Butterflies – Fafard

Best Native American Shrubs for Feeding Birds

Service berries are enjoyed by many bird species, such as Baltimore orioles.

The best forage plants for wild birds are appealing natives that provide nutritious fruits, seeds, and nectar. Our top picks offer even more bird food because they attract favorite insect and caterpillar bites. Planting just a few of these shrubs in your yard will supplement bird-feeding efforts and help increase local bird diversity.

Planting to invite wildlife to feed has become more popular because more gardeners see their yards are an extension of the natural world. Natural habitat continues to be destroyed at a rampant pace, leaving fewer places for wild birds to feed. The shrubs on this list will beautify your yard or garden with their fine foliage, flowers, and fruits as well as the added beauty of the colorful, melodious birds they are sure to attract.

Native caterpillars are top-quality native bird food, so choose plants that are important larval host plants. They also mean more butterflies to enjoy! (American bluebird shown)

We recommend the native shrubs listed here in addition to perennials and even annuals. (Click here for a full list of great native larval host plants for the garden.)

Native Shrubs for Birds

Most of the shrubs on this list are native to Eastern North America, though some have limited distribution in the West. All are quite hardy and effortless to grow once established. (Click here for excellent shrub planting and siting instructions.)

The copious red fruits of American cranberrybush are a delight to birds.

American Cranberrybush (Viburnum opulus var. americanum, Zones 2-8, 8-15 feet, full to partial sun) attracts spring pollinators, is an essential larval host plant, and provides delicious red fruits to birds in late fall and early winter. (Birds prefer to eat the berries after they have become frozen and thawed.) Few native shrubs are as beautiful. The domed clusters of white spring flowers feed bees and butterflies and red fall fruits are so cheery. The maple-like summer leaves are fed upon by spring azure (Celestrina ladon) and hummingbird clearwing moth (Hemaris thysbe) caterpillars and turn shades of orange-red in autumn.

Cedar waxwings eat berries and insects, which they can get from the summer fruit of serviceberries and the caterpillars and pollinators they attract.

Serviceberry (Amelanchier spp., Zones 3-9, 12-20 feet, full to partial sun) species exist across much of North America, and most are well-suited to the home garden. Their white clusters of fragrant spring flowers attract pollinators, the leaves feed caterpillars, and the edible summer fruits are a favorite of birds. Red-spotted purple butterfly (Limenitis arthemis) caterpillars rely on their leaves for food. In fall, the leaves turn glorious shades of yellow, orange, and red.

Baltimore Orioles have diets of insects, fruit, and nectar, all of which they can get from a serviceberry shrub.

Chokecherry shrubs (Aronia arbutifolia, Zones 4-9, 6-10 feet, full to partial sun) are fantastically beautiful. The fragrant white spring flowers attract lots of pollinators, spring azure butterflies feed on the summer foliage, and the copious bright red fall fruits bring lots of birds to the garden. The season ends with a grand display of brilliant red and orange fall leaves. Try the more compact variety ‘Brilliantissima‘ (6-8 feet), which has high fruit production and redder fall leaves.

Red chokecherries can persist into fall and even early winter. (Photo by Abrahami)

American Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana, Zones 6-10, 4-8 feet, full to partial sun) can tolerate a little shade but it flowers and sets fruit the best in full sun. Bees and butterflies visit the small lavender or white flowers that line the branches in spring, and by late summer or fall, they turn brilliant purple. Spring azure butterfly and snowberry clearwing moth (Hemaris diffinis) caterpillars feed on the summer leaves. The fruits persist until late fall if they are not snapped up by birds first. Most often the fall leaves turn yellow.

A northern mockingbird feasts on fall beautyberries. (Image by Jessie Keith)

New Jersey Tea (Ceanothus americanus, Zones 4-8, 2-3 feet, full to partial sun) is a compact wildlife wild-food powerhouse! Pollinators visit the white clusters of fragrant summer flowers, including several specialized bee species, and the fatty seeds produced are snacked on by many songbirds. Several butterfly larvae, such as those of mottled duskywing (Erynnis martialis), spring azure, and summer azure butterflies (Celestrina neglecta), rely on its leaves for essential food. The foliage turns russet-yellow hues in fall.

New Jersey tea is very compact and pretty. It’s the perfect intro native shrub for gardeners with little space. (Image by John Oyston)

Spice Bush (Lindera benzoin, Zones 5-9, 8-15 feet, partial sun to partial shade) deserves to be planted more often in home landscapes, especially those with wooded areas. The fragrant leaves of the open shrubs are fed upon by spicebush swallowtail caterpillars (Papilio troilus), and female spice bushes produce nutritious red berries that are important to many wild birds. The fall leaves generally turn yellow.

