Attracts Bees & Beneficials

TWO DESIGN IDEAS

Plant your butterfly garden in a rectangular bed or border with tall, medium and low flowers from back to front, OR in a circle with tall flowers in the center, surrounded by the middle and then lower growing varieties.

For the back of the border in dramatic rows, OR planted in a circle garden as a central spiral, tall, branching Crimson Queen sunflowers offer both a convenient meal and a windscreen for your winged visitors.

At mid-level, Purity Cosmos' abundant snow-satiny white flowers with sunny centers dance and sway all summer, a magnet for air-waltzing butterflies.

At front of the border OR around the outer edge of the circle, low-growing Persian Carpet zinnias offer a beautiful tapestry of warm shades and provide nectar for many species.

CREATING BUTTERFLY HABITAT

Butterflies are attracted to blossom shapes and colors, so it's important to plant in mass blocks instead of a few isolated plants here and there. Planting these flowers behind each other produces an ideal combination of different flowers at varying heights, offering your visitors a choice of where to feed and rest.

These flowers provide flower nectar for nourishment and fuel butterflies need for flying. Flowers unique personal attributes of color, scent and shape lure butterflies and ensure pollination. With each sip from the heart of a blossom, tiny grains of pollen gather on the butterfly’s body and then it helps to pollinate the garden as it flutters among flowers.

Sunny days in the garden are synonymous with a busy freeway of flying butterflies. The sun warms their wing muscles, enabling them to dart, soar and fly seeking nectar and pollinating your sun loving flowers. On gusty summer days, the taller cosmos and sunflowers offer comfortable protection from the wind. Offer butterflies a convenient drinking spot with a shallow bird bath or decorative stone water container.

TWO DESIGN IDEAS

Plant your hummingbird flower garden in a rectangular bed or border with tall, medium and low flowers from back to front, OR plant in a circle garden with the tall climber in the center, surrounded by the middle and then lower growing flowers.

At the back of the border OR climbing up a central trellis in a circle garden, climbing Scarlet Runner Beans offer abundant coral-red blossoms that hummers love to sip.

At mid-level, Scarlet Flame Zinnias bright red flowers make a splash of color easy for hummers to see from a distance.

At front of the border OR on the outside of the circle, low mounding Summer Charm Nasturtiums are a sure fit for hummingbirds' nectar-seeking bills.

CREATING HUMMINGBIRD HABITAT

Plant as big an area as possible to create explosive bursts of color that can be seen easily from the air. Hummingbirds expend an extraordinary amount of energy for their size, and require an enormous amount of food – you just can't have too many flowers! After locating convenient nectar sources, these intelligent little creatures follow a foraging routine in a relatively small area despite their ability to roam and will return for ongoing meals from your garden.

These flowers offer complete natural meals: while nectar is their primary food source, blossoms also harbor small insects that are protein sources for the diminutive birds, so hummingbirds will help in your garden by dining on aphids and other tiny insects they snap up in their sharp pointed bills while simultaneously pollinating them.

Design elements such as a handsome trellis for your climbing runner bean blossoms provide a convenient, stationary perch where these territorial little birds can survey their entire domain. Enjoy watching them as they dine, hover, socialize, argue and perch, wings vibrating with amazing speed and grace, flying furiously up and down, backward, forward, even upside down amongst your colorful flowers.