’ free online tool generates a personalized list of native plants ranked by how well they match your site’s specific conditions, drawing on more than 50 years of field research and restoration experience across the Midwest.
Whether you’re planning a backyard pollinator patch, restoring an acreage, or just getting curious about what your corner of the upper Midwest can support, Presto does the species-matching work for you. This guide walks through how to use it – and how to actually read your results.
Presto is a free, web-based native plant finder built by Prairie Restorations, Inc. You answer six short questions about your site (including sun exposure, soil type, soil moisture, and restoration goals) and Presto returns a ranked list of native grasses, wildflowers, sedges, shrubs, and trees matched to those conditions. It’s available for use anywhere in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
Behind the tool is more than five decades of hands-on restoration data, the same knowledge our ecologists use when designing seed mixes and planting plans for clients across the region. Each plant on your list is scored based on its historical presence in sites like yours – not a generic regional list, but real recommendations ranked by how well they fit your specific corner of land.
Head to prairieresto.com/presto and click Start Building Your Presto! The tool walks you through six steps. Here’s what each one is asking for.
How much light does your site get during peak growing season (roughly mid June)? Full sun is six or more hours of direct sun per day; partial shade falls in between 4 and 6 hours; full shade means the area gets less than 4 hours of sun per day.
Pro Tip: If your site has a mix of sun conditions, run Presto separately for each zone to get targeted recommendations for both.
The Midwest has a vast range of soil types and knowing which soil type your project area has can greatly influence the type of plants that will thrive. If you’re not sure: grab a handful of moist soil and squeeze it. Sandy soil feels gritty and falls apart, clay holds its shape and feels sticky, and loam is somewhere in between. Don’t stress over getting it perfect – native plants can be forgiving, and Presto accounts for a range of conditions.
How wet or dry is your site in a typical year? Dry sites are well-drained and rarely hold standing water. Wet sites stay damp or collect water after rain. Mesic (medium) conditions fall in the middle. A useful test: picture your site after a solid rain. Does water sit for a day or more? Wet. Does it drain within an hour or two? Mesic to dry.
This is where things get exciting. Choose the native plant community you’re aiming to restore or create: prairie, savanna, woodland, wetland, or others. Not sure which fits? Historically open grassland is prairie, scattered trees with open ground is savanna, dense canopy is woodland, and low-lying wet areas point to wetland communities.
Wildflowers for pollinators, grasses and sedges for structure and deep roots, shrubs and trees for a layered landscape – or all of the above. For most sites, a mix gives you the healthiest, most resilient results.
Your address helps Presto fine-tune recommendations for your specific region – conditions vary a lot across the five states, and Presto accounts for that. Your contact info lets us send your results as a detailed PDF straight to your inbox.
Note: Presto’s coverage area and Prairie Restorations’ service area don’t directly correlate. We typically serve all of Minnesota and a bit into each neighboring state – just reach out if you’re wondering whether we can work with you directly.
Once you’ve completed all six steps, Presto generates your personalized plant list on-screen and emails you a PDF copy.
Each plant’s score isn’t based on a guess – it comes from historical dot map surveys created by botanists and field researchers who spent decades documenting native plant communities across the Midwest. Presto uses that body of work to calculate how often a given species showed up in conditions like yours.
A high score means strong historical documentation in similar environments which is a good sign the plant will establish and persist on your land. It can also indicate a tendency toward dominance; species like Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) scored high because they thrive and spread readily. That’s not always a problem since dominant species help form the backbone of a healthy native community, but it is worth keeping in mind as you plan.
Don’t skip the plants at the bottom of your list. A lower score doesn’t mean a plant is less important – it means the species was documented less frequently in your exact conditions, but it was still there, still part of the community, and still belonging on your land.
Some of the most ecologically significant species land near the bottom. A wildflower with a modest score might be the only host plant for a group of specialist native bees that wouldn’t benefit from anything else on your list. These quieter members of the community are often what separate a planting that looks native from one that actually functions as one. The best restorations pull from across the whole list.
Your Presto list is a starting point, not a prescription. Here’s a few ways to use it well:
Presto is completely free and takes about five minutes. Click below to build your custom plant list today.
Questions about your results or want to talk through your restoration project? We’re here for it. Reach out through our contact page – we love talking plants.