Hi Everyone! Just wanted to get a general opinion from everyone. As I have a very small back yard... I want to limit myself to only a few nectar/host plants in mass plantings. So I'll put the question out there..
If you could only choose 3 flowers to mass plant, which 3 would you choose?
If You Could Only Choose Three...
Hard to limit it to three, but if I'm choosing just for nectar: Lantana, Pentas, and Garden Phlox (Phlox paniculata).
Dale Clark
Dallas County Lepidopterists' Society
www.dallasbutterflies.com
For larval host plants, I would suggest milkweed, specifically Tropical Milkweed, or Asclepias curassavica, and Asclepias physocarpa, or Family Jewels, both of which are hardy perennials in your zone, for the Monarch butterfly. Easy to grow from seed, but you may find plants locally, too. The flowers are a great nectar source for all butterflies as well.
If you have room to grow vertically, I would suggest a passion vine, like Passiflora suburosa, or Passiflora 'Lavender Lady', which are better behaved than others, and are the larval host for the Zebra Longwing and Gulf Fritillary butterflies. In general, the red flowering passion vines are toxic to the caterpillars.
Another vertical vine that is a good larval host is the pipe vine for the Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly. Either Aristolochia tomentosa or A. elegans would be fine in Florida. Just do not use A. gigantea which is toxic to them.
If you grow some fennel or Rue, both herbal plants, you will probably get the Black Swallowtail that uses them as a host plant. Rue also attracts Giant Swallowtails as well.
Just a few ideas. Good luck and have fun!
Susan
Tropical Milkweed is a definite choice. I grow it every year and it does extremely well, except for when the Aphid Army decides to invade! Boy, is that a never ending battle!
Lantana and Zinnias.
Carla
ok, so I already have A little Zinnia, Milkweed, Fennel, Lantana, Buddleia, coneflower, Verbena, Dill (but it just never survives for me), Alyssun, Salvia (more for the hummers) Dianthus, Bee Balm and Agastache. all in one large planting bed.
I have three other smaller planting beds that I would like to mass plant a single flower in each. One for sure will have Milkweed... the other two I have yet to decide the best flowers for. Thus my asking everyone's opinion. I'm leaning towards maybe Zinnia and Coneflowers for the other two? Do you guys think those would be good choices?
Bear in mind that I'm in Central FL, so while the rest of you are just emerging into cool Spring temps, we are already enduring summer-like heat waves and when the north is experiencing their first frosts of the season... we are STILL enduring summer-like heat waves, LOL. we have about 3-4 weeks of 'winter' (Fall for the rest of you) here, where the temps drop below freezing at night.
The Garden Phlox for their long lasting blooms...great nectar plants.
Also the West Texas Mist Flower http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/169081/ would be a must. The Monarchs and other bfs love it even over zinnias, etc.
I second the West Texas Mist Flower. The butterflies LOVE that plant!!!
I would add parsley in there some where and DEFINITELY tall red pentas (ruby red) not the small home depot variety. Lantana,phlox and coneflower do well also but lantana can be aggressive for us here, and the coneflower and phlox I have used suffer because of the nasty humidity we have.
Eek! And i just planted 3 coneflower!
That is good....it is the lantana she said is agressive. You will be blessed with butterflies!
For nectar sources only:
Zinnia, Coneflower, Tithonia Torch
I was squealing because she said Coneflowers struggle in our humidity...lol. Lantana is on the invasive plant list here in FL, yet they sell it at every garden center - go figure. you would think that if a plant is invasive or listed as a 'noxious weed', they wouldn't allow them to be sold in nurseries and garden centers.
Cue-chik-
You'll find a number of invasives at garden centers, so you can't go by that.
I plant parsley and dill in part shade and they do much better. They just can't seem to take the heat and humidity.
The plant I love is pineapple sage. When everything else has about had it at the end of summer/early fall, it will be covered in blooms and butterflies. Sulfurs in particular adore it.
I'm trying again to grow the West Texas Mist Flower (again.) When I went to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center a few years ago, it was crazy how the butterflies were all over that plant. I don't think it likes all the rain we get and isn't excited by the humidity. I've planted it this time in a mounded bed with fast draining soil and it seems to be doing much better.
And zinnias. As many varieties as I can cram in.
Love love LOVE Zinnia!!! Its tje only think I can truly grow well ! Lol
west tx mist flower is the biggest butterfly magnet I've ever seen. it is always coated in butterflies.
Wish I could do the mist flower up here.
I wonder if it will grow here in Central FL? After all, Ive seen on several gardening sites now that my planting zone has been changed by the USDA from 9a to 8b...lol
The mist flower is from Texas, it can take the heat. It's the 4 or 5 months of sauna that seem to do in a lot of plants. Several of us have theorized that from June to October when it rarely drops lower than 70F and the humidity is close to 100% at night, that the plants really don't have a down time and burns a lot of them out. That and the moisture.
I've had success planting plants that don't like a lot of water, like hummingbird mint (agastache), in mounds in cactus mix or in bark. I've also tried planting them in gravel in the ground. We typically get 50+ inches of rain a year and they hate sitting in wet.
anyone know of a good source to purchase West Texas Mist Flower?
High Country Gardens or Plant delights have it
If you don't mind trading out of state you could probably post on the plant trading forum and get some that way.
Mrs Ed you should be able to grow this in your area as an annual. You might have it seed. I save a few pieces from year to year.
Cue_chik I have used this eupatorium along with mist flower and had good success, the queens in particular seem to adore it. The mist flower always comes back from seed.
The tithonia is also an awesome nectar plant but seems to end up everywhere unless you can really monitor and deadhead. Torch and fiesta del sol are nice varieties.
yah? Well I'll check it out then I have yet to have the Tithonia reseed up here, but that's okay I guess.
I was just looking on-line today for spigelia marilandica. I saw on a hummingbird site that it's listed as one of the 10 best native hummer plants. It got a really good recommendation as a good plant for mass plantings. I'm having some trouble finding it, tho.
http://www.northcreeknurseries.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/plants.plantDetail/plant_id/293/index.htm
http://www.easywildflowers.com/products.htm
http://davesgarden.com/products/ps/go/48891/
maybe these? I see that Plant Delights is sold out.