I do have lots of butterfly and hummingbird attracting plants here already (like 5 butterfly bushes) but today I ordered some Tropical Milkweed (which I get most years) and some orange Butterfly Weed to attrack the butterflies.
Then afew days ago I had ordered more Hummingbird Mint from High Country Gardens for the Hummers around here. Also called Agastache, I must say they are great plants and HCG is known for their own intros. They start blooming early summer and just keep right on going until a hard freeze. Agastache is one of my favorite plants even though it is slightly fussy and you have to find the right place for it, one with excellent drainage.
I had bought many Hummingbird Mints last spring and since they all came thru the winter excellently, I knew I just had to add more.
Links-
High Country Gardens
http://www.highcountrygardens.com/
Rose Franklin Perennials
http://www.butterflybushes.com/index.htm
Adding New Plants for the Butterflies and Hummingbirds
I have agastache apricot sunrise for the hummers. The leaves smell wonderful, and it appears to be an almost self-cleaning plant. It blooms all summer and I never dead head the flowers. Just planted these last year... think I will pick up some more agastache cultivars this year. I also have several patches of black and blue salvia. Of all my flowers, the hummers love the BB salvia the best.
I love BLACK AND BLUE SALVIA but its not hardy here. Have to plant new each spring and treat it like an annual. The hummers do love it, so much for the idea that they don't like the blue flowers only the reds and hot colored ones.
I also plant INDIGO SPIRES salvia each year but again, it is not hardy here and I have to start over each year.
As for the Hummingbird Mints, all of them have an herb smell if you crush or brush against the leaves. I just love the flowers on them though.
I have-
AVA
ROSITA
SHADES OF ORANGE
DESERT SUNRISE
ACAPULCO ORANGE
Neomexicana
All from High Country Gardens.
Hate that BB salvia is not hardy in your area. It's a staple for me.
How do your milkweeds perform? I planted 3 orange butterfly weeds last year and hope they return; I've read that they are one of the last to emerge in the spring/summer. I have some Cindererlla swamp milkweed seeds growing inside, I hope to tranplant them when it TRULY warms up. Thought about buying some Hello Yellow milkweed. I've read that it blooms for a long time.
Have you tried passion flower incarnata (maypop)? It's native and the gulf fritillary butterflys love it. They practically eat mine to the ground each year. Maypops are pretty hardy and "assertive", but the frit. cats keep mine in check.
I purchased some pipevine tomentosa this year and hope to get some pipevine swallowtail cats. Both the pipevine and maypop are planted AWAY from the house, in case the cats don't visit as much this year. The husband doesn't understand why I buy plants that could consume a house...
Also picked up some native birds foot violet and Hotlips turtleheads (Can't remember which butterflys like these)... we'll see how they do...
Rita,
I'm planning on ordering some agastache within the next few weeks from high county gardens. Was your Ava as beautiful as their pictures on their website? I'm really interested in that as well as orange flare.
I absolutely love AVA and also ROSITA. Not sure which of those two is my favorite Agastache but maybe they tie for favorite.
I found some pictures of the hummingbird mints blooming last August.
more
The front yard, those two pictures already posted were in the back yard.
closeup
Front yard section looking from the opposite direction.
another one
last closeup
beautiful agastaches, Rita!
I haven't had much luck with agastache. I love it, love the scent of the foliage, but in the past, it hasn't performed well. After years of amending my soil, perhaps it would do better here now. I may try it again.
I grow lots of Passiflora Incarnatas. I love to watch the life cycle of the gulf frits.
I also grow lots of bronze fennel for the black swallowtails. They just fascinate me! They're so beautiful. And the bronze fennel is so smoky and wispy and even fragrant. Even if it didn't attract the swallowtails, I'd continue to grow it for the foliage. It self-sows for me so I keep digging up plants and scattering about the yard.
I grow gingers and monardas to attract the hummingbird moths. The tiny one, which is sooooo cute, loves the monardas, phlox, and salvias. The large moth visits the gingers.
My amaranthus attracts all kinds of bees, wasps, and butterflies. The black wasps are harmless I guess. They've never even come after me. I pet the bumblebees. They're so velvety soft and just keep slurping nectar, enjoying the "massage therapy" I give them. LOL And all the butterflies! So many different kinds love the amaranthus plumes.
