Plants for Butterflies and Other Pollinators

Showing 9–16 of 220 results

  • Alcea rosea var. nigra Black hollyhock BIENNIAL Z 4-9

    Early to late summer spikes of single jet-black/maroon platters.  

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    $12.75/bareroot

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    Early to late summer spikes of single jet-black/maroon platters.

     

    Size: 5-7’ x 24”
    Care: sun in well-drained soil
    Native: West Asia
    Wildlife Value: Attracts bees, butterflies and birds

    Hollyhocks have been cultivated in China for thousands of years where it symbolized the passing of time. They cooked the leaves for a vegetable and also ate the buds. Transported from Middle East to Europe by the Crusaders and introduced to England by 1573. Grown in the Eichstätt Garden, the garden of Johann Konrad von Gemmingen, prince bishop of Eichstätt in Bavaria, c. 1600. Culpepper, a 17th century English herbalist, claimed the plant could be used to cure ailments of the “belly, Stone, Reins, Kidneys, Bladder, Coughs, Shortness of Breath, Wheesing, … the King’s Evil, Kernels, Chin-cough, Wounds, Bruises, Falls. . . (and) Sun-burning.”  Both single and double forms grew in England by the time of Parkinson (1629).  Parkinson said they came “in many and sundry colours.”  John Winthrop Jr. introduced the 1st hollyhock to the New World in the 1630’s.

    Thomas Jefferson grew this black variety at Monticello.

  • Allium cernuum Nodding onion, Prairie onion Z 4-8

    Umbels of arching stems with nodding bells of lilac shading to pink or occasionally white.  May to June.

    $9.25/bareroot

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    Umbels of arching stems with nodding bells of lilac shading to pink or occasionally white.  May to June.

    We are very sorry, but due to state agricultural restrictions, we are not permitted to ship Allium bulbs to Idaho, or to the following five counties in the State of Washington: Adams, Benton, Franklin, Grant and Klickitat.

    Size: 12”-18”x 3-6”
    Care: sun to part shade in moist well-drained soil
    Native: Canada to Mexico
    Wildlife Value: nectar source for Hairstreak butterfly, Attracts hummingbirds. Alliums resist critters including deer, rabbits, squirrels, mice, and moles and voles. They cannot stand the onion-like smell of Alliums protecting near-by plants too.

    Cernuum is Latin meaning “nodding.”  Many groups of 1st Americans ate the bulbs raw, roasted or dried for winter storage or as flavoring for soups and gravies. Cherokee used this plant medicinally to cure colds, hives, colic, “gravel & dropsy,” liver ailments, sore throats, “phthisic,” and feet in “nervous fever.”  Those in the Isleta Pueblo were not quite as creative as the Cherokee and used this only for sore throats and infections.  Meriwether Lewis collected this in Montana and wrote, “I met with great quantities of a small onion about the size of a musquit ball … They were crisp, white and well-flavoured.   I gathered about a half a bushel of them before the crew arrivd.”  Chicago is believed to be named for the Algonquin word for this plant chigagou.

  • Allium cyathophorum var. farreri  Z 5-8

    Clusters of nodding deep purple tubes flowering atop scapes in late spring to early summer above shorter grassy leaves.

    $9.75/bareroot

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    Clusters of nodding deep purple tubes flowering atop scapes in late spring to early summer above shorter grassy leaves.

    We are very sorry, but due to state agricultural restrictions, we are not permitted to ship Allium bulbs to Idaho, or to the following five counties in the State of Washington: Adams, Benton, Franklin, Grant and Klickitat.

    Size: 6-12” x 9-12"
    Care: sun to part shade in moist to moist well-drained soil          
    Native: mountains of northwestern China.
    Wildlife Value: Alliums resist critters including deer, rabbits, squirrels, mice, and moles and voles. They cannot stand the onion-like smell of Alliums protecting near-by plants too.

    1st described in 1930. This variety named to honor intrepid plant explorer, writer and artist Reginald Farrer (1880-1920).

  • Allium flavum var. minus Yellow flowered garlic

    Umbels of shatter-shot yellow florets, like fireworks, bloom atop blue-green stems in July.

    $8.95/bareroot

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    Umbels of shatter-shot yellow florets, like fireworks, bloom atop blue-green stems in July.

    We are very sorry, but due to state agricultural restrictions, we are not permitted to ship Allium bulbs to Idaho, or to the following five counties in the State of Washington: Adams, Benton, Franklin, Grant and Klickitat.

