on Stachytarpheta mutabilis, Red Porterweed, one of my all time favorite critter attractors. The butterflys and bees love this plant!
Long Tailed Skipper
ha! stac, I didn't realize you posted this picture..LOL! I posted the same one..duhhh...just seeing it now! These Porter Weeds are amazing for butterflies aren't they!
I had blue and red porterweed in the b'fly garden until the frosts knocked the red ones out last winter. Since they cost my $4 ea, I opted not to replace them. But I did notice that the bugs definitely preferred the red to the blue when given the choice. I still get plenty of nectaring on the blue porters, though. Bidens alba (Spanish Needle or Tickseed) is also a really good nectar plant, but it has a tendency to get really weedy really fast (i.e. has lots of seeds and 99.99999% of them germinate).
I guess we got lucky, ours came back from the freeze. The yard is FULL of butterflies right now and the red PW and the Bidens are the definitely the best draws
I would rank Pentas and Lantanas right after porterweed and B. alba for b'fly draws. I have also recently seen lots of sulphur b'flies nectaring on my Impatiens in the back yard. I was really surprised by that!
I just spent the last two weekends weeding my front b'fly garden of all the B. alba seedlings. UGH! The plan is to let just one or two plants go and yank the rest. I tried that this spring, but never completely finished the job I started, so now I'm gonna doubly pay for it. I'm about half way through the weeding of just the front garden. Boy am I sore, too! I haven't even gotten to the worst of it yet.