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.

Monarch Watch and growing Asclepias

Monarch Watch and growing Asclepias

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

Lupine and the Karner Blue Butterfly

Lupine is the only food source for the larvae of this endangered butterfly.

Has deep taproot that penetrates the soil, leaving behind fine, friable soil; among the first plants to grow on barren pumice after a volcanic eruption.

Plant goes to sleep at night; some fold their leaves at night and others also when there is movement in the leaves.

Insectary plants

Almost any pollen or nectar-producing flower.

Yarrow, buckwheat, lavender, golden marguerite, bee balm, many clovers, nearly all celery or carrot varieties, fennel, Queen Anne’s lace, dill, coriander, onion or lily family, sunflower or composite family, and especially the mint family.

Seed ball instructions and my 2008 seedballs

OUR 2008 SEEDBALLS.
Got clay from outside our fence, so far it works great. SEED SAVE - 10 packets made less than 1/8 cup of seed. Made 18 seedballs.

Seed ball instructions

Plan to buy:
Butterfly weed
Cupplant
Downy sunflower (didn't put these in???)
Lupine
New England aster
Purple coneflower
Red milkweed

Lovage

Aspects: Clumping herb; edible greens and stalks; sun to part shade; moist, well-drained soil

Lovage is essentially gigantic perennial celery.

Young leave and stems have strongly aromatic flavor that is usually too strong to eat raw but is great in soups (In the early spring use young shoots to make lovage-sorrel soup); late growth is too strong to eat; seed are used as seasoning; roots are also edible.

Lovage is best used fresh, but you can freeze the leaves and stems. Blanch a handful of leaves in boiling water VERY quickly then quickly throw into a bowl of ice water for a couple of minutes. Drain, place in plastic freezer bags and freeze. The frozen Lovage can be minced and used in cooked dishes.

Add a teaspoon of fresh minced Lovage to your chicken soup during the last 15 or 20 minutes of cooking. You can also add it to hot or chilled vegetable, meat, potato or tomato soups. Add one to two tablespoons of minced fresh Lovage to your meatloaf recipes. Harvest Lovage seeds to use whole or ground in cakes, meats, biscuits, breads, sauces, cheeses, salad dressings, or pickles. Add fresh leavest to your favorite potato salad or coleslaw too.

Among the first plants to emerge in early spring. Plants can grow to 6ft tall or more. After flowering the stalks often fall down crushing nearby plants. Cutting back when plant is setting seed will prevent this.

Worth growing because it attracts beneficial insects; grows in full sun or part shade; grows in ordinary garden soils

Propagate from division of fully dormant plants.