Butterfly/Pollinator Havens - Which plants are your favorite to cultivate?

I want to cultivate a nice set of flowers for pollinators.  I've read a bit and I have two in mind:  Milkweed (Asclepias Tuberosa) and Monarda (I'm eying a Panorama Mix).

I already have one milkweed bush in my backyard, but I would love to have lots more. We had a nice amount of Monarchs this season and I had no idea that our bush might have had something to do with it.  I understand there is also a Swamp Milkweed, but it seems (from reading gardner experiences) that the butterflies prefer the Tuberosa kind.

So, what do you like to cultivate?  I am reading about mixed schools of thought regarding when and how to plant seeds.  Some sources say that fall is a good time for planting.

I am getting ready to do my seed ordering.  Please let me know your thoughts.    

(And you Middle Southerners, don't be shy!)

Coneflowers, perennial salvia, obedient plant are all good for bees; if you want to grow herbs, try oregano and basil.

I live in Kansas and we have around 6-7 native varieties of milkweed...some are easy to collect and start from seed and some are more tricky.  I grow Swamp, Purple, Common, and Butterfly...and I have an eye on some additional types if I can get seed collected this fall.

We can also grow Scarlet or Tropical Milkweed from seed...it's an annual here as it dies back with our winters.  If you can get one seed pod to form you will have enough seed to collect that you would never have to buy seed again.

I had good luck starting seeds indoors in early spring just like tomatoes and peppers and planting around the same time.  I'll try to post some pics this evening.

Here's a pic of our Swamp or Marsh Milkweed.  In addition to milkweeds, we use coreopsis, purple coneflower, Walkers Low Catmint, Liatris, bee balm and dill (we see many tiger swallowtail caterpillars on our dill and carrot plants).  We get lots of bumble and a few honey bees...large butterflies have been disappointing for the last few years...can't remember a seeing a single monarch.

Here are some of my favorite butterfly attractant nectar plants:
BLACK EYE SUSAN - Rudbeckia hirta
MILKWEED 1 (Asclepias tuberosa)
MILKWEED 2 (Asclepias incarnata)
MILKWEED 3 (Asclepias curassavica)
MILKWEED 4 (Asclepias amplexicaulis)
COLUMBINE ROCKY MOUNTAIN BLUE - Aquilegia caerulea
PLAINS COREOPSIS - Coreopsis tinctoria 
"TICKSEED COREOPSIS -Bidens aristosa"
BIGLFOWER COREOPSIS - Coreopsis grandiflora
COSMOS "Sunny Red"
COSMOS BRIGHT LIGHTS - Cosmos sulphureus
DIANTHUS - Dianthus "Diabunda Crimson"
ECHINACEA - White Swan
PANSY - MIXED
SUNFLOWER - MAMMOTH GREY
ECHINACEA - Purple
ECHINACEA - OZARK YELLOW
SENSITIVE PLANT - Mimosa pudica
BLUE SALVIA - Salvia farinacea
EARL BONFIRE - Salvia splendens
SEDUM "Weihenstephaner Gold"
SEDUM "Stonecrop 'Angelina'"
VERBENA BRAZILIAN VERVAIN - Verbena bonariensis
ECHINACEA - YELLOW PRAIRIE CONE FLOWER
YARROW - Yellow
YARROW - Achillea "Strawberry Seduction"
ZINNA - RED
ZINNIA - RED / PURPLE
ZINNIA - ORANGE
ZINNIA - LIGHT PURPLE
ZINNIA - DARK PURPLE
ZINNA - PINK
BUTTERFLY BUSH
PHLOX - Purple
PHLOX - Pink

And of course, you'll want caterpillar host plants as well.

ANTIRRHINUM MAJUS Snapdragon - Tall Blend
ASTER SP.
BAPTISIA AUSTRALIS Blue Wild Indigo
CHAMAECRISTA FASCICULATA Partridge Pea
ZIZIA AUREA Golden Alexander
SNAPDRAGON MAGIC CARPET BLEND - Antirrhinum majus
VIOLA - JOHNNY JUMP UP
MILKWEED 1 (Asclepias tuberosa)
MILKWEED 2 (Asclepias incarnata)
MILKWEED 3 (Asclepias curassavica)
MILKWEED 4 (Asclepias amplexicaulis)

I have a giant pink zinnia that has enticed the local California little yellow butterfly back into my yard. It's been years since I have seen one.

