Was thinking about my butterfly garden this morning and googled butterfly garden texas natives. This was one of the returns:
http://insects.tamu.edu/extension/bulletins/l-5313.html
A lot of info there for me to digest and use! I bet if ya'll replaced the keyword 'texas' with your state you'd find plenty of info. I did. The link above was only one of many returns! Good luck. ;-)
John
Time to plan your butterfly garden!
Hi, Imway--
Thanks for the tip! I googled for Ohio and got a nice list with special mention of invasives to know about for Ohio gardeners.
http://ohioline.osu.edu/w-fact/0012.html
I'm planning my butterfly and HB gardens and sowing the seeds this month, so it's great info to have. t.
Hi, t. Attracting butterflies and hummers with plants native to our individual areas seems like the logical way to go to me. Satifies my need for easy care gardening, too!
Nothing wrong with the other plants either but, those will require extra care. ;-)
John
I still have a lot of Milkweed blooming, and a lot of Butterflys around the house. Many Monarchs, Queens, Sulphurs and skippers.
:-P
Hi John,
I have been working to improve my butterfly garden over the winter. The storms last fall changed the appearance of the yard. They took away a lot of my shade so I need to modify the way I'll be planting this year.
I have been visiting the local county parks with natural area's and picked up a bunch of native wildflowers. I used to call them weeds but one of our local garden group suggested wildflowers was more appropiate so that's what I call them now. At any rate I found and I am cultivating a good dozen or more of these wildflowers from the parks.
I found another spot for natives by accident a couple of months ago. I was waiting for a local patio tile manufacturer to open on a Saturday. His area backs up to a railroad siding. Spotting some "wildflowers" I began walking the tracks and found lots of wildflowers there, a few of which I posted in the plant files. Most of these are not cultivated or for sale in local nurseries but they are good butterfly nectar and larvae plants. Being natives the care required to raise these plants is minimal, but the rewards they bring by their ability to attract wildlive is maximized. I didn't mean for the list below to get so long, but it's a good indicator of what can be found locally with a minimum of trouble.
A few of the plants I found by the railroad tracks are
Sleepy Morning, Waltheria indica http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/122703/index.html
Berlandier Acacia, Acacia berlandieri http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/64760/index.html
Billy Goat Weed, Tropical Whiteweed, Ageratum conyzoides
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/54661/index.html
Floss Flower 'Blue Mink', Ageratum houstonianum
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/76155/index.html
Crotolaria, Rattlebox, Rattleweed, Cat's Bell, Crotalaria spectabilis
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/2337/index.html
Bloodberry, Rouge Plant, Baby Pepper, Coral Berry, Rivina humilis
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/58615/index.html
An interesting sidelight to all this is one of the trees above, the Berlandier Acacia, Acacia berlandieri is supposedly one of the top rated trees in Texas for producing the most nectar per flower. I hope it does the same for me here.
Art
Hi, artcons--
Very Interesting list and entries into Plantfiles. Thank you for posting.
I would like to grow Floss Flower here, but I am not sure if it's at all native or if there is a native version for Ohio...
I am wondering, too, though, how you knew these particular 'wildflowers' are butterfly attractants? From observation, or a reference book, or local lore?...just wondering.
Thanks for posting. t.
Excellent, Art! Thanks for the tip on Acacia berlandieri.
John
John, all the mist seeds have gone to the ground. Sorry.
Shoot!
T. Keep in mind, S Fla is urban, urban, urban. From S. Miami through Jupiter to the north, over 100 miles, is one continuous block of urban development. There are small pockets of wild area's here and there, and of course to the west is the Everglades which is undeveloped and will stay that way. With all this development there is a screaming need to preserve any natural area's left and also to encourage those with the ability, to plant native. Since almost everyone loves butterflies it's much easier to get people to use native plants, if the powers that be, put the emphasis on butterflies rather than the native plants.
There are many S Fl websites that discuss butterfly gardening at length. On most of these sites they also discuss native plants and their ability to attract butterflies.
There is also my power of observation. I look at butterflies whenever I see them and follow them to see what they are laying eggs on or feeding on and make notes.
John, tell me what to look for and I will get you seeds from my floss flower. I have several floss flower plants at different stages of growth so getting seeds should be easy.
This morning wandering around a couple of my favorite "wildflower" area's I found a nice grouping of floss flower and managed to take three nice rooted pieces home with me.
Here they seem to grow all year around, but I am not sure. My oldest plant is only about 4-5 months old. I don't know if they die back as annuals do or if they are perennial here. If I can find the seeds I would gladly send you some.
