Gardening Guides
Central Plains Gardening
Central Plains Gardener's June Checklist
The flowers are coming! The flowers are coming! And so are the butterflies, hummingbird moths and coneflower diseases
June brings the first major flush of summer flowers, and as a result the garden takes on a third dimension as it attracts a wide array of unique insects. Plant as great a diversity of native flowers as you can to see a sampling of what June has to offer.
Golden Alexander (Zizia aurea, zones 3 to 8) is one of the first June native prairie bloomers, sometimes even starting up in May. It prefers a moist to medium soil, clay or loam, and full sun; it gets about 2 feet tall and wide. Besides having cheerful sprays of yellow blooms, Zizia is a host plant for black swallowtail caterpillars.
Black swallowtail eggs are cream-colored spheres the size of a doughnut sprinkle. The caterpillars spend a few weeks growing, then wander off to become butterflies. A caterpillar in late summer will overwinter as a chrysalis in your garden, so don't cut down your garden in fall.
Hubright's bluestar (Amsonia hubrichtii, zones 4 to 9) will be blooming, much to the delight of native bees. Though the light blue flowers are relatively dull compared to others aglow right now, the unique thread-leaf foliage that pillows and sprays is quite distinct, adding a touch of softness to the garden.
Amsonia really shines in autumn, when it turns bright yellow and then rusty orange. You can see how the 3-foot-tall and -wide perennial seems like gentle golden smoke rising into the air by October. In summer it creates the same effect but is green.
Coneflower Diseases
Watch out for aster yellows disease on your coneflowers. Usually it's more subtle than this crazy Medusa image — some petals may not unfurl, or the bloom is half green and half colored. Rp out the coneflowers and plant new ones in either case. Aster yellows is spread by certain insects, and you can't save the plant, but you can save other nearby coneflowers from getting infected by trashing — not composting — diseased plants.
Watch out for aster yellows disease on your coneflowers. Usually it's more subtle than this crazy Medusa image — some petals may not unfurl, or the bloom is half green and half colored. Rp out the coneflowers and plant new ones in either case. Aster yellows is spread by certain insects, and you can't save the plant, but you can save other nearby coneflowers from getting infected by trashing — not composting — diseased plants.
Hummingbird Moths
If you don't have hummingbirds, never fear; moths are here to take up the slack. This is a bumblebee hummingbird moth on Salvia 'May Night'. With their long proboscis, they prefer tubular blooms like salvia and penstemon.
If you don't have hummingbirds, never fear; moths are here to take up the slack. This is a bumblebee hummingbird moth on Salvia 'May Night'. With their long proboscis, they prefer tubular blooms like salvia and penstemon.
Most often mistaken for a hummingbird is the white-lined sphinx moth. It is about the same size as a hummingbird and even sounds like a hummingbird. Watch for these insects in the evening and toward dusk, when moths become most active.
Tell us: What neat wildlife critters are you seeing in your June garden, and what plants are they enjoying?
Tell us: What neat wildlife critters are you seeing in your June garden, and what plants are they enjoying?
By the end of the month, your beds and borders should look like this, right? Shown here is a bed of mostly native coneflowers, including varieties of Rudbeckia and Monarda, that needs no supplemental watering or fertilizer at all. The right native plant for the right place means less maintenance and worry. Always do your research online until you find some consensus about how a plant best grows and where. Never trust plant tags.