A lot of folks are asking how to get their tomatoes, peppers, squash and cucumbers to put on more fruit. The answer might be as simple as you need more bees! Pollinators like bees and butterflies are a critical part of any successful garden, so make some space for bee attracting plants. Some of our favorites are Pink Fairy Duster, African Blue Basil and Calendula.
Butterflies
Whether you call it Texas Tarragon, Mexican Mint Marigold, or Tagetes lucida, I call it an absolute beauty for fragrance, flavor, and color every South Texas Autumn! Known for its liquorish anise flavor, it makes the perfect sub for true tarragon that struggles to grow in our area. I love it just as much for the golden flowers that attract many butterflies and honey bees. Their bloom is best and most showy during the Fall season. Trim them early spring to keep tidy. Full to part sun average soil and water. No bugs or diseases. They are a breath of fresh sweet air every morning in my courtyard.
-Debbie
Last year I planted my hummingbird and butterfly garden with over 30 milkweed, Turks cap, passion vine and native lantana. It grew beautifully in the back corner of my yard, and I pretty much just left it alone. Since now is the time to prune, I rolled up my sleeves, got out my pruners and started to go to town. Oddly enough, as I was whacking back a lantana I noticed in my peripheral vision movement all around me. So I stopped pruning and sat down and started to meditate. After about five minutes of sitting still, I opened my eyes and was absolutely floored! Every bug I have ever seen in my life was there in my garden. There were honey bees and bumblebees, fritillary butterflies and big bold monarchs, assassin bugs, ladybugs galore, orb weaver and large wolf spiders, a praying mantis, mud-dobber wasps, horseflies, house flies and soil gnats. And about 150 monarch butterfly caterpillars! It was like an optical illusion. The more I sat still, the more I saw everything moving around me. Not only were there bugs, but there were toads, lizards, and a bold mockingbird that decided to land not five feet from me. Of course there were aphids and whitefly, but I watched as ladybugs flew down and began to munch them all up, and a praying mantis was going to town on the flies. It was absolutely astounding! All this life was in a 10 foot by 10 foot bed. If you have a section of your garden that you can let be pesticide free and 100% organic, please let it be! You’ll be amazed by what life does in the garden when you’re not looking.
-Marta
This weekend I gave a “Bring Home the Butterflies” talk at the Airline store. Here’s a recap for those who missed it! We are lucky enough to have almost 400 butterfly species who come through Texas, such as the Monarch, Gulf Fritillary, Swallowtail, Sulphur and Red Admiral butterflies. Each has its own host plant, which they use to lay their eggs on and eat as caterpillars. Some favorite host plants are Milkweed (Monarch), Rue (Black and Giant Swallowtail), Mallow (Painted Lady) and Dutchman’s Pipe Vine (Pipevine Swallowtail).
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And don’t forget the Passionvine, which is the host plant for our city’s most common butterfly, the Gulf Fritillary. Make sure to plant plenty of nectar plants for adult butterflies like Native Lantana, Gregg’s Mist Flower and Porterweed. And last but not least, keep it all pesticide free. In no time you’ll have plenty of happy, beautiful butterflies fluttering all over the garden! Milkweed and Gregg’s Mist Flower are discounted in our stores right now!
“Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.” ~Nathaniel Hawthorne
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-Marta
Mexican Flame Vine is a wonderful vine with a long blooming period until the first good frost. It has deep green leaves back-dropping beautiful orange daisy flowers. Very easy to grow in full sun to part shade with little to no serious pest issues. It is considered the best nectar vine for Monarch butterflies. It is also one of the best butterfly plants attracting Eastern Tiger Swallowtails, Gulf fritillaries, Hairstreaks, Painted ladies, Pipevine swallowtails, Skippers, Sulphurs, Queens, Zebra Longwings and more. It also attracts hummingbirds, and is a pollinator plus plant attracting bumble bees and honey bees. It can also be grown in a pot on a small trellis or tomato cage for support. We have one next to our office building. It is a great addition to any sunny landscape.
DeAnna
One of my favorite pastimes, in between planting, fertilizing, trimming, and mulching, is sitting in my backyard and watching the butterflies dance around my garden. Here’s a few tips to entice these beauties to YOUR GARDEN!
Locate a sunny area.
Butterflies and most butterfly attracting plants require bright sunshine.
Plant nectar producing flowers.