The fatty fruits of spicebush are eaten by many birds. (Image by *Cody Hough, college student and photographer in the Michigan area.*)

Spicebush swallowtails rely on spice bushes for larval food, and birds enjoy eating them. Spicebushes also produce fatty fruits that many bird species eat.

Five Stellar US Native Shrubs for Pollinators and Wildlife

Some shrubs look beautiful in their natural form. Those on this list are elegantly beautiful in the wild or a garden. They offer aesthetic value and benefit our yard’s ecosystems.

These five shrubs are givers, providing season-long beauty as well as food for multiple pollinators and wildlife at different times of the year. They’ve been selected from personal experience. I’ve observed them in the wild, in gardens, and in landscapes. There are no ornamental or environmental losers in this bunch. Plant them, and your yard will smile.

Five Beautiful Shrubs for Pollinators

1. Serviceberries

Serviceberries in a garden — Serviceberries are stately natives with year-round interest and high wildlife value.

Across North America, there are approximately 20 species serviceberry species (Amelanchier spp.). All are exceptionally beautiful, have high wildlife value, and many are in cultivation. Most grow as shrubs, but some develop into multi-stemmed small trees at maturity. Here are some better species and selections to grow.

Serviceberries spring flowers, edible summer fruits and fall leaves — Fragrant spring flowers, edible summer fruits, and glowing fall color are traits held by most serviceberries.

Saskatoon Serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifolia, 4-15 feet, USDA Hardiness Zones 2-8) is of special interest to bees, birds, and a couple of butterfly species. Its fragrant white spring flowers feed bees and butterflies, birds and mammals enjoy its sweet, edible, blue-black fruits, and it is the larval host to striped hairstreak and California hairstreak butterflies. In fall, the leaves turn brilliant shades of red, orange, and yellow, and its smooth, gray bark and pleasing habit stands out in the winter landscape. The variety ‘Regent‘ is compact (4-6 feet) and bears copious flowers and delicious fruit for jam making and baking.

Canada serviceberry (Amelanchier canadensis, 15-30 feet, Zones 3-8) feeds early bees with its bright white clusters of spring flowers. Its reddish summer fruits are tasty and edible. Birds and mammals love them, and they can also be used for baking or jam making. The fall leaves turn shades of orange, red, and yellow.

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2. Lead Plant

Native to American prairies, leadplant (Amorpha canescens, 1-3 feet, Zones 2-9) is an attractive, hardy shrub to subshrub in the pea family that sets spikes of purplish pea flowers against silvery-green compound leaves in early to midsummer. The fragrant flowers are highly valuable to native bees. Once established, the plants are quite drought-tolerance and set deep roots–reaching as much as 4-feet down. The denser, green-leaved dwarf false indigo (Amorpha nana, 2-3 feet, Zones 3-9) has reddish-purple summer flower spikes with a strong honey fragrance.

3. Summersweet

The ivory flower spikes of summersweet (Clethra alnifolia, 3-8 feet, Zones 4-9) appear in summer and are followed by little brown fruits that are eaten by many birds and mammals. Butterflies can’t get enough of the flowers, including a wide variety of swallowtail species. Bees and hummingbirds also enjoy them. New growth is bronzy, ages to deep green, and then turns shades of orange and yellow in fall.

Though usually ivory-flowered, pink summersweet variants exist in the wild. ‘Ruby Spires’ (6-8 feet) is a commonly sold variety with especially deep pink flowers and golden fall foliage. Some varieties are also more compact for smaller gardens. ‘Compacta’ (3-4 feet) is a uniformly compact, shrubby, white-flowered form that is a bit more upright and compact than the comparable ‘Hummingbird‘, which flops a bit but is just as lovely.

4. Purple-Flowering Raspberry

The pretty flowers of purple-flowered raspberry appear through summer.

The pink-flowered purple-flowered raspberry (Rubus odoratus, 3-6 feet, Zones 3-8) is probably the prettiest of all the North American raspberries. The eastern North American native inhabits open woods. Large, pink, or pinkish-purple flowers bloom throughout summer above suckering shrubs with pretty maple-shaped leaves. The fragrant flowers are pollinated by bees and butterflies. Edible, but dry and not-so-appealing raspberries ripen through summer and feed birds and wildlife. Plant it along a wooded or shady area where it can spread.

