Creating a Garden for Butterflies

[applestar]

I was a busy bee planting today:

NEAR BOG SWALE
‣ Cephalanthus occidentalis 'Sputnik'
‣ Asclepias incarnata
‣ (Clethra alnifolia 'Hummingbird' will go in the hole left behind when I dug up a small Acer rubrum)

DEEP SHADE under Willow Oak
‣ Pachysandra procumbens (1)
‣ Chrysogonum virginianum (2)

SHADE GARDEN
‣ Adiantum pedatum
‣ Pachysandra procumbens (1)

NEW SunnyDry FLOWER BED - Extended from an Island bed of
‣ Acer palmatum (2)
‣ Fragaria virginiana (many)
to accomodate volunteer
‣ Asclepias tuberosa and
‣ (2) Honey locust seedlings
with
‣ Silene virginica (1)
‣ Sporobolis heterolepis (2)
‣ Asclepias verticillata
‣ Aquilegia canadensis
- Ceanothus americanus (1)
... along with other plants purchased elsewhere:
- Arctophylus uva-ursi
‣ Liatris spicata 'Kobold'
... and my MIL gave me a whole bunch of seedlings she grew herself of
‣ Papaver orientale

I *was* also going to put in Echinacea purpurea 'White Swan' but I read that it is suspected of being alleopathic to Sporpbolis heterolepis, so the Echinacea will have to go in my Sunny Meadow-to-be, where I'll also plant one of the Sporobolis but a good distance away, as well as the Sea (Wild) Oats and the Solidago odora (2) tomorrow. I'm also pretty sure where I want to plant the Corylus and Castana -- after changing placement 3 or 4 times already -- so I'll have to get cracking on taking care of them as well. I plan to companion the Corylus with Comptonia, Ceanothus, and a Black Huckleberry that I'm moving from a shady location it didn't seem to like, and the Castana with Cercis and Ceanothus. (Wow, that's another full day right there )

SOO looking forward to next spring!

[NewjerseyTea]

That is quite a list of new plants and gardens, applestar. I am very jealous.

I also purchased 3 Ilex verticillata recently to wedge into my tiny front "meadow" garden. I too bought the Jim Dandy since it seemed to be the smallest (8' at maturity) male possible compatible with the 2 female Red Sprites I also purchased. When the winterberries do berry (any idea how look that will take?) they will be joined by the red rose hips and red new stems of a cutting of Rosa Virginiana( this a a large spreading shrub) I moved to the front last year.

My image is to have a winter garden of the red berries and twigs of these 2 among the golden winter forms of Switch and Indian grass interspersed with a few evergreen native inkberry. Well that's what I planned anyway we'll see what it turns out to look like. The inkberry do have little blue berries this year but have proved very picky about spacing. They must have room around them or drop the leaves entirely off the side other plants lean on. Those are all for the birds and of course visual effect.

For the butterflies I also found 2 golden alexander plants and a few more buterfly weed plants.

[applestar]

I think the red berries, hips, and stems would look LOVELY!
The winter color combo sounds great too.

I was thinking of putting in a row of red osier dogwood in front of the farthest panel of the white fence near the neighbors where I'm not going to want to plant anything high maintenance or edible. I was also thinking about Rosa virginiana for front of the Corylus. Actually, I'm debating on R. virginiana or R. carolina vs. one of the really "hippy" roses that are not native but are more crop-worthy fro humans like Apple Rose or one of the rugosas..... There's a Waldorf school in Kimberton, PA -- when I visited, their rose bushes had hips that were about 1" across! Would they be Apple Rose, I wonder? I didn't get a chance to ask.

Well, you know how they say you should prune plants when you first plant them? Some"Bunny" took it upon him/herself to STRIP all the leaves and chomped to about 2/3 of the original height, 3 of the 5 Ceanothus! ARRGH! Hopefully they won't be nibbled down to the ground.... Why can't they just eat the dandelions... at least until the shrubs get shrubbier