NancyAnn
I have tried almost every butterfly and hummer plant I've been able to find that is possible to grow in my area. I've kept some info in my DG journal, thought I'd share so you could see some of my plants that 'actually' attract them. It is hard, where it seems some nurseries are trying to capitalize on the popularity of us gardeners that like to do this, by claiming all kinds of plants that attract butterflies, that actually don't. Basically it seems they are going on the idea that pretty much any brightly colored flowers could attract them, however I am interested in the ones that keep them sticking around long enough to get a pic. So I have some proof in my pictures, check them out. I have lots more on my Picasa album too. And I probably can dig up some lists of my best performers if you want. : ) http://davesgarden.com/tools/blog/index.php?tabid=4020
I also have a similar journal on hummers, however I really need to get a much better camera if I want to produce any good photos of them. I think out of 30 snaps I end up with one that you can kind of see the hummer in. It is sorta like playing Where' Waldo lol! : ) I'll give you the link anyways, I did put down some lists of what had worked. I think others I've tried work too, but it is impossible to catch every hummer visit. Sometimes I am amzed at how hard it is to find them after you spot them. They are so quick. And it seems when they know I've seen them they flee to the trees. : ) http://davesgarden.com/tools/blog/index.php?tabid=3993
Had to fix link.
This message was edited Mar 26, 2010 12:55 PM
NancyAnn- You shouldn't have to amend the soil to sucessfully grow Agastache. It is originally a high desert plant so takes lean soil.
I started by trying Agastaches afew years ago and lost many of them as that first winter as they died off. Eventually they ALL died out. Afew years later I tried again as I had figgured out the perfect spot in one of the terraced gardens in my front yard. I had it two winters and then I terraced more spots in the front yard and planted those that you see pictured above. That was last spring and they all came thru the winter just fine. So I am adding more in the front this year.
In the back yard the two pictured also came thru the winter fine. But the prior year, they died over the winter and I replaced them by buying more. I foolishly mulched over them in the fall and they can not take the excess winter moisture over the tops of the plants. Then I planted all the new ones with the crown of the plants slightly high. That really works well.
I have some nice ammended heavily mulched gardenbeds that are on level land (not like my terraces) and I have never been able to get agastache to overwinter in those beds.
My ground was all red clay when I began gardening. I can't afford to water since our neighborhood shares a well. I have to be very frugal with water so I don't run the well dry, leaving us without drinking and bathing water. Red clay gets rock hard here in the summer with no rain. You've seen deserts that are all dry and cracked up. That's what my yard used to be.
After years of composting and mulching, though, I've now turned it into luscious black gold and can grow almost anything with very little or no water. The agastache couldn't take the hard clay soil and struggled to do anything. Do you think it will thrive in my amended soil? It survived a winter or two, but just didn't do well during summer. I'm kind of eager to try it in the new soil. I had sunset ag and tuitti fruitti ag before, if I remember correctly.
NancyAnn
If I remember correctly, TUTI FRUITTI is one of the more tender ones. When I choose ones at High Country Gardens, I try to stick to the ones that are more cold hardy, picking ones rated to zone 5 works for me althought we are a 6B here sometimes rated as 7.
If the soil does not drain well then the Agastache will rot. Another thing that helps is to plant them high so that keeps them drier. Do you have a raided bed anywhere? Or could you make one somewhere? That would deffinately work.
I love the passionflower incarnata too, Butterfly Chaser. Gulf frits are some scary looking cats, not as cute as the blackswallow tail cats. I don't grow the fennel, but I may try it after reading your description; I just grow parsley for the black swallowtail cats. I also purchased a pipevine this year for the pipevine swallowtails; they are pretty scary looking too. Hope to attract more than aphids to my butterfly weed this year.
Be careful with those bumblebees. Last year I was watering and felt something tickel my stomach. What an unpleasant surprise when I gave the tummy a scratch. A bumblebee had wandered under my Tshirt and gave me 3 nasty stings before I could get him out. Ouch!
Newyorkrita, water is not an issue here. Summers are typically hot and very dry. We often go without water for a month or longer. My ags didn't rot. They were probably thirsty and couldn't handle the hard clay they were planted in, I'm thinking. It makes it hard for the roots to spread like they would in looser soil.
I love my bumblebees. We have few honeybees here anymore, so I nurture and treasure all my bbs. I see their stings as just nature protecting itself. Now the wasps I hate! And we are overrun with them. Those things do these kama kazi dives straight for me and are just mean and vicious. One came from out of a nowhere and stung my cheek for no reason! I keep benadryl on hand. Fortunately I haven't been too allergic to them, but every sting is different and any of them could be potentially fatal to anyone.
The bronze fennel, sometimes called smoky fennel, is really a beautiful plant. And you'll have oodles of swallowtail cats on it.
I'm hoping to get more than aphids on my butterfly weed this year too.
More pictures taken last September. (9/24)
another
and another
This picture of the front yard really shows the sidewalk and how this garden is set up in terraces leading up from the street.
My Hummingbird Mints and Indigo Spires Salvia came yesterday from High Country Garden. They arrived too late to do much with, so I opened the box and left them for today. I got them planted already today and they are going to look so good.
I have Agastache (huimmingbird mints) here already but I am sure the hummers would always enjoy more.