Plants for Butterflies and Other Pollinators

Showing 121–128 of 208 results

  • Monarda fistulosa Wild bergamont Z 3-9

    Whorls of hooded lavender tubes in July - August

    $13.25/bareroot

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    Whorls of hooded lavender tubes in July – August

    Size: 3-4' x 2' spreading
    Care: Sun to part shade any soil.
    Native: central U.S., Wisconsin native
    Wildlife Value: Checkered white, Tiger swallowtail, Giant swallowtail and Melissa blue butterflies relish Wild bergamot’s nectar. Supports over 70 bee species including Rusty patched Bumble Bee.

    Used medicinally by many Native tribes- Blackfoot, Cherokee, Chippewa, Choctaw, Crow, Dakota and Flathead. Cherokee: to cure colic, flatulence, nosebleed, measles, flu, hysteria and to induce restful sleep Blackfoot called it “Single-young-Man.”  Teton Dakotas boiled the leaves and flowers for medicine to cure abdominal pain. Ho-Chunk boiled the leaves to make a medicine for pimples.  Choctaws cured chest pain in children. The Flathead cured colds and sore teeth with Wild Bergamot. HoChunk inhaled fumes in a sweat bath to cure colds. Oneidas made a tea. For the Sioux it was nourishment and a panacea:  tea, stomachache, fever, indigestion, sore throats, fainting, whooping cough, wounds, sore eyes, ulcers, and snakebites. First documented by French explorers before 1635.  Plant exported to Europe by Tradescant the Younger in 1637.  Grown by Washington at Mount Vernon.  Today it is a flavor in Earl Grey tea.

  • Nepeta racemosa syn. N. mussinii Catmint Z 4-8

    Lavender blue from May through September, cut back for rebloom

    $12.75/bareroot

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    Lavender blue from May through September, cut back for rebloom

    Size: 18" x 18"
    Care: Full sun in well-drained soil
    Native: Caucasus
    Wildlife Value: attracts butterflies and bees
    Awards: Royal Horticultural Society Award of Merit.

    Nepetas may have been named after Nepete, an old Etrusrian city. Mussinii named for the plant’s discoverer, Russian Count Apollos Apollosovitch Mussin-Pushkin.  In gardens before 1810 and a favorite Victorian bedding plant by the late 1800’s.  Catmints contain various amounts of an essential oil  (nepetalactone) both a cat stimulant and a mosquito repellant.

  • Nepeta subsessilis Japanese catmint Z 4-8

    Showy bluish-purple spikes of bell-shaped flowers forming short spikes, June-September

    $13.25/bareroot

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    Showy bluish-purple spikes of bell-shaped flowers forming short spikes, June-September

     

    Size: 18-24” x 18-24” 
    Care: sun to part shade in moist to moist well-drained soil
    Native: Japan
    Wildlife Value: deer & rabbit resistant, attracts butterflies

    Subsessilis means nearly without stalks.  Catmints contain various amounts of an essential oil (nepetalactone) both a cat stimulant and a mosquito repellant. From Nambu Japan where botanists called it Miso-gawa- sô.  Von Siebold, German botanist and physician, who worked in Japan from 1823 to1830, saw it.   Named in Bull. Acad. Imp. Sci. Saint-Pétersburg, sér. 3, 20: 469. (1875) by Russian botanist Karl Maximowicz.

    z.

  • Onopordum acanthium Scotch thistle, Woolly thistle Biennial Z 5-9

    Soft, majestic purple-magenta thistles on prickly silver foliage and stems.  

    $10.75/bareroot

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    Soft, majestic purple-magenta thistles on prickly silver foliage and stems.

    Can not ship to: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

    Size: 4-6’ x 2”
    Care: full sun in moist, well-drained soil
    Native: Europe and western Asia
    Wildlife Value: Bees, butterflies and birds

    Identified by Dioscorides in De Materia Medica for medicinal use around 70 A.D.  Chosen as the symbol of Scotland by King James V. According to legend the Scotch thistle helped Scotland fend off a night-time Viking invasion by preventing a sneak attack.  It caused the Vikings to scream in pain waking the Scots.  Introduced to American gardens in late 1800’s.

  • Packera obovata syn. Senecio obovata Round-leaved ragwort, Golden groundsel Z. 3-8

    Clusters of perky yellow daisies with sunny centers atop nearly leafless, erect stems, blooming late spring to early summer. Missouri Botanic Garden: “Vigorous spring wildflower for sunny or shady areas of the landscape. Large, naturalized plantings in woodland gardens can be spectacular in bloom. Cut off flowering stems after bloom and enjoy the semi-evergreen basal foliage which forms an attractive ground cover.”

    $13.25/bareroot

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    Clusters of perky yellow daisies with sunny centers atop nearly leafless, erect stems, blooming late spring to early summer. Missouri Botanic Garden: “Vigorous spring wildflower for sunny or shady areas of the landscape. Large, naturalized plantings in woodland gardens can be spectacular in bloom. Cut off flowering stems after bloom and enjoy the semi-evergreen basal foliage which forms an attractive ground cover.”

    Size: 1-2’ x 6-12” spreading
    Care: sun to part shade in moist to moist well-drained soil
    Native: curved swath from eastern Canada to FL west to IL and NM
    Wildlife Value: attracts bees. Deer resistant

    Obovata means egg-shaped describing the shape of its basal leaves. First named in 1803 from a plant of Rev. Henry Muhlenberg (1783-1815) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotthilf_Heinrich_Ernst_Muhlenberg,) Pennsylvania plantsman, sent to German botanist Carl Ludwig Willdenow (1765 – 1812). Packera named for a Canadian botanist, John G. Packer.

  • Paeonia lactiflora Buckeye Belle Z 3-8

    Semi-double, velvety blossoms of the deepest red, almost chocolate, with large outer petals surrounding narrow inner petals sprinkled with sparkling golden staminodes.  

    $17.95/bareroot

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    Semi-double, velvety blossoms of the deepest red, almost chocolate, with large outer petals surrounding narrow inner petals sprinkled with sparkling golden staminodes.

     

    Size: 18-24” x 24-30”
    Care: Full sun or part shade in most, well-drained soil
    Wildlife Value: Deer and Rabbit resistant, attracts butterflies & hummingbirds, great cut flower
    Awards: American Peony Society Gold Medal, American Peony Society Award for Landscape Merit

    Hybridized in the USA in 1956 by Walter Mains

  • Paeonia lactiflora x Jan Van Leeuwen Z 3-8

    Fragrant cupped single white blooms with yellow stamens

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    OUT OF STOCK

    Fragrant cupped single white blooms with yellow stamens

    Size: 2' x 3'
    Care: Full sun in moist well-drained soil. Deer and rabbit resistant
    Native: Japan
    Wildlife Value: birds and ants enjoy the sweet nectar on the buds before opening

    Introduced in 1928

  • Penstemon ovatus Beardtongue Z 4-9

    Cornflower blue trumpets encircle spike in June, one of our favorites.

    $14.25/bareroot

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    Cornflower blue trumpets encircle spike in June, one of our favorites.

    Size: 2’ x 8”
    Care: Full sun in well-drained soil
    Native: Pacific Northwest
    Wildlife Value: attracts Baltimore butterfly, bees, bumblebees, flies, wasps and hummingbirds.

    Penstemon is named for its five stamens, penta meaning five in Greek. Penstemons.  Ovatus means oval, shaped like an egg, with the narrower end up, referring to the foliage.  This species first collected by Scottish plant hunter David Douglas (1799-1834) and introduced in 1826.