Plants for Butterflies and Other Pollinators

Showing 57–64 of 223 results

  • Comptonia peregrina Sweet Fern Z 2-6 SHRUB

    Grown for it’s fern like leaves, this small shrub flowers in spring with insignificant yellow flowers followed by brown nutlets. Foliage is fragrant when crushed.

    $15.95/ONLY AVAILABLE AT NURSERY

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    Grown for its fern like leaves, this small shrub flowers in spring with insignificant yellow flowers followed by brown nutlets. Foliage is fragrant when crushed.

    LIMITED QUANTITES AVAILABLE.  ONE PER CUSTOMER PLEASE.

    Size: 2-5’ x 4’ spreading
    Care: sun to part shade in moist, well-drained to well-drained soil. Prefers acidic, but will grow in other types of soil as well. Drought and salt tolerant.
    Native: Eastern North America, Wisconsin native
    Wildlife Value: Attracts bees, butterflies, & birds. Larval host plant for many moths, including Io moth, several Sphinx moth species, and the Anise Swallowtail butterfly. Deer resistant. Nitrogen fixer.

    Genus name honors Henry Compton (1632-1713), Bishop of London and patron of botany. Many Native Americans (Algonquin, Cherokee, Chippewa, Delaware, Menominee, Potawatomi) used this plant for a wide variety of purposes: crushed leaves inhaled for headache.  Leaf infusions for round worms, fevers, beverage, blood purifier, blisters, clear mucus from lungs, bladder inflammation, rash from poison ivy, swelling, flux, stomach cramps, itch.  Fragrant leaves- burned or crushed for incense in ceremony, perfume; decoction for childbirth, tonic. Other: sprinkle on medicine to poison enemy, prevent blueberries from spoiling, leaves in fire to make smudge to ward off mosquitoes. Oneida made a tea.
    Collected for botany before 1753.  Grown at America’s 1st botanic garden, Elgin Botanic Garden 1811.

    **LISTED AS OUT OF STOCK BECAUSE WE DO NOT SHIP THIS ITEM.  IT IS AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE AT OUR RETAIL LOCATION.

  • Coreopsis verticillata Thread leafed tickseed Z 4-9

    All summer into fall, free-blooming non-stop - yolk yellow daisies of 8 narrow spoon-shaped petals with a color matching center each atop a wiry stem. Cut back half-way to promote reblooming in fall.  

    $12.75/bareroot

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    All summer into fall, free-blooming non-stop – yolk yellow daisies of 8 narrow spoon-shaped petals with a color matching center each atop a wiry stem. Cut back half-way to promote reblooming in fall.

     

    Size: 24" x 18" spreading
    Care: Sun to part shade well-drained to moist well-drained soil, drought tolerant
    Native: S.E. U.S.
    Wildlife Value: attracts butterflies, Deer resistant

    Exported from its native America to England in 1759. Used to dye cloth red.

  • Cornus canadensis Bunchberry, Creeping dogwood Z 2-7Cornus canadensis syn. Chamaepericlymenum canadensis Bunchberry, Creeping dogwood Z 2-7

    Four white, pointed petal-like bracts in spring and showy scarlet berries in fall

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    OUT OF STOCK

    Four white, pointed petal-like bracts in spring and showy scarlet berries in fall

    Size: 6” x spreading slowly
    Care: part shade in moist, ACIDIC soil. Needs moisture to establish
    Native: Northern areas from the east to the west coasts of No. America, Wisconsin native.
    Wildlife Value: Host for the caterpillar of the Spring azure butterfly. Pollen and nectar for many bees, wasps, ants, butterflies and beetles.

    Flowers open faster than any other flower, in less than ½ millisecond. Abnaki Indians used it to cure side pains.  Algonquin made a cathartic tea, cured colds, and stomach aches with this.  Delaware reduced body pains with it. Chippewa, Cree and Eskimo smoked the berries.  Probably 1st collected for gardens by John Bartram (1699-1776).  Offered for sale at his nursery near Philadelphia. Sent to Dr. Fothergill in London in 1774. “One of the prettiest plants for the bog garden or the cool parts of the rock garden.” William Robinson 1899.  Pressed specimen in Emily Dickinson’s herbarium.

  • Corydalis sempervirens syn. Capnoides sempervirens, Fumitory, Rock harlequin RESEEDING SHORT-LIVED PERENNIAL

    Pink tube-shaped flowers with flaring yellow ends bloom from spring to summer

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    OUT OF STOCK

    RESEEDING SHORT-LIVED PERENNIAL

    Pink tube-shaped flowers with flaring yellow ends bloom from spring to summer

    Size: 10-12” x 10-12”
    Care: Sun to part shade in moist well drained soil
    Native: from Nova Scotia west to Alaska, south to North Carolina, Wisconsin native

    Corydalis is Greek for “lark” korydalos, referring to the shape of flower resembling a lark’s spur.    First described and named (name now changed) in 1753. Pressed specimen in Emily Dickinson’s herbarium.