I recently read in one of the threads here, KKB has flossflowers. I saw a picture she sent with the post showing a bunch of flossflower plants she had. In fact her's were much bigger than mine. Perhaps she might send you some.
Art
John, there also quite a few links for Texas butterflies here:
http://www.texasento.net/plnts.htm
I'm really into butterflies and hope they'll either have a separate butterfly forum or a butterfly gardening forum soon.
Art, tie a baggie around a nearly spent flower. Let the seed mature and presto! Send me some seed. KKB is saving me some excess plants from roots. I will probably see her at the TX RU april 29. That is a must have plant for my garden. Thanks buddy!
Linda, that is a great link. Even found a Texas noxious weed list there. Thank you, ma'm! Btw, you just posted in the Butterfly Forum. ;-P
John
Oh, I just meant that they could have one forum for butterflies and one for hummingbirds. I love hummingbirds also, but would like a separate forum for each. I have lots of sites bookmarked for butterflies.
That would be ok with me, too. I think, traditionaly, they have been linked together.
Thanks for the links! John, I'm trying to increase my butterfly-supportive plants in the garden this this year. At the begining of Fall I planted a "butterfy cafe'" - bronze fennel, parsley, and rue. It actually is pretty attractive (IMHO), so I'm potting up two more to scatter in the garden. I already had lots of Mexican Milkweed, Mexican Mint Marigold, pentas, lantana, verbena, buddleia, rudbeckia, and many different salvias. Last year I added Jatropha, phlox, Passionvine, Dutchman's Pipe vine (growing it as a groundcover, no more trellis space), asters, and last week I bought a Meyer Lemon. Also, I keep water trays with pebbles and sand in some of the flower beds. I'm hoping to finally get to see these guys in the chrysalis stage this year!
Since the question came up of whether a given plant was native to a given area, thought I'd share one of my favorite links. Here's a link to the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center search page. http://www.wildflower2.org/NPIN/Plants/plant.html
You can either enter a particular plant's name, and then click on the distribution tab to see if your state or Canadian province is listed. If it shows up, the plant is native to your area . If you want to see all the plants native to your area, you can specify a US state or Canadian province towards the middle of the page, and page through what comes back.
Last summer was the first that I had enough butterfly attracting plants in sunny areas that I could see while hanging out on our screened porch.--I'm hooked.
Lori
Yay! I've got Spring and Butterfly Fever!! I am ready to get out and DIG! ...although I really can't because I'll be waiting to see what comes up. lol That is really torture on me!
I see y'all were talking about me! I do have Texas Mist Flower and am trying to get some of it started to share. I got my original start from TXMel who has a huge bed of it. I'll ask her how her bed looks and see if she's bringing any to the RU. I wasn't really planning on it until Sheila sent me the link and I saw how many of you were going! The whole plant swap thing stresses me out because I just have so little that spreads but I want to come just to visit!
Art, sounds like you have kept very busy! You are so good at researching and paying attention to small details. Thanks for the links in the plantfiles. I think that's a great idea to plant you local "weeds". lol Funny that your friends suggested "wildflowers". That Floss Flower is different from the Mist flower. The bloom itself looks almost the same but the plant and base are different. Another friend of mine usually has a big supply of a tall Floss flower. I am hoping my piece comes back but if not I'll hit her up again and share if it spreads. The small Floss flower is sold by Wal-Mart every year, but is an annual here.
Mary, I would LOVE some Pipevine!!! I've been searching for some for a couple of years and only ended up with seeds that I couldn't get to grow. Every year I have Pipevines that nectar but no host plants. Do I need to beg more? Please, please? :)
Lori, thanks for the reminder about Lady Bird Johnson's Wildflower Center! I would love to try and visit this year when the Spring wildflowers are in bloom. So happy that you "are hooked"! You'll never look at plants the same way again. Except for an occassional plant, everything else serves a purpose for the butterflies in mine. I get tired of things easily so they have to pass the test of "are they nectar sources?" or "do they attract beneficial insects?" etc. I guess the irises I've started collecting are that exception plant, but they are my "memory plants" from other people. :)
Lori, thats a great link for this thread. Thanks!!
Our Mexican Flame Vine is covered with blooms, and butterflys. Mostly Monarchs and Queens. We still have a great many Mexican Milkweed blooming, but for the most part, they are being ignored in favor of the Flame vines. Normally, the Mexican Flame vines are bright orange, but now they are bright red, with a few orange mixed in.
