Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: Top 10 annuals and perennials, 1 by debnes_dfw_tx

debnes_dfw_tx wrote:
Hi Peggy!
Yeah, nice idea for a thread. Becky named a lot of winners, I will confirm some of hers and add a few I know too. I see you are in Little River County...so as Beck pointed out, lets start here>
http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/map?dc=1643&_dcc=1&si=4

Asters~ Pearl Crescent larval host

Sweet Pea~ Might have to wait til next year they should be started in fall and kept protected from freezes until Spring. The Gray Hairstreak uses Pea family plants and Hibiscus Malvas, among many other things.

Hardy Hibiscus or Swamp Mallow

White and Red Clover~ Gray Hairstreak and a number of whites and sulphur butterflies use this as a larval host.

Milkweed... Asclepias> " incarnata, tuberosa, curassvica for Monarchs, Lots of other butterflies love Milkweed as a nectar plant.

False Indigo~ Southern Dogface use this as a larval host, and may other bf use for nectar.

Passionflower~ Gulf Fritillary larval host.. There are several ones you can try I know for sure they use as a larval host: Passiflora caerulea, Passiflora incarnata, Passiflora incense... (Some Passifloras are not larval hosts.) I only list what I know first hand.

Peggy~ I am mainly focussing on your county and the short list they give on the above link. I am surprised it is so short compared to Tarrant County here where I live. You are not very far from us actually.
Another idea might be to check the lists (on the above site), for your neighboring counties between here and there, and check the possiblilties of luring certain ones to spread closer to Little River. Who knows, you might end up making them have to revise their list.

The more than 10 Becky listed, again, are wonderful plants and flowers to have in your garden. Most are on what I would list for you>

h=host, n=nectar
Zennias~n
Vitex~n
Hibiscus~h&n
Cosmos~n
Nasturtium~h&n
Asclepisa~h&n
False Indigo~h&n
Clover trifolium~h&n
Passionflower Vine~h
Pipevine, Aristolochia tomentosa, fimbriata, macrophylla, trilobata~h

Keep watching your garden and let us know what comes through, & try to get as many pictures as you can. We can go from there. The above referenced site has a species search and photo gallery from the menu on the left side too.

Can't wait to see what you get!!

:-Deb

Pic: One of many Gulf Fritillary chrysalids hanging from the lattice in back where the Passionvines are>