    Size: 10” x 3”
    Care: sun in moist well-drained soil
    Native: Northern Turkey
    Wildlife Value: Resists critters including deer, rabbits, squirrels, mice, and moles and voles. They cannot stand the onion-like smell of Alliums protecting near-by plants too. Attracts bees & butterflies
    Awards: species received Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit

    Described by Swiss botanist Pierre Edmond Boissier before 1885

  • Allium senescens Corkscrew allium, German garlic, Greater mountain garlic Z 4-9

    Lavender balls, up to 30 of them, atop thin, bluish, strap-like, twisting foliage – mid-summer day’s dream.

    $9.25/bareroot

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    Lavender balls, up to 30 of them, atop thin, bluish, strap-like, twisting foliage – mid-summer day’s dream.

    We are very sorry, but due to state agricultural restrictions, we are not permitted to ship Allium bulbs to Idaho, or to the following five counties in the State of Washington: Adams, Benton, Franklin, Grant and Klickitat.

    Size: 6-12” x 6-12”
    Care: sun to part shade in well-drained to moist well-drained soil
    Native: Siberia
    Wildlife Value: Attracts butterflies & bees. Resists critters including deer, rabbits, squirrels, mice, and moles and voles. They cannot stand the onion-like smell of Alliums protecting near-by plants too.

    Cultivated before 1753. According to Philip Miller’s 1768 Dictionary, “planted in gardens for the variety of their flowers.”  Grown at America’s 1st botanic garden, Elgin Botanic Garden 1811.

  • Allium tuberosum Garlic chives Z 4-8

    August & September bright white balls the size of golf balls on erect stems. Ornamental in gardens and in arrangements, both fresh and dried, delicious edible.  

    $8.95/bareroot

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    August & September bright white balls the size of golf balls on erect stems. . Ornamental in gardens and in arrangements, both fresh and dried, delicious edible.

    We are very sorry, but due to state agricultural restrictions, we are not permitted to ship Allium bulbs to Idaho, or to the following five counties in the State of Washington: Adams, Benton, Franklin, Grant and Klickitat.

    Size: 12-18” x 8”
    Care: Full sun or shade in any soil
    Native: Southeast Asia
    Wildlife Value: nectar source for many butterlies including the Tiger Swallowtail. Resists critters including deer, rabbits, squirrels, mice, and moles. They cannot stand the onion-like smell of Alliums protecting near-by plants too.

    Used medicinally in Asia as a remedy for incontinence, bladder weakness, kidney trouble and knee injuries.  Traditional Chinese medicine practitioners made a powder from the seeds called Jiu Cai Zi used for numerous ailments.  

  • Anemone canadensis Meadow anemone Z 3-8

    Pristine pure white petal-like sepals frame many golden anthers in early summer

    $12.75/pot

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    Pristine pure white petal-like sepals frame many golden anthers in early summer

    Size: 12-24" x 12” spreading
    Care: full sun to part shade in moist soil or moist well-drained soil
    Native: North America as far south as Missouri, Wisconsin native
    Wildlife Value: pollen for small bees
    Size: Good groundcover under trees where soil is moist, naturalized garden.

    Collected by Meriwether Lewis August 17, 1804 on the 1st leg of the Expedition.  Used medicinally by many Indian groups.  The roots cleared up sores and leaves stopped nose bleeds for the Chippewa.  It relieved the Iroquois of worms and counteracted witch medicine.  For the Meskwaki this plant uncrossed crossed eyes.  Ojibwa singers used it to clear their throats and remedy lower back pain.   Sioux used the root to remedy several ailments – staunch bleeding, reduce lower back pain, sore eyes, crossed eyes and twitching of eyes.  They also ate the root to clear the throat to boost good singing.

  • Angelica sylvestris ‘Purpurea’ Wild Angelica Self-seeding Biennial Z 4-9

    Imposing, glossy, deep purple stems and buds with large umbels of mauve to dusky pink to purplish late summer-early fall.  

    $12.75/bareroot

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    Imposing, glossy, deep purple stems and buds with large umbels of mauve to dusky pink to purplish late summer-early fall.

    Can not ship to : Maine

    Size: 5-6' x 5'
    Care: sun to part shade in moist to moist well-drained soil. Be sure to let the flowers drop its seeds and do not weed the seedlings out the following spring. It reseeds readily from fresh seed
    Native: Europe in moist woodlands and bogs.
    Wildlife Value: attracts bees and butterflies

    Fresh stems or boiled leaves eaten medicinally to cure scurvy. In Austria made into a tea to remedy infections, flu, stomach ailments and respiratory ailments. The species described in Species Plantarum 1: 251. 1753 (1 May 1753) by Linnaeus.  William Jackson Hooker described the wild species growing in England as having “stem purplish, pubescent above, as well as the umbels.” The British Flora p. 180 (1860)