We had some friends over, and we each counted butterflys in different sections at the same time. We totaled 47 Monarchs and 9 Sulphurs, all the Sulphurs going on the Black Eyed Susan Vines, which are also in full bloom. There are more Skippers than could be counted. We seem to have almost all the flowers in the neighborhood that are still blooming.
Trouble is, its not hardy in my area. Bummer!
Move South, John.
And miss winter completely? Nah.
You have made that Mexican Flame sound irresistible! I'm going to try it here and maybe keep it in a pot inside in winter.
I am going to start some Pipevine, too.
The Lady Bird Johnson center site looks very interesting. I forgot that Mrs. Johnson was such a proponent of wildflowers--perhaps that explains all the interest from the Texans on DG.
Paige, I was just thinking today that I ought to try rooting some cuttings of the pipevine. I actually have new growth on it! If I'm successful, you bet your name will be on one.
Trois, does the Mexican Flame Vine get pretty big? I'm thinking that the only reason I don't have any is that I don't have a large enough structure in full sun for it.
T, I think you are right that we Texicans have an avid interest in wildflowers. One of the things that Lady Bird did in her quest to support wildflowers was to convice the highway dept NOT to mow highway medians until after the wildflowers had bloomed and had a chance to drop their seed (this also happens to save money for the hwy dept.) As a result, TX highways are wonderful wildflower gardens, especially in the Spring! Even non-gardeners have some to appreciate them. Many cities even scatter wildflower seed to be sure there is enough for a good show. Come on down to the RU in April (the 29th), it should be prime wildflower season!
Maggmoo, it will go to the sun, however it must. We thought our first planting had died, but now it is climbing trees, spreading sideways, and so forth. It has become massive, and is covered with blooms and butterflys now. This is the first winter bloom, and most of the flowers are slightly smaller and red instead of orange.
trois
I’m glad people enjoyed the link to the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center. Here’re are 2 people might find useful, which are for woody plants only.
Here’s a link to Virginia Tech Dendrology's map which allows you to pick a U.S. state or Canadian province and get back a list of plants. It’s color coded to indicate what’s ‘nonnative, planted and a wildland component, commonly "escapes" cultivation’, 'nonnative, planted, generally not considered a wildland component or invasive' and what's native,.
http://www.cnr.vt.edu/dendro/dendrology/map/zonemap.cfm
The UConn Plant DB is geared towards Connecticut plants, but I'm close enough that I find it very useful. Think other areas such as Ohio and Illinois, have many plants in common with Connecticut.
http://www.hort.uconn.edu/Plants/index.html
Towards the left, under "Plant Selector" is a choice to "Search for Plants". It allows you to specify various characteristics including “Butterfly Adult Attractant” , “Butterfly Larvae Attractant”, “Connecticut Native” or “US Native”. I find their information to be very accurate, like that they give a warning if the plant is likely to be invasive in Connecticut, and especially like the sections on possible liabilities
konkreteblond, I know what you mean about not looking at plants the same way. I’ve been gardening for birds and small mammals, since 2001. With some exceptions, whenever I’m deciding what to plant, I’m wondering who it can feed.
I would love to see the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center also. The pictures I’ve seen look wonderful.
Tabasco, interesting observation about Texan interest in native plants. On the GW Native Plant Forum it seemed to me, there tended to be more people from NJ and from Illinois for some reason. Not sure the observation was that accurate on my part, and don't have a theory as to why.
Lori
Fascinating links, Lori. Thankyou.
Yep!
I'm starting a butterfly and hopefully attract a hummingbird or two. Since I live in a zone 8 (close to 9) I know my options are limited. But still I have a question or two. I have a blue potato bush plant that needs to be re-planted, and I'm not sure if this should be done in Fall or Spring and also if I should prune it prior. I also would love for someone to give be an idea on what will go good in my zone to accomplish this. Texas heat and sun from 9- to maybe 3 p.m. Or even full sun. I really am a amauture at this but my granddaughter is always fasinated.Thank you bunches! (sorry for spelling)
Hi, Dawn,
So happy you are getting a butterfly garden going. You and your granddaughter will love it!
I don't quite know how to answer your question, but I suggest you repost it by making a new 'thread' in the butterfly and hummingbird forum. That way readers will see it and you will get a lot of advice on what to do with your bush and other plants for your TX garden. Go to the bottom of this page to start your thread: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/bbb/all/
There are many many butterflies in TX and lots of DG butterfly forum gardeners who reside in Texas. You will have lots of success! t.
This message was edited Nov 2, 2007 9:19 AM