Butterflies visit flowers in search of nectar to eat. Many butterflies seem to prefer purple, yellow, orange and red- orange blossoms. Clusters of short, tubular flowers or flat-topped blossoms provide the ideal shapes for butterflies to easily land and feed.
Select single flowers rather than double flowers.
The nectar of single flowers is more accessible and easier for butterflies to extract than the nectar of double flowers, which have more petals per flower.
Use large splashes of color in your landscape.
Butterflies are first attracted to flowers by their color. Groups of flowers are easier for butterflies to locate than isolated plants.
Plan for continuous bloom throughout the season.
Butterflies are active from early spring until late fall. Plant a selection of flowers that will provide nectar throughout the entire growing season. For blooms throughout the year, plant hamelia, shrimp plant. jatropha, lantana, bulbine, buddleia, mist flower, & penta. For flowers spring and fall, try mexican flame vine, verbena, mexican mint marigold, pavonia, passion vine, salvias, & fall chrysanthemums.
Plant for perching.
Plant some evergreen trees or shrubs for perching and rain shelter. Example: Yaupon holly or desert willow.
Include host plants in your garden design.
Host plants provide food for the caterpillar and lure female butterflies into the garden to lay eggs.
- Common Name: Larval Food Source
- Black Swallowtail: dill, parsley, fennel, carrot tops
- Fritillaries: passionflowers
- Giant Swallowtail: citrus, rue
- Julias: passionflowers
- Monarchs & Queens: milkweeds
- Pipevine Swallowtail: Dutchman’s pipevine
- Skippers: mallows
- Snouts: hackberry
- Sulphurs: cassias
- Viceroys: pear, cottonwood, willow
- Whites: mustards, pepper-grass
- Zebra Longwings: passionflowers
Include damp areas or shallow puddles in the garden.
Some butterflies drink and extract salts from moist soil. Occasionally large numbers of male butterflies congregate around a moist area to drink, forming a “puddle club”.
Place flat stones in the garden.
Butterflies often perch on stones, bare soil or vegetation, spread their wings and bask in the sun. Basking raises their body temperature so they are able to fly and remain active.
Do not use pesticides in or near a butterfly garden.
Most traditional garden pesticides are toxic to butterflies. Use predatory insects, insecticidal soap or hand remove the pests if problems occur.
Become a butterfly watcher!
Get to know the colorful butterflies that visit your garden. They are easy to identify with a field guide or butterfly app!
-Sally
Because we have a lot of flowers and reservoirs of water at Gill’s, we also have a wonderfully large population of butterflies, dragonflies and bees.
This past 4th of July, I walked into our accounting office and found 8 bees buzzing around our ceiling fluorescent lights. I had never seen so many bees in our office and honestly, wasn’t quite sure what to do. Our buyer, Debbie walked in and immediately had the solution. She directed me to turn off all the lights & close the doors to get the room as dark as possible. Then we opened a window that had good natural light coming from outdoors and the bees, within seconds, began filing out through the window one by one.
I was so happy and amazed at how smart they were. Another example of the WONDERS OF NATURE!!
-Sally
An International Landscape Conference Worth Traveling 3,000 Miles to Experience!
That’s right, last week I flew 3,000 miles round trip to Toronto, Canada to meet with 137 landscape design colleagues from the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Saudi Arabia. We bonded with a “full mist” experience at Niagara Falls, wearing our Canadian red rain ponchos.
Then we promptly dried off and got down to business exploring the Niagara Botanical Gardens. I re-discovered old garden favorites such as amaranthus, copper plant, and strawberry fields gomphrena re-imagined in an unusual tapestry of hot summer colors. The plants were alive with birds, butterflies, and bees!
Over the next two days we toured 15 gardens of all sizes and styles. One of my favorites is a tiny 4 year old garden showcasing diversity through materials. The materials came from far and wide, contributing to the result… lumber from a barn in southwest Ontario, a reclaimed mask from New York city, ledge rock from a church in Cambridge, building stone from north eastern Pennsylvania, windows from the home that previously existed on the site and even perennials from the designer’s mom’s garden that were ‘just the right item for that corner’.
Fast forward to the Toronto Botanical Garden where Paul Zammit (renowned garden container designer) told me the benefits of using parsley in garden containers. That’s right, PARSLEY!! I’ll share the “why” and “how tos” with you at my Garden Talk, Saturday September 29th, 10 am, Gill’s, 2810 Airline Road!
-Kathy
