Plants for Butterflies and Other Pollinators

Showing 129–136 of 223 results

  • Nepeta racemosa syn. N. mussinii Persian Catmint Z 4-8

    Lavender blue fragrant flowers from May through September, cut back for rebloom

    $12.75/bareroot

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    Lavender blue fragrant flowers from May through September, cut back for rebloom

    Size: 18" x 18"
    Care: Full sun in well-drained soil
    Native: Caucasus
    Wildlife Value: attracts butterflies
    Awards: Royal Horticultural Society Award of Merit.

    Nepetas may have been named after Nepete, an old Etrusrian city. Mussinii named for the plant’s discoverer, Russian Count Apollos Apollosovitch Mussin-Pushkin.  In gardens before 1810 and a favorite Victorian bedding plant by the late 1800’s.  Catmints contain various amounts of an essential oil  (nepetalactone) both a cat stimulant and a mosquito repellant.

  • Nepeta subsessilis Japanese catmint Z 4-8

    Showy bluish purple spikes of bell-shaped flowers, June-September

    $12.75/bareroot

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    Showy bluish purple spikes of bell-shaped flowers, June-September

     

    Size: 18-24” x 18-24” 
    Care: sun to part shade in moist to moist well-drained soil
    Native: Japan
    Wildlife Value: deer & rabbit resistant, attracts butterflies

    Subsessilis means nearly without stalks.  Catmints contain various amounts of an essential oil  (nepetalactone) both a cat stimulant and a mosquito repellant. From Nambu Japan where botanists called it Miso-gawa- sô.  Von Siebold, German botanist and physician, who worked in Japan from 1823 to1830  saw it.   Named in Bull. Acad. Imp. Sci. Saint-Pétersbourg, sér. 3, 20: 469. (1875) by Russian botanist Karl Maximowicz.

  • Onopordum acanthium Scotch thistle, Woolly thistle Biennial Z 5-9

    Soft, majestic purple-magenta thistles on prickly silver foliage and stems.  

    $10.25/bareroot

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    Soft, majestic purple-magenta thistles on prickly silver foliage and stems.

    Can not ship to: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

    Size: 4-6’ x 2”
    Care: full sun in moist, well-drained soil
    Native: Europe and western Asia
    Wildlife Value: Bees, butterflies and birds

    Identified by Dioscorides in De Materia Medica for medicinal use around 70 A.D.  Chosen as the symbol of Scotland by King James V. According to legend the Scotch thistle helped Scotland fend off a night-time Viking invasion by preventing a sneak attack.  It caused the Vikings to scream in pain waking the Scots.  Introduced to American gardens in late 1800’s.

  • Packera obovata syn. Senecio obovata Round-leaved ragwort, Golden groundsel Z. 3-8

    Clusters of perky yellow daisies with sunny centers atop nearly leafless, erect stems blooming late spring to early summer. After flowering basal foliage makes an attractive groundcover.

    $12.75/bareroot

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    Clusters of perky yellow daisies with sunny centers atop nearly leafless, erect stems blooming late spring to early summer. After flowering basal foliage makes an attractive groundcover.

    Size: 1-2’ x 6-12”
    Care: sun to part shade in moist to moist well-drained soil
    Native: curved swath from eastern Canada to FL west to IL and NM
    Wildlife Value: attracts bees. Deer resistant

    Obovata means egg-shaped describing the shape of its basal leaves. First named in 1803 from a plant of Rev. Henry Ernest Muhlenberg (1742-1852) Pennsylvania plantsman, sent to German botanist Carl Ludwig Willdenow (1765-1812). Packera named for a Canadian botanist, John C. Packer. 

  • Paeonia lactiflora Buckeye Belle Z 3-8

    Semi-double, velvety blossoms of the deepest red, almost chocolate, with large outer petals surrounding narrow inner petals sprinkled with sparkling golden staminodes.  

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    Semi-double, velvety blossoms of the deepest red, almost chocolate, with large outer petals surrounding narrow inner petals sprinkled with sparkling golden staminodes.

     

    Size: 18-24” x 24-30”
    Care: Full sun or part shade in most, well-drained soil
    Wildlife Value: Deer and Rabbit resistant, attracts butterflies & hummingbirds, great cut flower
    Awards: American Peony Society Gold Medal, American Peony Society Award for Landscape Merit

    Hybridized in the USA in 1956 by Walter Mains

  • Paeonia lactiflora x Jan Van Leeuwen Z 3-8

    Fragrant cupped single white blooms with yellow stamens

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    OUT OF STOCK

    Fragrant cupped single white blooms with yellow stamens

    Size: 2' x 3'
    Care: Full sun in moist well-drained soil. Deer and rabbit resistant
    Native: Japan
    Wildlife Value: birds and ants enjoy the sweet nectar on the buds before opening

    Introduced in 1928

  • Penstemon digitalis Foxglove beardtongue Z 2-8

    Palest of pink tubular bells

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    OUT OF STOCK

    Palest of pink tubular bells in June – deadhead for rebloom.  More vigorous and longer blooming than its well-known cultivar ‘Husker Red.’

    Size: 24-48” x 18”
    Care: sun or part shade in moist to moist, well-drained soil
    Native: Maine to So. Dakota, south to Virginia and Texas and all in between, Wisconsin
    Wildlife Value: host for caterpillar of Baltimore Checkerspot butterfly. Feeds several bees and hummingbirds pollen and nectar.

    Penstemon is named for its five stamens, penta meaning “five” in Greek.  Used medicinally by the Dakota and Pawnee – to remedy chest pains, chills and fevers.  P. digitalis first transported to Europe when the son of the royal Spanish gardener sent it to Kew in England, 1793.

  • Penstemon grandiflorus Large beard tongue Z 3-9 short-lived perennial that reseeds

    Large pink to lavender trumpets along the 3’ stem in early summer

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    Large pink to lavender trumpets along the 3’ stem in early summer

    Size: 3’ x 10”
    Care: full sun in well-drained soil
    Native: IL to N. Dakota, south to TX, Wisconsin
    Wildlife Value: attracts Baltimore butterfly

    Discovered by Thomas Nuttall, (1786-1859) who searched entire No. American continent, describing this Penstemon as “splendid and beautiful,” on his trip up the Missouri River in 1811. Cured chest pains and stomach aches for the Dakota and chills and fever for the Pawnee. Sioux made decoctions of this to remedy chills and fever and chest pain.