I've wanted a butterfly weed plant for years and this year I finally just decided to buy some small ones and remove any guesswork. That night the idiot squirrel that lives on my property dug them both up, so this is my solution to protect the new one i was graciously given for free from the same nursery i got the others.
I was curious if planting milkweed would really bring in a monarch. Hadn't seen one since I moved in 3 years ago. Planted swamp milkweed and butterfly weed this spring. Worked great, lots of caterpillars and monarchs already on just 8 plants. They just needed a reason to visit.
Does anyone else find it ridiculous when people claim that a particular non-native plant is part of the "traditional diet" or "traditional medicine" of a particular culture? For example, I've heard many times that sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) is the main staple in the "traditional" Okinawan diet, or that aloo gobhi (potato and cauliflower curry) is part of "traditional" Indian cuisine. If "traditional" is arbitrarily defined as going back only to the start of the use of the plant rather than the start of the culture, it seems to lose its significance. "Our culture has used this plant ever since our culture began to use this plant" does not convey anything meaningful. If people like to eat/use a non-native plant, fine, no problem at all, but to claim that it's a cultural tradition seems disingenuous.
I'm in the Piedmont (South-east US) region with a hardiness zone of 8a. I have a large area of turf grass, and I want to plant native plants, attract butterflies, native insects, fireflies, all of it. I'm looking for trees, shrubs, small plants, anything would be nice to plant.
I've been waiting so patiently all year, hoping the plant in my backyard was butterfly weed. It probably isn't, but I found this little guy in my front yard a couple days ago!
We’ve noticed we don’t find monarch caterpillars on milkweed plants that have ants on them. We’ve also noticed if ants start coming on a plant with a caterpillar on it, the caterpillar disappears. It doesn’t seem to show up on a neighboring milkweed plant either.
There was a conversation about lupine seed collection in the comment section of a post a little while back, and now that my lupine is going to seed I thought I'd follow up on what that looks like.
I've been hoping all year that this plant was going to be a huge, beautiful butterfly weed bunch, but after seeing actual butterfly weed on a field trip for my field botany class, this doesn't appear to be butterfly weed after all.
Inspired by a comment reply I made in another thread, I thought it would be fun to share what plants native to your region you've had easy success with growing from seed, either in pots or direct-sowing. Please mention your country/region when commenting!
Identifying what plants are actually native to your area can be surprisingly tricky. A lot of info out there is state- (or even less helpfully, region-) specific, but if you live in a large and/or geographically diverse state what's native in one corner may be completely foreign in another. There's also a lot of information out there that's too vague or straight-up incorrect, especially for any plant with numerous common names or multiple sub-species.
I got these as bare-root saplings a couple years old, and planted them last year. One actually bloomed and produced some berries the same year I planted it! These things sure are prolific. This year, they're all already blooming.
I own this 1 ft wide, 30 ft long strip between my driveway and the neighbor's property. It's steeply angled the whole length due to my pavement being higher than the neighbor's yard. Grass turf would be difficult and awkward to trim in this location. I would prefer to plant something native and perennial that won't invade the neighbor's lawn. Ideas so far is dwarf ornamental grasses (likely not native), sun tolerant hostas (not native), maybe coneflower. Any ideas?? Midwest US Zone 5, dryish soil and sunny with some late afternoon shade.
No hurricanes this year means that my swamp sunflowers didn't get knocked over! Also something about the lighting made this bee look silver even though it's really metallic green. Florida, Zone 9b
Most of my experience is in temperate climates in Northern/Western Europe (for specific plant species info), but I'm happy to help answer management questions in general.
Basically the title. Despite being interested in plants as a teen and trying to germinate exotics under my first grow light, I didn't get into natives until much later...completely on accident.
I rent, so I got a limited space to work with. That said, I counted 12 bees buzzing my 3 anise hyssop plants (Two are 2 years old in the ground, 1 in a container from seed this year) and my (Monarda Citriodora) lemon bee balm! This is the most I have seen in my yard so far!
All seeds harvested within 100 miles and in same ecoregion. I have a nursery license and have sold some (at cost) at a few yard sales, but am looking to sell more or do a plant giveaway before winter. Have been looking for examples of others doing this and haven't found much. Want to ensure people buying them/taking them actually plant them and have some education. Any ideas would be appreciated.
Hope this is an acceptable contribution here. I've been converting areas of my Midwestern yard to native plant habitat for the past 2+ years. It's sparkling with fireflies tonight while the surrounding grass yards are dark. Gives me a bit of a boost to get ready for tackling the sprouts of pokeweed and thistle tomorrow.
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