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I get asked a lot of different questions on which plants are best for this or that situation I will provide some examples of plant choices I have made to help answer those questions.
Q: Which plants are good for butterflies and why?
A: The best plants to encourage butterflies and moths and a variety of other beneficial pollinators are native plants. The insects of our continent have developed alongside and are dependent upon the native plants for nectar and also as larval hosts for their offspring. Some butterflies can utilize multiple host plants others need a specific plant. Take for instance the spicebush swallowtail (Papilio troiius) they utilize the spicebush, sassafras, tulip tree sweetbay camphor and redbay, Nectaring on jewelweed, milkweed, azaleas, dogbane, lantana, and sweet pepperbush among others.
Q: What plants do well in rain gardens or wet locations?
A: Plants which have adapted to living with periodic inundation or permanent immersion are well suited to a rain garden. Lets define Rain gardens, they are usually filled by runoff from storm events and can include swales, basins or simply areas near downspouts or parking lots. A berm or mound of soil and the swale or low area next to the berm make up a rain garden. The basin is where you want to plant the most water dependent plants like swamp dogwood, tussock sedge or bullrush, the slope or edge is a good place for hibiscus, grasses like Indian grass, turtlehead, swamp milkweed and Virginia sweetspire. The top of the berm which is usually the drisest would be for more drought tolerant plants like bluestem grasses, coreopsis, asters, echinacea or Fragrant Sumac. You can see there are degrees of adaption which allow you to choose a variety of plants for the right situation. We will have many of these plants avail at our native plant sale at Ruffner Mt. Nature Center on april 14th
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