Thanks everyone for such fantastic suggestions!  Slimbolen, you posted some nice long lists!  Thank you for taking the time to do that for us.

Landarch, it was you who got me going on this because I saw that post you made regarding milkweed.  What's in my back yard is either Tuberosa milkweed or Tropical (Scarlett) milkweed.  I have some buds that will hopefully open in a day or two... and then I'll know for sure.   What ever it is, I want to plant more.

Folks, are there any varieties that you specifically plant in the fall?

I just planted buckwheat. The packet says it's great for feeding pollinators in the fall, when many other popular flowers have slowed or stopped production. It forms a dense cover that blots out the sun for fall weeds, is ready to plow under as a cover crop in as little as 30 days, and is reliably winter-killed.

Supposedly takes little watering or other care once planted. I covered the bed with straw very lightly after seeding, and in most areas the little guys are already poking their leaves out of the straw less than a week later.

I'm finding bees of every size really loved my cascading lobelia this year, and they're still producing flowers, though they're starting to look a bit weedy and exhausted by now. Still getting bees, though, of every size even though they're a tiny, tiny flower. I planted a lot more, and hope they can help feed the bees until frost.

This is some of what I have in my gardens: everyone loves thyme, russian and cullinary sage, alliums of all kinds including leeks, garlic chives, ornamental allium, chives and borage. I also have Foam flower, Veronica, crocus, rudbeckia, pulmonaria, gaillardia, asters, echinacia white and pink, bee balm of various colors, evening primrose, mints, sedums, epimedium, calendula, zinnia, sunflowers, portulaca, comfrey, butterfly weed, joe pye weed etc. The lawn has been allowed free range for dandelions, ajuga and white clover. There are also various spring and summer flowering shrubs and trees.

camprn wrote:This is some of what I have in my gardens: everyone loves thyme, russian and cullinary sage, alliums of all kinds including leeks, garlic chives, ornamental allium, chives and borage. I also have Foam flower, Veronica, crocus, rudbeckia, pulmonaria, gaillardia, asters, echinacia white and pink, bee balm of various colors, evening primrose, mints, sedums, epimedium, calendula, zinnia, sunflowers, portulaca, comfrey, butterfly weed, joe pye weed etc. The lawn has been allowed free range for dandelions, ajuga and white clover. There are also various spring and summer flowering shrubs and trees.

Paradise... Are the red ones Indian Blanket?

Windmere wrote:Thanks everyone for such fantastic suggestions!  Slimbolen, you posted some nice long lists!  Thank you for taking the time to do that for us.

Landarch, it was you who got me going on this because I saw that post you made regarding milkweed.  What's in my back yard is either Tuberosa milkweed or Tropical (Scarlett) milkweed.  I have some buds that will hopefully open in a day or two... and then I'll know for sure.   What ever it is, I want to plant more.

Folks, are there any varieties that you specifically plant in the fall?

I would say my personal favorites, for ease of cultivation, have to be zinnias.  They are easy to save seed from, are very prolific, and are visited by a variety of butterflies and bees. They also come in a variety of colors -- reds, oranges, pinks, purples, etc. All of mine came from a single package of mixed seed, which I saved the seed from the plants that came from that packet, and organized by color.

Windmere wrote:

camprn wrote:This is some of what I have in my gardens: everyone loves thyme, russian and cullinary sage, alliums of all kinds including leeks, garlic chives, ornamental allium, chives and borage. I also have Foam flower, Veronica, crocus, rudbeckia, pulmonaria, gaillardia, asters, echinacia white and pink, bee balm of various colors, evening primrose, mints, sedums, epimedium, calendula, zinnia, sunflowers, portulaca, comfrey, butterfly weed, joe pye weed etc. The lawn has been allowed free range for dandelions, ajuga and white clover. There are also various spring and summer flowering shrubs and trees.

