Very nice of you to offer, Martha. I wish I had some seeds to share. I need to look around...I'm in a very different growing zone (Central Florida, 9b). I have the nectar flowers mentioned above except for the Petunia Exserta, the Lion's Tail--not sure what a "Butterfly weed" is.

I no longer grow the Leontis leonurus, It was too prolific on my property; I had to dig it out. I keep trying to grow the Buddleias, but they keep getting eaten by the nematodes in our sandy soil. Currently I have four plants in pots on top of bricks. We'll see.

For years the best nectar flower for me has been the large red pentas--the ones that you can only get from native nurseries. I keep getting cuttings from the ones I have. The second best plant for me has been the large purple porterweed (stachytarpheta franzi.) It is number one at the moment since it is blooming like crazy.

This year I discovered the Mexican Sunflower (Tithonia Rotundifolia). It was great while it bloomed. Now it seems to be ready to croak. I think I can get seeds from this plant.

Tom, you can definitely save seed from the Mexican Sunflower, and they are fantastic nectar plants. I've also heard from many other Florida gardeners that porter weed is one of their best. If the red penta is native, it probably is another favorite, since plants and insects evolved together, so they are designed for one another. If you manage to save any of those Mexican Sunflower seeds, I would love to try to grow them here as an annual, if you have extra. Make sure you let the flowers dry completely on the plant while it is still in the garden. Then remove what is left of the blossom and find the seeds.

Martha

I will do that, Martha. I have some spent blossoms now. I will leave them for a few more days and then collect them.

Tom, thanks for your review of what works for you in your area. I will be visiting my daughter and her family in Ft. Lauderdale later this year and will attempt to locate one of the purple porterweed (stachytarpheta franzi) plants you mentioned. I plan to take some starts down of various butterfly host plants to begin a butterfly garden for my daughter. I'll have to look for a native plant nursery near her. I'd also like to pick up the older variety of red Penta while I'm there if I can find them. I used to have them but didn't get my cuttings started one fall before we were hit with an early hard frost and lost my red ones. I still have the deep rose color but would like to have another red. All we get in the nurseries here are the shorter varieties and they don't produce nectar like the older varieties do.

May I ask, did the Leonotis leonurus - Lions tail spread by roots or did it reseed too much for you? I think it will be an annual for me in my area so I'm hoping I can grow it as a nectar plant for the hummingbirds and butterflies. It looks to be such an unusual plant, it will be fun to watch it grow. Might prove to be too big for my small garden but it looks like it grows more up than out. :-)

Have you ever tried the shorter version of Mexican Sunflower (Tithonia Rotundifolia), 'Fiesta Del Sol'? The larger plant proved too big for my garden but I'm thinking I might try the smaller version.

Mary

I picked up 'Profusion' zinnias last year at the Farmer's Market. They come up easily from volunteer seeding and have naturalized but not to the point of a problem. Around here the challenge is our hot and dry summers. In order to have flowers for the fall migration a plant has to be able to get through August/September on very little moisture and high temps. These single bloom zinnias have been a monarch favorite this year and came through summer well, seems they like them more than the lantanas. The double type I tried didn't do nearly as well and besides, the monarchs seem to prefer the single flower types.

I just added a new plant for fall, Purple Hyssop. It should time out well for the peak time in fall. My native liatris let me down this year, buds just dried out and didn't open so I'm hoping the Purple Hyssop will be a good backup and addition. I grew it years ago and it was an easy plant. I think the drought along with the early flood shut down the liatris bloom? Its a local native wild type so I am a bit surprised.

Two years ago I literally saw a thick swarm of monarchs on a swath of agastache up the street, must have been over 200 and I stood in the midst of them amazed, I've never seen that many. It peaked on that one day but they were around there during the entire migration period in more numbers than anything in my own yard. The terrible flood we had in spring killed those plants this year but I will never forget the sight. I think they must like these more than any other plant but unfortunately it is unreliable here so I cannot count on it.

The other thing is, I have lots of (mostly native) plants that they would like but its a matter of timing of the blooms for the fall migration and survivability here due to the harsh summers.

Hardy Lantana is reliable here and will bloom through the worst of summer into fall very well.

Texasranger, have you tried Verbena boniarensis? It is an annual in cooler regions, but can be perennial in parts of its native range of tropical South America. It is considered invasive in many states, but it definitely tolerates drought better than anything else in my garden. Of course, Michigan is nothing like. Texas summer, but it is worth looking in to. It is the favorite nectar source of all my plants, and blooms reliably for most of the summer and fall. I will have seeds, if you want to try it.

Martha

I tried the Verbena boniarensis here in Central Florida. When I purchased them from a box store they were beautiful. I put them in the ground in full sun and they bloomed for about three weeks and then they just stopped and seemed to die. They didn't, though, I still see some green very close to the ground. Maybe they will come back next year, but for this year they are a once-bloom and gone. They seem to do better in cooler, drier areas.

Lantanas do well here, but they need to be in a sunny, dry area. They can be invasive.

From my memory the Lions Tail spread by roots. It got huge here. It was okay for hummingbirds and I don't remember seeing many butterflies visit the flowers.

Mary, I'm about fifteen minutes off the turnpike if you want to pick up some pentas on your way to Ft. Lauderdale. I can give you all sorts of cuttings from various plants also. I need to get more cuttings going pronto, before it gets too cold.

