Asclepias speciosa (Showy milkweed)

Asceplias speciosa or tuberosa, May 2009.

Flowers for bees and butterflies

Butterflies visit red, orange, yellow, pink, and blue flowers.

Bees visit yellow, blue, and purple flowers.

From Community Gardening by Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

Late blooming wildlife friendly plants

From National Wildlife Federation August 2008 newsletter:

Hummingbird trumpet (also known as California fuchsia): “They’re not neat and tidy plants, but hummingbirds love them,” says Barbara Fick, an Oregon State University extension horticulturist. The orange-red tubular flowers of this perennial, Epilobium canum, look especially attractive sprawling across slopes. Fick says these fuchsias, which are native from Oregon south to California and New Mexico, are drought tolerant.

Blazing stars: “Hands down, these are among the best nectar sources for butterflies,” says Bob Hendrickson, the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum’s assistant director of horticulture programs. About 40 species of blazing star, also known as gayfeather and by the genus name of Liatris, are native to the midwestern and eastern United States; several of them flower in autumn. “Dotted gayfeather is one of the last to bloom,” says Hendrickson, who also recommends rough gayfeather. Southern blazing star is another late performer.

Insect loving plants

Butterfly weed
Cupplant - holds rainwater for days; birds are quick to devour the seeds
Downy sunflower
Lupine - only food of the endangered Karner Blue Butterfly
New England aster
Purple coneflower
Red milkweed - preferred food source of Monarch caterpillars
Sun flower
Borage - honey bees