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Month: March 2016

Seven Easy Butterfly Flowers

Seven Easy Butterfly Flowers Featured Image
Phlox paniculata ‘Jeana’ with an Eastern tiger swallowtail. (Image by Jessie Keith)

Want butterflies? A kaleidoscope of gossamer-winged beauties all a flutter in a cloud of garden flowers that you planted? The truth is, creating a butterfly garden is pretty effortless, because many truly easy garden flowers are big on the butterfly palate. And butterflies eat with their eyes, so the flowers they love are generally the vibrantly hued flowers that we love, too

What Defines a Butterfly Flower

Common cosmos
Common cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus) (Image by Jessie Keith)

What makes a butterfly flower truly a butterfly flower? There are a suite of garden flower traits that attract butterflies, and it’s not just the flowers that draw them. A female butterfly ready to lay her eggs will choose the best plants for her caterpillars, while adult butterflies choose flowers with nectar essential for their growth and development. True butterfly plants and flowers have several distinguishing cues that fit the ways butterflies see, feed, and feed.

Overall, butterflies all have a weak sense of smell, long curled tongues (probosces), sharp vision, and they must perch to feed. So, most butterfly flowers are brightly colored, often lack a scent, are flattened and shaped for perching, and have long, tubular nectaries (the nectar-holding well at the base of a flower) perfect for a butterfly’s proboscis. (Madagascar periwinkle, Lantana, and phlox blooms are just three examples of the many flowers uniquely designed for butterfly pollination.) It’s a different matter when female butterflies choose plants on which to lay their eggs

Seven Best Butterfly Flowers

Orange milkweed
Orange milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) (Image by Jessie Keith)

The best butterfly flowers have foliage that are also larval food for the young of specific butterfly species. My #1 favorite is the perennial butterfly flower (Asclepias tuberosa, USDA Hardiness Zones 3-9). Its sweeping clusters of bright orange flowers appear in summer and attract butterflies of all types, while its leaves are the favorite food of Monarch butterfly caterpillars. The leaves impart chemical protection to the Monarchs by giving the insects a foul taste, making them undesirable to predators.

Dara Queen Anne's lace
Dara Queen Anne’s lace (Image by Jessie Keith)

Other double whammies are flowering plants in the carrot family, whose flowers are attractive to all butterflies and foliage are the perfect food source to Eastern Tiger and Zebra Swallowtails, among other related butterflies. My #2 favorite butterfly plant is Dara Queen Anne’s lace (Daucus carota ‘Dara’, annual) with its purple and pink lacy flowers. The large, lacy blooms are long stemmed and great for cutting. Just be ready to leave the plants to the caterpillars when they first appear munching away at the leaves.

Echinacea 'Flame Thrower'
Echinacea ‘Flame Thrower’ (photo care of Terra Nova Nurseries)

Most butterfly plants are grown for their flowers alone. My #3 favorite butterfly flowers are perennial coneflowers (Echinacea spp., Zones 3-9) of all flavors. They come in many bright shades and are beloved by all butterfly species. These days, there are numerous cultivated varieties to choose from. I like the electric tangerine-orange and red ‘Flame Thrower’ for garden appeal and pollinator attraction, though most purists would advocate planting common native species, such as eastern coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) or pale purple coneflower (Echinacea pallida).

Zinnia Heirloom Raggedy Anne Mix in vase
Zinnia Heirloom Raggedy Anne Mix (image care of Renee’s Garden Seeds)

My #4 butterfly flowers are tall zinnias (Zinnia elegans, annual), are some of the easiest to grow and butterflies love them. Their colorful blooms appear through much of the summer, providing needed nectar during the hottest days of the year. Renee’s Garden Seeds has loads of amazing mixes, the Heirloom Raggedy Anne Mix, with its ragged large flowers in candy colors, is one of my favorites. They pair well with another super easy butterfly magnet, my #5 butterfly flower, common cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus, annual). The reliable Sonata Mix, with its short stature and large flowers in pink, magenta, and white, won’t disappoint. Plant both of these annuals in full sun and fertile, well-drained soil.

A late summer bloomer sure to draw loads of butterflies is the tall phlox (Phlox paniculata, Zones 3-8), my #6 plant, and of the many cultivated varieties, ‘Jeana’ is very special. Its large, upright flower clusters consist of many tiny, pink blooms with a sweet scent. Butterflies and bees always cover these showy blossoms.

Prennial sunflowers
Perennial sunflower (Helianthus spp.)

Finally come the many butterfly flowers for fall. By choosing a perennial sunflower, my #7 butterfly plant, you can’t go wrong. All are essential food for butterflies preparing to migrate or overwinter. One with lots of charm and good looks is the fine-leaved, 4-foot-tall, swamp sunflower (Helianthus angustifolius ‘First Light’, Zones 5-9), which produces many golden daisies in mid-fall above plants with fine, linear leaves of bright green.