Docmom, I am in central Oklahoma, zone 7. I have verbena bonariensis growing and am encouraging it a lot suddenly. I snubbed it for years but last year I intentionally threw out a lot of seeds to grow among little bluestem because I liked a combination I saw on a post here on GW of it growing with some grasses, it was by a person posting from a place called 'The Farm', I think in Canada. I fell in love. Its winter hardy here. When it got real hot, the early spring blooms died back but its blooming back in force now. I don't notice it being invasive but its so easy to pull I can't see it being a problem. In the past I'd sort of let a few stay in the ground which was good because it gave me seeds stock last fall. You can yank one straight out of the ground and replant it, which makes it extremely transplantable.

This is some kind of reliably cold hardy lantana I got cuttings from two years ago, this one never shuts down and is the earliest to bloom. It blooms orange (with no pink) and its the heaviest bloomer of any type I've grown except for 'Dallas Red'. This lantana puts 'Miss Huff' to shame on performance and cold hardiness, the stems at the base of the plant were still green last spring and leafed out quite early. Dallas Red isn't hardy but is the fastest growing and most bloomingest non cold hardy lantana I have ever grown. A plant set out in spring will get big fast.

I need to find out about this lantana or perhaps just name it myself. I think lots of people would be interested in it. It produces some seeds. I noticed two or three small baby plants under all the foliage and am waiting to see what develops from them. It has vicious thorns along the stems so I know there is 'Horrida' in its genetic makeup but its noticably different and superior in ornamental qualities than the L. horrida I grew from seeds I ordered from Native American Plants, its smaller, leaves are smaller, plant more compact and it has much heavier blooms producing very few seeds. The L. horrida I have are somewhat coarse, get very large and produce masses of seeds plus the plant shuts down in summer, so do the L. camara.

Hi Tom,

This is so nice of you. I couldn't just accept the
cuttings but would be most happy to reimburse you for your work and
plant material. Once I have a date set, I'll message you and if it is a
convenient time for you, I'd love to stop by and meet you.

My
thanks, too, for the additional information regarding Lion's tail. I've
already purchased the seed so will go ahead and give them a look next
spring. Like Martha, I grow the Verbena boniarensis here, where
it blooms all season long. It's about gone now but blooms well through
Sept for me, especially if I deadhead the spent flower heads. New growth will
begin at the leaf nodes just below where I trim the bloom heads and
produce new blooms for me. It's a gawky plant but I have to say just
about every small flying thing visiting my small garden nectar's from
the blooms, even the hummingbirds. It also reseeds heavily for me but
easy to scrape away the little plants that aren't wanted. Your plant(s)
should come back for you in the spring. Even here, if I leave the plants
in the ground and don't trim them until spring, they will generally
regrow from the base, giving me early season blooms. I have read, because of
the hollow stems, if trimmed in the fall, it is possible for water to
get caught in the open stems over the winter and cause the roots to rot. But it's hard to leave them through the winter, as they are even more gawky looking when the tops are dead. Thank goodness they're easy to grow from seed.

Mary

Doug Tallamy, Professor & Chair of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology, University of Delaware, has listed best plants for supporting butterflies and moths in the Mid-Atlantic region (Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, and New Jersey) - not a bad starting point.

http://www.bringingnaturehome.net/what-to-plant.html

Native honeysuckle (lonicera sempervirens) blooms all summer until frost in my Zone 7 garden, goldenrod is just finishing, and asters are still going strong.

When choosing plants for my garden, whether for pollinators or otherwise, I stay away from plants found to be invasive in my region.

As for nectaring plants for the monarch, experts are now advising people to plant asclepias species that are native to their region.

My 7 foot tall cactus zinnias are the favorite with my gulf frit butterfly, they also like squash and melons flowers.

The tropical milkweed didn't attract even one butterfly. A gulf accidentally landed on a rose thinking it was California zinnias, she made a yuck face shiver and took off.

Hi, all, and I'm enjoying this thread! My most popular nectar plants for most of the summer have been the pink zinnias (from a Cut & Come again reseeding - I think they all revert to pink), and the Zowie! Yellow Flame. Texasranger, if you're in OKC, I'd be happy to share with you. I also agree with you on the popularity of Dallas Red lantana over all lantanas I've tried.

I also grow Verbena bonariensis, Salvia coccinea, Salvia Black & Blue (loved by hummers, too), and another nectar fave, Centratherum intermedium (Brazilian Button bush). Its in the Verbena family, too. It is a reseeding annual here. I got my original seed pack from Remy at Sample Seeds. I highly recommend her as her prices are great for small packet, as she may have seeds ya just wanna give a bit of a try.

Right now the late fall aster is in bloom and the Sulphurs are crazy about it. It is tall, about 4 to 5 ft., with white bloom, willow-like leaves, and spreads by underground rhizomes. I've been trying to ID, but no luck yet.

I also concur with porterweed as a nectar source. I've tried Lavender and dwarf red. Both were good.

Another great native is the annual, Verbesina encelioides. It does tend to get easily out of control, but very popular.

Susan

Hey susanlynne48 any chance you could pm me? I don't know how to use this site but I wanted to ask you something.