Hello All,
For the Butterflies I'm adding Viola adunca and Diplacus aurantiacus...
For the Hummingbirds I'm adding Salvia buchananii...
What new plants are you adding to your gardens this year?
Campsis radicans Summer Snowfall
Honeysuckle-Harlequin
Leonotis
Coral Nymph Salvia
This year I am adding Gayfeather.... my purpose is not only a butterfly habitat but also a Texas Native plant garden.
I have 3 plants I want to add this year:
Walker's Low Catmint (Nepeta)
Nearly Red Pentstemon
Agastache rupestris
All 3 should be hardy in my zone 4 garden and will supposedly tolerate a little shade, so perfect for my yard :)
(The Pentstemon and Agastache are available from High Country Gardens ( http://www.highcountrygardens.com/ ), the catmint is available from lots of sources.
mexican sunflower tithonia and Black night Butterfly bush.
So far the butterfly bush has attracted a Red admiral to our garden for the first time. The sunflower hasn't bloomed yet.
I always have good luck with the butterfly bushes, but they are annuals for me in zone 4 (this year I'm going with Black Knight and Potter's Purple). They can supposedly be wintered over, but I've never had any luck with them coming back. I know the ones my grandmother had in CA got huge but mine stay fairly small.
Skeleton-leaf Goldeneye, Purple Leatherflower, Downy Skullcap, Scarlet fruit Passionvine, False Ragweed, plantain, cup flower, coffee senna, and a False Nettle. Lots of new ones from our Round Up this month!!!
I decided to add more host plants this year. I planted three Wafer Ash (Ptelea trifoliata) for the Giant STs, a Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) so now I have two, and a Sweetbay Magnolia (Magnolia virginiana) for the Tiger STs.
For nectar I'm heading to Home Depot to get some more pentas (they're on sale and the frost got mine). I also want to add some different types of dianthus since I had so much success with them this year. They made it through the heat of summer and through several freezes. I garden both sides of the front of the street and the dianthus are on the neighbor's side. She must have liked them because she put some around her mailbox. She's not much of a gardener so I think she sees what works and then copies me, but that's ok.
Butterflyaddict, I have a "Black Night" buddelia & a Purple one ( can't remember it's name) & I have a Pearl Crescent on them at the moment. Don't forget to put out rotten fruit, especially bananas as Red Admirals LOVE them!!
I found a Black ST caterpillar on my dill today & the "parent" was flying around for awhile. I put a little bit of netting over the cat to protect it from the birds as this is a first for me & I want ..or hope.. it will survive.
I had Monarch caterpillars a few years ago & all the Grackles (birds) killed them, including the one that made it to a chrysalis.
This message was edited May 10, 2011 7:54 PM
I always find it interesting to read what you Texans are growing for the butterflies! Such a range of vegetation for them. And of course, the life-cycle timing for your butterflies is so different from ours here in Ohio, too.
Let's see...what am I adding for zone 6a??
For the hummers:
I've got some wonderful new (seed grown) Strawberry digitalis (foxglove) that have already attracted a hummingbird or two.
My native red columbine (from seed) just appeared this spring. Again for the hummers.
And my fall planted abelia is in bloom and very happy and a good addition for RTHU.
I planted seed for Red Buckeyes last fall and they seem to be popping up and happy so I'm thrilled about that.
As opposed to adding plants, I have edited out a lot of sensitive and tropical hummer plants because they require too much water and fussing. (I got my water bill for last August and almost fainted!)
For the butterflies:
Last fall I planted lots of red and purple hyacinths for spring bloom and I think they attracted some early butterflies (and hummers too). So will do that again in October.
Also a good new addition for early butterflies for us was Allysum Sax (? something or other) the perennial allysum. Brought in some early butterflies too.
My liatris ligulistylus is coming on strong for the first time this spring. Our monarchs are addicted to this and I'm growing more from seed for them.
If I add anything more for the butterflies, it will probably be trees: dogwoods, willows, maybe a mallow, some more cassias. Although these are already represented in the yard in some way, I think trees and shrubs are an easy way for me to make the butterflies happy and save on labor and water.
I confess did order 2 dozen tropical milkweeds for the monarchs to add to our native milkweeds. This I do every year.
I'm getting into eco friendly 'easy maintenance' in a big way these days!
It's too bad the butterflies and hummers don't go in for Clematis too much as mine are big and voluptuous for the first time this year! Or do the butterflies and hummers like clematis and I just haven't noticed?
Happy gardening! t.
I added 2 Spigelia Marilandica this year. In the on-line pictures the plant is gorgeous but, man are they hard to find! It really took some doin'.They're starting to get a hint of red blooms, so I'm excited to see how they turn out. Hope the hummers love 'em!
carol,
I will be interested to hear how your Indian Pink performs. They do look so attractive in the pics online and the native plant sites all seem to say such good things about it~~long bloom season, spreads well if it likes its placement (likes moisture and shade), pretty bloom, hummingbirds like it, etc.
Sounds like a perfect plant for me!
Tabasco - Yeah, all these sites advertised having Indian Pink, & had these fabulous pictures of the plant & GLOWING reviews of it; then I'd start the ordering process &, lo & behold, "not available"! It was really frustrating. I think the place I finally got it was Lazy S Farms (I forgot to take the ordering labels out of the box before recycling it. Duh!). I have very little shady garden area but I just had to try this plant, based on the beautiful pictures. Fingers crossed!
I tried this plant, Indian Pink, a number of times without any luck. Since it is native to a little further south then where I live I thought it wasn't going to make it again. It did well last year partially shaded and kept moist by the birdbath.
I just noticed today a nice clump of shoots so I'll keep my fingers crossed.
I think sometimes plants grow better if I can purchase them locally rather then mail order. I found this one at Bowman's Hill Nature Preserve Native Plant Sale last spring. They grow all the plants there in Pa. so maybe it was better acclimated to this area. This has happened to me with a number of natives in particular.
Maybe you can find it at a local native plant sale. It certainly was much cheaper then from mail order or even the local native plant nurseries. I think they can keep their costs low because they use volunteers.
I do go frequently to the native plant nurseries also and use 1or 2 local mail order sites. I wouldn't want them to go out of business or I'd be stuck back at local commercial nurseries that no longer have anything I want.