All butterfly flowers, whether annuals or perennials, need good care for best flowering. Water them well, amend their soil with fortifying organic matter, and light feeding will ensure crops of flowers to delight your burgeoning butterfly populations all season long.

Kid’s Gardening: Big Seeds for Little Hands

Kids' Gardening: Big Seeds for Little Hands Featured Image
Renee's Garden Mini Jack pack of seeds

Kids just naturally love dirt—ask any parent. When you encourage children to put their hands in that dirt and plant seeds, you are growing future gardeners. But as with any learning experience, kids are more likely to take to gardening if you help make it fun and accessible. The best way to start is with a packet of big seeds.

Start by talking about what the child wants to grow. Some children naturally gravitate to colorful flowers, while others might like the idea of planting and harvesting their own Halloween pumpkins. If your child is very young or unsure about the whole project, start with one easy plant type and see what happens. More than one gardener started his or her horticultural life with a single bean planted in a paper cup.

Child holding pumpkin
Pumpkins are a great first garden plant for children to try.

Handling small seeds can be frustrating for small people, so make it easy by choosing plants that grow from the kind of large seeds that are simple to handle, plant, and love. If the child likes flowers, annual sunflowers (Helianthus) are a wonderful way to start, featuring large seeds and a wide array of varieties to choose from.

Traditional giant types are inspiring to watch, rising to 6 feet or more, with huge, yellow-petaled flowerheads. Some of the shorter hybrid types boast petals in shades from palest cream through yellows, oranges, and reds—perfect for enjoying up close, or for arranging in the empty jam jars that seem to lurk in so many kitchen cupboards.

Renee's Garden Cup of Sun pack of seeds

Other good ornamental varieties include low-growing nasturtiums (Tropaeolum) and brightly colored Mexican sunflowers (Tithonia rotundifolia). If ground space is limited, plant climbers like scarlet runner beans (Phaseolus coccineus). Nasturtiums can also climb or sprawl from hanging baskets if you pick the right varieties.

The world of edible species is full of large-seeded plants. Small children often like peas—either traditional or snap varieties—which also feature lovely flowers. Beans of all sorts are another option. Let little ones help you build simple supports for these sprawling crops. Pumpkins, from the cute miniature types to bright orange behemoths, also start with large seeds. Hilling up soil for planting mounds can be, literally, child’s play. Other members of the cucurbit family, like squashes and melons, are also possibilities.

If your child insists on growing tiny-seeded edibles like carrots or greens, try to find vendors that offer pelleted seeds. These easy-to-handle products consist of tiny seeds encased in pea-like pellets of inert material. Once the pellets go into the ground, moisture quickly dissolves the coating and the seeds sprout normally.

If you are working with very young children, supervise carefully to make sure that they do not put any seed—even those of edible crops—in their mouths.

Planting Garlic
For kids, planting time is almost as fun as harvest time!

Before planting large-seeded edible or ornamental varieties, parents should prevent later disappointment by doing a bit of prep work. Suit your crop to your particular situation and make sure that sun-loving varieties will receive enough light. Can you dedicate a small portion of your garden to your child’s plants? If not, container growing is always an option. Encourage your child to have a sense of ownership of the plot or container, so he or she will take an extra measure of pride in the finished crop.

Give big seeds a leg up by growing them in planting beds amended with a nutrient-rich product like Fafard® Premium Natural & Organic Compost. For seed starting, choose Black Gold® Seedling Mix, a quality seed-starting medium that grows robust seedlings fit for little hands to plant. Some large seeds, like nasturtiums, sunflowers, and morning glories, benefit from an overnight soak to soften hard outer shells before planting.

Fafard Premium Natural & Organic Compost Blend pack

Once the planting is done, check the beds or containers every day. Encourage the children to watch and tend their plants, but be sure to supervise the watering. Overenthusiastic watering will swamp young plants, leading to tears later on.

Give older children an idea of how long those big seeds should take to germinate, sprout leaves and produce flowers or fruits. Check off days on a calendar or whiteboard to help manage expectations. Sometimes the longest days are those just before flower buds open or edible crops are ready to harvest. Keep frustration at bay by letting children draw or photograph their young plants each day.

When harvest time finally arrives, celebrate. Invite friends over to see the culmination of all the gardening effort. Harvest and prepare the edible crops and have the young growers help as they are able. Take pictures of both children and crops and cherish the occasion. Remember that the child who plants sunflowers today may end up as a horticulturist in a few short years.

Sunflowers at the end of the season
Collect sunflower seeds at the end of the season for spring planting the following year!