This is Nebraska wildflower week. Each day I’ll feature a native
wildflower that grows well for me in my fickle clay AND brings in
butterflies. Hopefully, you’ll find something you’ve never seen before.
To end the week, on Saturday, June 9 at 10am, I’ll be giving a presentation on Nebraska wildflowers at Finke Gardens and Nursery. And don’t forget, I do run a native prairie garden coaching business. Ahem.
Also, check out Bob Henrickson’s (NE Statewide Arboretum) fantastic advice on planting a mini prairie in your landscape.
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I ask people all the time if they plant milkweed, because it is a host
plant for monarch butterflies. Oh yes yes yes, they say, Asclepias
tuberosa. Oh no no no, I reply, not good at all.
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| Red Swamp Milkweed |
See, in my garden over 5 years, I’ve seen about two
monarch on tuberosa. On incarnata, I’ve seen one thousand. So the latter is
the one to get–not just to help monarchs whose habitats are being poisoned and destroyed
like never before (along with pretty much every other butterfly)–but
because when it blooms in June and July all insects go nuts nectaring.
Swamp
milkweed should be in full sun if you want it to bloom and give you
some cool furry seeds. Otherwise, I also have it in half sun, moist to medium
clay soil, anywhere from 1-3′ tall and 1′ wide. I have both the red and
white-blooming cultivars, though the larvae seem to prefer the straight red species. Other good milkweeds to have are A.
sullivantii, speciosa, syriaca, and purpaurscens, but you’ll have to
research those to know more.
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| ‘Ice Ballet’ or some such odd name |
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| Some of the 200 monarch caterpillars I raise each year |
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