Buttonbush

The unique white, celestial-looking flowers of buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis, 8-12 feet, Zones 5-9) are big butterfly attractors. Monarchs, swallowtails, painted ladies, and silver-spotted skippers are all common visitors. Native bees like them, too. Natural shrubs grow quite large and favor moist soils. Full sun encourages the best flowering. Some desirable shorter varieties exist, namely the 4-foot-tall Sugar Shack^® from Proven Winners.

Plant for wildlife as well as beauty and reap the rewards. It’s a pleasure to watch pollinators, birds, and other wildlife enjoy your plantings. Adding a good balance of natives will ensure that you are serving regional pollinators well as the honeybees.

Native Viburnums: Great Shrubs for Fall

In spring they give us clusters of fragrant white flowers. In summer, their lush foliage and appealing habits take center stage, but fall is when native viburnums really perform. Their leaves turn glowing colors, and fruits of red, orange, yellow, or black, make a decorative statement before they are picked off by cardinals, finches, and waxwings. Some fruits may even be maintained into winter.

Native viburnums have a few more things in common. They are tough and resilient once established. Give them full sun, and well-drained, fertile soil amended with quality products like Fafard Premium Topsoil, and they will be happy. Average moisture will ensure the best flowering, fruiting, and fall color. Most are remarkably hardy. Bees and butterflies feed on the spring flowers, and all manner of wildlife enjoy the late-season fruits. Altogether, they are outstanding landscape shrubs that will not disappoint.

Arrowwood

Colorful Arrowood leaves — Arrowwood has some of the most attractive fall leaves that may turn red, orange, yellow, and/or purple. (Image by Jessie Keith)

Few shrubs are as tough as arrowwood (V. dentatum, Zones 3-8), an eastern native with a distribution that extends from New England down to Texas. Autumn Jazz® (10-12 feet) is a fall fireball with leaves of red, orange, and yellow. The somewhat shorter Blue Muffin® (5-7 feet) develops clusters of bright blue fruits and burgundy-red leaves at season’s end. Finally, Chicago Lustre® (8-12 feet) is especially tolerant of heat and drought, and its lustrous leaves turn shades of yellow, orange, and burgundy-red. If more than one shrub is planted for cross-pollination, the clusters of ivory spring flowers develop into blue-black fruits. The flowers are especially valued by bumblebees, and the caterpillars of the spring azure butterfly feed on the leaves.

Possumhaw

Brandywine (Image by Proven Winners) — Nothing can beat the fall show of Brandywine. (Image by Proven Winners)

Native to the whole of eastern North America, possumhaw (Viburnum nudum, Zone 5-9) grows best in moist, loamy soils. Clusters of fragrant white flowers welcome spring. Through late summer and fall, the fruits turn from green to pink to blue-black. They are tart but edible when mature. The glossy dark green leaves turn shades of burgundy and dark red. Brandywine^™ (5-7 feet) is one of the best varieties for a fantastic display of fruit and reliable burgundy leaf color. Plant more than one shrub to ensure a fruit display.

American Cranberrybush

Few shrubs are as beautiful as a fully fruited American Cranberrybush (V. opulus var. americanum (Syn. Viburnum trilobum), Zones 2-7 ) in fall. Birds cannot get enough of the drooping red fruits, and the maple-like leaves glow in the sun like embers. Its leaves are also important to spring azure butterfly caterpillars. A mature specimen can reach between 8 and 12 feet, so give it plenty of space.

Nannyberry

Nannyberry (V. lentago, Zones 2-8) is the largest of the viburnums mentioned and grows more like a small tree than a shrub. Fully mature specimens can reach up to 20 feet and tolerate moister soils than most. Natural populations extend far up into Canada, making it an unusually hardy plant. Its clusters of ivory flowers appear in mid to late spring. Black fruits and bright red or orange leaves comprise its fall show. The caterpillars of the spring azure butterfly feed on its leaves, and the sweet fruits are edible to humans as well as wildlife.

Any of these exceptional shrubs will enliven your garden’s show, especially in fall and winter. Their high wildlife value will also draw more bees, butterflies, and birds to your yard.

Sustaining a Fall and Winter Butterfly Garden

Your summer garden has been a haven for butterflies. Painted ladies and orange sulphurs have flocked to your purple coneflowers and white cosmos, and monarch and swallowtail caterpillars have munched on the showy milkweeds, Dutchman’s pipevine, and bronze fennel. Then there were the giant swallowtails, which discovered the golden hop tree (Ptelea trifoliata ‘Aurea’, USDA Hardiness Zones 5-9) in the backyard.

