Plants for Butterflies and Other Pollinators

Showing 217–220 of 220 results

• Viola tricolor Johnny jump up, Heartease Z 2-9 RESEEDING short-lived perennial

  Purple, yellow and white from spring to late fall

  

  $6.25/pot

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  Purple, yellow and white from spring to late fall

  Size: 3-5” x 4-6”
  Care: Sun to part shade in moist well-drained soil
  Native: Europe and Asia
  Wildlife Value: Violas are the sole food source for the caterpillar of Fritillary butterflies.

  Viola was named after a mythical young woman who Zeus loved and who Zeus’ wife harassed.  Athens adopted the V. tricolor as its symbol.  Pliny prescribed it for headaches in ancient Rome.  Mentioned repeatedly by Shakespeare.  In the 1500’s the plant was used to make a medicinal tea to cure chest and lung inflammations, (Gerard) and later to cure impetigo and ulcers.  Grown in the Eichstätt Garden, the garden of Johann Konrad von Gemmingen, prince bishop of Eichstätt in Bavaria, c. 1600.

  The origin of all pansies which resulted from 30 years experiment by English gardener to Lord James Gambier (governor of Newfoundland), William Thompson in early 1800’s.  The 1^st pansies came from a cross of V. tricolor with V. lutea and V. altaica.  When Napoleon Bonaparte died Viola tricolor found in his locket with a snip of Josephine’s hair.  Thomas Jefferson imported Viola tricolor from France in 1767. Grown at Elgin Botanic Garden, America’s 1^st botanic garden, 1811.  Pressed specimen in Emily Dickinson’s herbarium.

• Xerophyllum tenax  Turkey beard, Indian basket grass    Z 5-8

  Plume of fragrant white flowers May-August on naked stalks rising from mound of grassy foliage, actually a lily.

  

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  OUT OF STOCK

  Plume of fragrant white flowers May-August on naked stalks rising from mound of grassy foliage, actually a lily.

  Size: 3-5’ x 24-30”
  Care: sun to part shade in well-drained soil
  Native: British Columbia, to Montana & WY

  Several western Indian tribes wove baskets & hats from the leaves & roasted the roots for food.  Blackfoot applied the plant to wounds to stop bleeding and repair breaks & sprains.  Collected by Meriwether Lewis June 15, 1806 just east of Weippe Prairie and west of Bitterroot Mountains in Idaho.

• Zauschneria garetii syn Epilobium canum ssp. garrettii Hummingbird trumpet, California fuchsia, Garrett’s Firechalice Z 5-9

  Vibrant orange-red tubes in late summer, spreading by root, form a colorful groundcover.

  

  $12.75/bareroot

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  Vibrant orange-red tubes in late summer, spreading by root, form a colorful groundcover.

  Size: 12” x 18-24”
  Care: sun to part shade in well-drained soil
  Native: Kingston Mountains in CA, Utah, Idaho & Wyoming
  Wildlife Value: Attracts hummingbirds, birds and butterflies, Deer and rabbit resistant

  Collected in Utah’s Big Cottonweed Canyon in 1906 by A.O. Garrett (1870-1948), prolific Utah planthunter.

• Zizia aurea Golden alexanders Z 4-9

  In spring, golden umbels

  

  $12.75/bareroot

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  Tiny chartreuse-golden flowers, grouped in umbels, spring.  Good cut flower.

  Size: 30"x 24"
  Care: full sun in moist to moist well-drained soil
  Native: from New Brunswick south to Florida - west to Texas, Wisconsin native
  Wildlife Value: Primary host for the Missouri Woodland and Black swallowtail butterfly caterpillars. Supports over 70 bee species.

  Meskwaki used the root to reduce fevers and the flower stalks to ease headaches.  Collected by late 1700’s.  Good cut flower.