Anonymous wrote:I think your list is too long. Pick multiples of the same plant so narrow down your list. Also, do you want a three season garden? If so, leave some space for Spring and mid-summer bloomers. Don't plant only late summer and fall bloomers otherwise you will have a long wait next year before you see any color in your garden. Try to stagger bloomtimes. In order to do that and in order to be successful in your endeavors you need what every gardener has discovered.............PATIENCE.

Put a calendar together to plan your planting and have a separate calendar to estimate bloomtimes. You can plant all of your late summer/fall bloomers now and in October you can plant some poppies, bulbs or tubers like peonies, for spring.

Anonymous wrote:Notes from a more impatient would be butterfly gardener, also pretty novice.

My first preference is native plants, but I will use non-natives as well as long as they are not known to be invasive.

Native perennial flowers visited so far in my garden: Purple coneflower, coreopsis. My phlox did not do well and I planted very little but I see the butterflies heading for the big clumps at my neighbors. On my list for next year. Some visitors to verbena hastata but I wouldn't plant again if all I wanted was butterflies. I have butterfly weed (now more commonly called butterfly flower--asclepius tuberosa), but it is just now beginning to flower so jury is still out. Same with New York ironweed, turtlehead, and native aster. I have seen the stray butterfly or two on hardy geraniums (good for shade) and verbena Homestead purple, but flowering has been too weak to judge long-term attraction.

Nonnatives: Verbena bonariensis (Lollipop)--definitely in the category of butterfly magnet. I have just two and will definitely plant more. A small noninvsive butterfly bush (Flutterbye Tutti Frutti) also in this category. Find quite a few butterflies on Blue Wonder catmint.

Annuals: Zinnias, again a magnet.

Host plants: Spice bush--doing really well with little care. Learned later they can be challenging. This is in partial shade--perhaps more difficult in full sun. The aforementioned butterfly weed--will plant quite a bit more in a different location and hope it does better.. Turtlehead is a host plant but rarely serves that purpose in home gardens apparently. I will try passionflower vine next year--it is host to 4 different species. You have to be prepared for the plant to be completely devoured and looking unsightly until it pops back from the caterpillar ravages.

I actually have had more success in luring hummingbirds to my garden. This has been a surprise--I thought it would be harder.

Here is a site I discovered recently with a lot of information on specific plant for butterflies. The focus is on monarchs, but is good for butterflies more generally, as well as hummingbirds. They have plants that attract both butterflies and hummingbirds, some of which I'll try next year.

http://monarchbutterflygarden.net/

Anonymous wrote:Look at Bluestone Perennials. They sell preplanned butterfly gardens so you can get ideas.
If you have room I would include a clethra and a buttonbush.

Anonymous wrote:I'll tell you what you might do (which bears no relation to my own experimental, ADHD approach in real life):


You are dealing with a lot of plants, so you need to get organized. Make a chart listing the plants in order of mature height, and note the mature width, color, bloom time, and shade tolerance. All available info on your purchase site.

For spacing, you need to know the mature size of the plant and those adjacent to it. Get yourself some graph paper and colored pencils and literally map it out. Keep in mind that natives are pretty resilient and so overcrowding them tends to be fine and keeps weeds at bay. Then again, if you space them too far, a lot of those will self-sew or spread, and so they fill in over the years. Expect year two to be your good year and make changes then if things didn't work.

Also pay attention to the heights of the varieties you get so you place the taller ones in good spots relative to the shape of the plot and effect you want, and note the bloom time so you have something blooming in different parts in all seasons. Finally think about color relative to bloom time and how you want it to look. But don't be too precise, because they won't grow according to your exact plan!

Be sure to create some natural paths if the plot is deep so you can tend to any plants that need it.


Many of these plants will spread if they are really happy; just remember that it is ok to pull some of it if it starts to take over in a few years. Just dig em up and give them to friends, neighbors, and local schools.

For your shadier areas, consider white wood aster. It blooms later than some of your others and tolerates some shade well.

For grasses, I'd consider Virginia wild rye and my personal favorite, wood oats. These will give you a lovely "movement" effect and some winter interest.

Other options that tolerate clay soil include: white turtlehead, bergamot, great blue lobelia, obedient plant, mountain mint (pictures are deceiving on this one -- the flowers are tiny and sites tend to give you extreme close ups; the overall affect of the plant is a white capped mountain literally covered with every variety of bee you'll ever see), goldenrod, lyre leafed sage (also a shorter plant and most of what you list are about the same height with might be kind of odd looking), field pussy toes (also short and very early bloom), and ironweed.

You might throw in some parsley and other members of the parsley family for caterpillar food.

Most important: don't be too aggressive in cleaning up the plot for winter -- the eggs will be laid among the debris and on overwintering stems, and diapause adults will be under the fallen leaves. No point in having the pollinator garden if you kill all the pollinator babies.

Have fun!

Anonymous wrote:Plant away! Gardening is all about experimentation. Some things will work and if they don't you can pull them out.

What website are you using?