Now – with the approach of fall – your garden takes on a new role: as a sheltering, nurturing habitat for overwintering butterfly species.

How to Help Migrating Butterflies

Monarch butterflies on Goldenrod — Goldenrod is a fall favorite for monarchs making their great flight southward.

Some butterfly species – most famously monarchs – flit away to warmer climes as winter approaches. They don’t require winter shelter, but they DO need ample fuel for their migration flight. To optimize your garden as a butterfly refueling station, stock it with late-blooming, nectar-rich perennials such as goldenrods (Solidago spp.), whose sunny late-summer flowers are monarch magnets.

Among the many Solidago that make excellent, well-behaved subjects for perennial plantings are stiff goldenrod (Solidago rigida, Zones 3-9), which sports dense domed flowerheads on 4-to 5-foot stems clad with large, handsome, gray-green leaves. The flowers of the equally garden-worthy showy goldenrod (Solidago speciosa, Zones 3-8) are held in generous conical spires atop 3-foot, maroon-marked stems. For shade, there are the likes of zigzag goldenrod (Solidago flexicaulis, Zones 3-8), a spreader that forms leafy 2-foot-tall hummocks decked with conical flower clusters.

Monarch butterfly on Asters — Asters are also favored by migrating monarchs.

Additional late-season butterfly favorites include asters, Joe-Pye weed (along with other perennials in the genus formerly known as Eupatorium), and showy and cutleaf coneflowers (Rudbeckia fulgida and R. laciniata, Zones 3-9).

How to Help Winter Pupating Butterflies

Arkansas bluestar (Amsonia hubrichtii), in its yellow fall color, false indigo (Baptisia), and asters. — Many sturdy perennials support swallowtail chrysalises through winter. These include Arkansas bluestar (*Amsonia hubrichtii*), in its yellow fall color, false indigo (Baptisia), and asters.

Swallowtail chrysalis — A swallowtail chrysalis.

Rather than flitting south, most butterflies stay put for the winter, riding it out in a state of suspended animation known as diapause. For many species, diapause occurs in the form of a chrysalis, a hardened structure which encases the pupating butterfly while it morphs from crawling caterpillar to flitting adult. You’ll greatly increase the butterfly-friendliness of your garden if you leave some perennials standing in fall, thus providing structures to which swallowtails and other winter-pupaters can attach their chrysalises. Stems of goldenrods and asters make perfect chrysalis hosts, as do those of other sturdy perennials such as false indigo (Baptisia), bluestar (Amsonia), and wild senna (Senna).

How to Help Butterflies in Larval or Egg Diapause

Collecting raked leaves — Rake your lawns but refrain from cleaning garden beds. This helps overwintering pollinators.

Numerous butterfly species, such as skippers and fritillaries, spend the winter as caterpillars, typically sheltering under a blanketing layer of fallen leaves and other plant debris. This is yet another argument for letting nature take its course in autumn. Instead of cutting back and raking outspent perennials and their debris in fall, consider designating some or all of your butterfly garden as a disturbance-free zone. You can tidy things up in spring after the weather warms. After spring cleanup, apply a layer of Fafard Premium Natural & Organic Compost to give your butterfly plants a boost.

Eggs are the means of overwintering for hairstreaks and a handful of other butterfly species. Again, perennial stems and detritus are crucial for providing adequate winter protection – so save the garden clean-up until spring!

How to Help Overwintering Adult Butterflies

Mourning cloaks butterfly — Mourning cloaks overwinter as winged adults. They take refuge in hollow trees, unheated outbuildings, and other cozy niches. (Image by Pavel Kirillov)

Mourning cloaks, question marks, and a few other butterflies tough it out as winged adults, seeking refuge in hollow trees, unheated outbuildings, and other cozy niches. If you have such features on your property, consider conserving them as winter butterfly habitat. Boxes sold as putative butterfly shelters “can be attractive, and do little harm, [but] studies have shown that butterflies do not use them in any way,” according to the North American Butterfly Association.

In whatever form, winter diapause is a crucial stage of a butterflies’ life cycle. If you want a host of flitting butterflies next summer, be sure to provide the resources they need to make it through this winter.

The metamorphosis of a Painted lady butterfly (Vanessa cardui) — The metamorphosis of a Painted lady butterfly (*Vanessa cardui*). It is also a migrant species, like the Monarch, though their migratory patterns are not synchronized, as with monarchs.

