With spring blooms come the birds, butterflies and bees. Wherever you’re your local butterflies will crave the nectar out of your native flora. Here are a couple of of the crops I love to use in California to lure a visit from my fluttering buddies.
Las Pilitas Nursery
Horse mint (Agastache urticifolia). Mature butterflies are mad with this fragrant flower.
Las Pilitas Nursery
Silver Bush Lupine (Lupinus albifrons). Lupine is your butterfly hostess with the mostest. With lovely purple blooms, it is indigenous to the West Coast from Oregon down to Baja, Mexico, preferring dry locations. There are a whole plethora of native California butterflies which will reproduce only in Lupine! Among the loveliest is Mission Blue Butterfly, with delicate blue wings fringed with white and purple.
Las Pilitas Nursery
Purple Sage (Salvia ‘Celestial Blue’). This hybrid enjoys extreme warmth and is great for the sunny areas of your backyard. Besides butterflies, swallowtails adore the nectar of its amazing blue blooms.
Las Pilitas Nursery
When these blooms are lighter, they still do just fine!
Las Pilitas Nursery
False or Desert Indigo (Amorpha fruticosa). If you are hoping to see what goes into the making of a blossom, plant False Indigo. Southern Dogface Butterfly larvae rely on it for food. Indigo thrives in Arizona, New Mexico and California, from San Diego to as far north as Riverside County.
Las Pilitas Nursery
Desert Agave (Agave deserti). Agave’s spikes are dramatic, but where would be the blooms we all anticipate butterflies to love? Butterflies adore the little yellow flowers that emerge out of agave’s 15-foot blooming stems. Obviously, agaves love dry, exposed regions.
Las Pilitas Nursery
Narrow-Leaf Milkweed (Asclepias fascicularis). If you live in a milder climate, milkweed might be more appropriate to your backyard. Its stomping grounds vary from Washington to Idaho, and from Oregon through California and into Mexico.
Las Pilitas Nursery
California Yarrow (Achillea millefolium var. californica). Among the few plants which can tolerate swamps and it tolerates drought, yarrow enjoys an assortment of soil from clay to sandy loam — and the butterflies love it.
Las Pilitas Nursery
Rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus nauseosus). Rabbitbrush is indigenous to California and parts of Utah, in which the indigenous tribes say it saved the bunny from a fiery moon. It also provides a safe house for the Buckeye Butterfly.
Las Pilitas Nursery
Joaquin Sunflower (Bidens laevis). This daring daisy attracts Mormon Metalmark and a variety of other butterflies. Can you imagine the stir that the friendly, yellow blooms of the daisy would cause if paired with a tiny lavender Lupine?
More:
Pacific Northwest Gardener: What to Do in April