Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardens

Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardens will always provide an adventure in color and motion. What could be grander than a swallowtail on a coneflower? I mow a large pasture a couple of times a year and watching the birds follow; all their swooping and diving is half the fun of the job. Butterflies are bird lunch as well. Let the caterpillars nest; no bug killers please. Most of the flowering butterfly plants have been Divinely engineered to thrive with their diners in tow. Plant your garden in full sun. Keep taller perennials like hollyhocks in the back and graduate down to coreopsis and mint plants.

John’s best bets for hummingbirds and butterfly gardens

Asters – late summer fall. This is a an 18” trove of fall flowers

Bee-balm – Monarda is a red mid sized and very dominant. Give it room

Blacked eyed Susan. - Rudbeckia have great form and reseed themselves. Mid sized

Butterfly Plants - Buddleia grow like weeds with a little sun. Lilac flower types in 5 flavors. Mid sized. Best bet for butterflies

Butterfly Weed - Asclepias have rare orange flowers. A monarch’s delight. Mid to tall

Coneflower – Echinacea is a native species that have providing nectar for dino-butterflies. Grows to about 15”.

Coreopsis has yellow flowers on short plants. Tough plant

Daisy Leucanthemum go nuts with our crazy daisies. Short prolific bloomer

Daylilies – Hemerocallis seem to bloom mid summer when nothing else is out there. We have the common stand by types as well as the new designer daylilies

Gayfeather – Liatris is native to the southwest Iowa prairie tall blue spikes of flowers. You would know this flower as it is a staple in a lot of floral boquts.

Goldenrod – Solidago forget the sneezing. The pollen from other plants is more prolific that these. Buy some Kleenex and plant the weed.

Hibiscuses are my favorites. They fool you in the spring and then grow 5 feet tall. If I was a bug, this is where I’d be.

Hollyhock – Alcea grow fast. Teach your granddaughter how to make little dolls from their flowers and put them at the back of the bed. Don’t plant the kid the, just the flowers. Start some of the seed yourself. Be a hybridizer.

Ironweed – Veronica blooms with a vivid purple flower. I started growing this plant after I spied it growing in a field. A rare find.

Joe Pye Weed –Eupatorium we have a chocolate foliaged plant. It’s a monster grower.

Milk Weed dig up some old milkweed plants. You’ll marvel at the colorful monarch caterpillars.

Phlox have been shuffled to the wayside for their affinity to get powdery mildew. Try some of our new disease resist cultivars. They are delicious. Mid sized

Salvia May night is always there in June blooming its little heads off. 15 inches

Yarrow -Achillea is a tall yellow bloomer, but we do have some new flavors or red

Annuals for butterflies and Hummingbirds. Scatter annual flowers in the perennial garden for more color and action. Cosmos, gomphrena, impatiens, marigolds, verbena, pentas, zinnias