Paradise... Are the red ones Indian Blanket?

Blanket flower, gaillardia.

I forgot to post the photo yesterday. One huge zinnia plant:

I love zinnias. They are such happy flowers.

  Yes, they are!

I guess weeds are in the eye of the beholder.  A couple weeks ago a strange plant started growing... it looked too odd to be a weed (but I'm not sure):



I think that's poison oak on the left.  Anyway, does anyone know what this plant is?  I can't find anything like it using a search engine.  Perhaps it's weed after all, but I like it.  I have another one like it coming up in the vicinity of this one.  My instincts are that this might be a good plant for pollinators.

Mel's Mix has always been good stuff for my marigolds.  Last year my marigolds went crazy with vigorous growth and flower explosions.

This year, the same is true.  On the plant below, I excavated my horrible red clay and replaced it with a nice, rich mixture of MM.  Here is the result:



I have some chives growing around this marigold (I use chives in lots of my cooking).  We have seen a ton of butterflies and bumble bees due to this combo of flower and herb.  I see from this photo that I need to do some dead heading.

Anyway, I thought this post went well with this thread.  Let me know your thoughts on my mystery flower if you like.

P.S.  Camprn, blanket flowers are now on my seed wish list.  I think they are so striking!

Windmere, the vine may be Virginia Creeper.  I've got it growing on my fence & it's VERY invasive!  But I'm not having any kind of reaction to it...

+1 Virginia creeper. Can you get a closer view of the blue bloom?

AtlantaMarie wrote:Windmere, the vine may be Virginia Creeper.  I've got it growing on my fence & it's VERY invasive!  But I'm not having any kind of reaction to it...

Yep, it is very invasive.  The root system of it goes on forever and they are horribly tenacious.  We never had poison weeds in California.  One of our close friends suffered through a very bad episode after he had cleaned his backyard.  It happened shortly after we settled here.  Since then, we've been terrified of it.  I handle these plants like hazmat.

Do you have any tips regarding how you handle poison weeds?

camprn wrote:+1 Virginia creeper.  Can you get a closer view of the blue bloom?

Will do...  flowers are closed right now.

Just as a side note:  We bought our house from a sweet older coulple.  The wife was an avid flower gardner.  I keep discovering surprises she planted.  Milkweed, mistflower... she even planted a patch of pyrethrin mums.  I've been planting cuttings in strategic places.

Milkweed is good for monarch butterflies.

Poisonous stuff - gloves, long sleeves/pants, paper towels, good trash bags!  Maybe a mask, depending on your sensitivity.

Windmere, "pyrethrin mums" Is this a specific mum/chrysanthemum? Or just the fact that they contain pyrethin?

Sanderson, I am referring to a specific type of chrysanthemum that contains a high concentration of pyrethrum.  It has a white flower reminiscent of a simple white daisy.  I have seen some websites with images of this specific variety in colors other than white.  I actually misspoke when I used the term for pyrethrin to describe the actual chrysanthemum.  As I understand it, pyrethrin is the distilled insecticide derived from the chrysanthemum.  Pyrethrum typically refers to the variety just mentioned.  I think that Pyrethrum can also refer to the non-distilled substance found in these flowers.  I found a great deal of helpful facts at the website below.

http://pyrethrum.com/FAQs.aspx

Folks, if I got some of these facts wrong, please do not hesitate to chime in.

Also, please see this link to Park Seeds for an offering of seeds for a more colorful option for this flower:

http://parkseed.com/robinsons-mix-pyrethrum-daisy-seeds/p/01754-PK-P1/

One more thing, if growing from seed, these will flower the second year.  Also, seeds may be planted in fall/summer when there are at least two more months before first frost.

For bees, we planted Borage. SUPER easy to grow and a beautiful plant too loaded with flowers (and bees). They have done their cycle and have reseeded, there are lots of babies now growing ! We did the "chop and drop" method of mulching, and the little Borage plants seem to love it!!