Garden Experiments
For the love of gardening and wildlife habitat
You can attract Gulf fritillary butterflies to your yard and garden by providing food plants (flowers), caterpillar host plants, water, and shelter for the butterflies. Here are some tips for the plants to include in your garden for Gulf fritillaries. Gulf fritillary butterflies (Dione vanillae -- formerly Agraulis vanillae) are orange, black, …
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Many of the flowering plants I grow in my yard attract butterflies by providing food for them or their larvae. It always makes me smile to see a butterfly flitting by or resting on a bloom. My neighbors probably think I'm crazy when they hear me say "hello, beautiful" to the butterflies, but they always seem like fancy ladies visiting my garden. …
Native plants are adapted to the soil, temperature, rainfall, and fauna in the area in which they grow. As a result, they provide some benefits to the gardener and local wildlife that non-native plants bought from your local garden store may not. I like the look of native plants in my garden. I tend to mix them in with exotic plants and I end up …
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Red buckeye (Aesculus pavia) has bright red flowers. The flowers of this native shrub are a favorite of hummingbirds and butterflies in early spring. In the southeast, it blooms in late March and early April, and you can hear the hummingbirds buzzing around the blooms. The red buckeye always catches my eye when it is blooming. These tall …
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This beauty can be found growing in the majority of the United States. It is native to the eastern U.S. - as far east as Kansas and Illinois, down to New Mexico, and north to Wisconsin. It is also native to Ontario, Canada. It is hardy in USDA zones 5 to 9. Its vibrant pink or white flowers bloom in July through September and are about 1 inch in …
I love the flowers of false garlic, which bloom in large numbers, but as the blooms fade, the grass-like leaves are quite abundant. I prefer not to have them in my flower beds, but I leave them blooming in the lawn and will not cut the grass until the blooms are done. It blooms in early spring in sunny locations with well-drained soil. It can …
