Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: Hummingbird and Butterfly plants, 1 by pollengarden

pollengarden wrote:
If you look closely at this photo, you will notice that there are no Hummingbirds or Butterflies in this picture. But behind the camera there is a photographer that is planning Hummingbird and Butterfly plants for 2010. I'm jealous of all you people that are still photographing Hummers and Butterflies in December!

This year's favorite Hummingbird plant was probably agastache, but they liked the penstemon, silene, and runner beans, too. Next year I'm going to try Crocosmia, Honeysuckle vine, and Cardinal flower.

Butterfly garden has been a bust so far - I have a hard time attracting butterflies to this too-dry-for-most-weeds area. I have had the most luck with Black Swallowtails on dill, but little predators get most of my little caterpillars. Next year I'm going to try more varieties of milkweed, and more legumes since Sulphers seem the most likely to be passing through. I'm going to continue to plant buckwheat and violets - I need a groundcover anyway and maybe a larger patch will help. I have good luck attracting adults to nectar on Rabbitbrush in the fall.