Chaste Tree For Bees, Butterflies, and Summer Blooms

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Think of chaste tree (Vitex agnus–castus) as an equally showy but less invasive alternative to the ubiquitous butterfly bush (Buddleia davidii). A shrub or small tree that behaves as a dieback perennial in the coldest fringes of its USDA Hardiness Zones 5b to 9 hardiness range, it bears candelabras of lavender-blue flowers from summer into fall, enticing bees, butterflies, the occasional hummingbird, and other winged visitors. Attractive, five-fingered, gray-green leaves make a nice textural compliment to the steepled blooms. Adding to chaste tree’s allure is the pleasantly pungent fragrance of all its parts (as might be expected of a member of the mint family).

Chaste Tree Hardiness and Habit

Chaste tree with purple flowers — Chaste tree literally grows as a flowering tree in warmer zones. (Image by Cilias)

Chaste tree has long been grown in warmer regions of the U.S., where it typically forms a multi-stemmed, 15- to 20-foot tree. But it’s arguably an even better fit for gardens in USDA Zones 5 and 6, where it usually remains much more compact thanks to winter dieback. Like butterfly bush, in these colder regions, it resprouts from the base in late spring, mushrooming into a rounded, 3- to 6-foot shrub that flowers on new growth. Furthermore, unlike butterfly bush, it doesn’t seed itself prolifically after flowering (although self-sowing can be a problem in the Southwest and California).

Chaste Tree Growing Needs

Another point in chaste tree’s favor is its toughness. It takes readily to just about any sunny, not-too-soggy site; tolerates drought and salt; and rarely requires special treatment. In heavy clay soil it may benefit from the addition of F afard Premium Natural & Organic Compost for increased organic matter and drainage. Yet, despite its many merits, chaste tree has received relatively little attention from gardeners, perhaps because of the scarcity of cultivars selected for growth habit, flower color, and other traits.

Chaste Tree Varieties

Vitex agnus-castus 'Pink Pinnacle' with pink flower spires — *Vitex agnus-castus* ‘Pink Pinnacle’ has lovely pink flower spires.

All this is changing. A number of recently introduced cultivars mature as small to medium shrubs rather than as bushy mini-trees, broadening its versatility in Southern gardens. Additionally, these recent introductions come in a range of colors including pink, white, and various shades of blue. Wherever you garden, the possibilities for chaste tree are greater than ever – including as a summer-blooming centerpiece for containers.

Among the smallest of the new cultivars is ‘Blue Puffball’, which forms a dense, 4-foot mound covered with deep sky-blue spires. It makes an obvious choice for containers and perennial borders, perhaps in place of Caryopteris. As with all forms of chaste tree, flowering continues from summer to fall if spent blooms are regularly deadheaded. The somewhat larger ‘Blue Diddley’ offers spikes of the typical lavender-blue on densely borne stems that top out at 6 feet or so. Larger still, ‘Delta Blues’ produces spires of rich purple-blue flowers on 8- to 10-foot plants set with elegant, relatively narrow-fingered leaves.

Compact chaste trees of another color include ‘Pink Pinnacle’, prized for its abundant mid-pink spires on compact, mounded, 4- to 6-foot plants. Paler in color and larger in growth, ‘Blushing Spires’ bears shell-pink blooms and matures at 10 to 12 feet tall and wide. Compact white cultivars – such as the 8-foot-tall ‘Dale White’ – are especially rare (grab one if you see one!).

Of course, as mentioned earlier, in USDA Hardiness Zones 5 and 6 full-size cultivars such as white ‘Silver Spire’, deep lilac-blue ‘Shoal Creek’, and sapphire-blue ‘Le Comte’ behave as small to medium shrubs due to winterkill. In milder regions, they can be treated as small trees or maintained as shrubs via an annual hard pruning in early spring.

Other Vitex Species

Vitex negundo flowers — The flowers of *Vitex negundo* are less showy. (Image by Magnus Mansk)

Another excellent summer-bloomer for Zones 5 to 9 is chaste tree’s hardier and more obscure relative, Chinese chaste tree (V. negundo). Although less showy in flower, it surpasses chaste tree in its lacy, deeply incised foliage, which in varieties such as heterophylla rivals that of a fine Japanese maple. Hybrids between Vitex negundo and other Vitex species (as well as between chaste tree and its kin) are in the works, so stay tuned! Many more summer-blooming treasures for your garden (and containers) are yet to come from the Vitex tribe.

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