Hello:
I live in CA, Zone 9. I will be helping a friend this spring plant in her backyard and I will need to include some shade loving plants as well as we want to attract butterflys.
She has a large redwood and a large palm tree in the area we want to work in. The area does get a lot of sahde but some sun.
Suggestions, ideas?
Thanks!
Redwood and a plam? Talk about night and day. A picture would help a lot but I would suggest Heuchera
Be really sure you want the asparagus before you plant it. I had some start, probably from seed, and have tried for years to get rid of it.
Hi Rose It is going to be difficult to attract butterflies into to the shade of a redwood, as BFs are sun lovers. Therefore, most of the flowers they love are also. Anyway, here's a list of things in my zone 9, NorCal garden that BFs like. You can see what you can do with them. (Don't forget containers which can be moved in and out of the sun) Buddleia, Butterfly Bush (can take some shade) Lantana Any flat, daisy-like flower: Zinnia, Black eyed Susan, Aster, Echinacea, Cosmos etc Verbena Phlox Salvias especially blue/purple Milkweed (butterfly weed) Goldenrod Yarrow Good luck with your freinds garden Emilie NorCal
Not quite sure if these are shade loving, but for butterflies I was always successful with planting Buddelhia (Butterfly Bush) and also Mexican Sunflowers (Tithonia-Torch).
The blooms come late in the year - but I love my Firespike.
A minor caution. I put in some attractive-to-butterfly plants and was a little dismayed to find that the bee to butterfly ratio was about 100 to 1. I didn't mind the bees, but some visitors did.
All the advertised plants seem to work; just don't go overboard would be my advice.
Rob expounded:
Nectar plants will attract all pollinators, and the bees need everything they can get right now. They're under siege from so many angles.
Rob wrote in news:Xns98E512C7429A2vze2jk3zverizonnet@199.45.49.11:
Go over to your neighbor's lawn late at night and spread some white clover seed. Perhaps the bees will go there instead. :)
I can't do that to the neighbor - he would take it as retaliatory. He still hasn't forgiven me for accusing him years ago of chemical warfare, i.e. Roundup on a windy day.
Actually, as Ann noted, there are fewer bees around lately so the "problem" is less, to the detriment of the bees, of course.
FragileWarrior clover seed. Perhaps the bees will go there instead. :)
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article about disappearing bees
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