  • Corylus americana American Hazelnut, Filbert Z 4-9

    In spring, showy male flowers on 2-3" long catkins. Female flowers appear in small, reddish catkins grow into half inch long, egg-shaped edible nuts. Fall color ranges from orange, rose, purplish red, yellow and green.

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    In spring, showy male flowers on 2-3″ long catkins. Female flowers appear in small, reddish catkins grow into half inch long, egg-shaped edible nuts. Fall color ranges from orange, rose, purplish red, yellow and green.

    Size: 10-16’ x 8-1’
    Care: sun in any soil
    Native: E. North America including Wisconsin
    Wildlife Value: Exceptionally high value to wildlife. Pheasant, Quail, Turkey, Grouse, Turkey & Blue Jay and small animals eat the nuts. Pollen source for bees, host to many caterpillars both butterflies and moths. Branches make good nesting sites for songbirds. Black walnut tolerant.

    Described by Thomas Walter in 1788. Food for several Native American tribes. Medicinal for Cherokee, Iroquois, Menominee, Meskwaki and Ojibwa, to remedy hives, fever, headaches, pain of baby’s teething, hay fever and induce vomiting.

    **LISTED AS OUT OF STOCK BECAUSE WE DO NOT SHIP THIS ITEM.  IT IS AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE AT OUR RETAIL LOCATION.

  • Dalea aurea syn Parosela aurea Golden prairie clover Z 5-9

    Cone-shaped fuzzy yellow flower spikes rise above sparse foliage in April-June

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    ARCHIVED

    Note: This is a plant not currently for sale.  This is an archive page preserved for informational use.

    Cone-shaped fuzzy yellow flower spikes rise above sparse foliage in April-June

    Size: 1-3’ x 1’
    Care: sun in dry soil
    Native: West US from TX to WY
    Wildlife Value: Attracts bees, butterflies
    Size: Native Americans used Golden Prairie-clover to treat diarrhea and colic

    Collected and described by Thomas Nuttall, 1813.

     

  • Dalea purpurea syn. Petalostemon purpurea Violet prairie clover Z 4-9

    Vase shaped clump with wands of violet to purple encircling tall coneheads mid-summer

    $12.75/bareroot

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    Vase shaped clump with wands of violet to purple encircling tall coneheads mid-summer

    Size: 2’ x 18”
    Care: full sun in well-drained to moist well-drained soil.
    Native: Canada to Texas, Wisconsin native
    Wildlife Value: Host for caterpillars of Dogface Sulphur, Striped blue & Mexican blue butterflies. Supports over 80 bee species including endangered Rusty patched Bumble Bees

    Dalea named to honor English botanist Dr. Samuel Dale (1659- 1739.)  Chippewa, Meskwaki and Navajo used medicinally – as remedies for heart ailments, pneumonia, diarrhea and measles.  Comanche and Lakota chewed the root like gum, for its sweet taste. Sioux combined it with Amorpha canescens, Leadplant to ambush bison. Sioux also treated fevers and stomach disorders with an infusion made from the plant. Pawnee made brooms from the flexible stems.  1st collected by French botanist André Michaux (1746-1802) who spent 11 years in America collecting hundreds of new plants.

  • Delphinium tricorne Dwarf larkspur, Spring larkspur Z 4-8

    Spring ephemeral of blue delphinium elf-cap spikes. Substitute these for tulips, a favorite food of deer and rabbits

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    OUT OF STOCK – Available to order in Spring only

    Spring ephemeral of blue delphinium elf-cap spikes. Substitute these for tulips, a favorite food of deer and rabbits

    Size: 18-24” – 6-9”
    Care: sun to shade in moist well-drained to moist soil
    Native: Pennsylvania to Iowa, south to Alabama and Oklahoma and states in between
    Wildlife Value: food for hummingbirds and butterflies; deer & rabbit resistant.

    Collected by André Michaux c. 1800. Cherokee used this for heart ailments and reported that it makes cows intoxicated and they die. The name tricorne comes from the 3-cornered shape of its seeds, like the shape of colonial hats with brims turned up on three sides. This is breathtakingly beautiful but slow to grow.  It is also an ephemeral and dies back after going to seed so mark it or have a good memory where it is so you don’t dig into it planting something else. It comes back in spring.