This month we focus on attracting living stained glass to your garden – butterflies! Host plants, larval food plants, and nectar sources are important to them to meet the needs of all their life stages.
Design for a butterfly garden should include many different flowering plants for a long season of blooms. Include shelter from winds, a small shallow water source and maybe even some mud. Leave a corner of the yard messy – unpruned and weedy – for additional habitat.
We may be lucky to see Monarchs, Painted Ladies, and a variety of Skippers in our gardens.
Monarch butterflies are as iconic to Californians as the redwoods. Plant Asclepius speciosa /Milkweed to provide their favorite host plant. They bloom and seed profusely.
May Pollinator Plants
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Cosmos – tall annuals with delicate foliage and large showy flowers in white, pink and rose. |
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Pincushion Flower (Scabiosa sp.) – old fashioned favorites hold their purple “pincushion” flowers well above the foliage. |
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Lantana – many tiny flowers in one head in these multi-colored tropical looking trailers and low shrubs. |
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Lavender – water wise, easy to grow, colorful and fragrant, there is a lavender variety for every garden. |
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Penstemon – Showy, brightly colored trumpets withstand sunny dry conditions. |
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Sea Thrift (Armeria sp.) – cute little grassy tufts grow pink pom pom flowers. |
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Valerian or Jupiter’s Beard (Centranthus sp.) – vigorous, happy go lucky pink or white flower spikes. |
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Mallow – many species including easy to grow, water-wise native and old-fashioned garden varieties with showy flowers. |