Hi Salvia-philes--
I have room in the butterfly garden for a couple more plants and thought I would try to add some salvias. Does anyone have experience with which salvias are butterfly favorites?
Also, agastaches--I have one kind and the BFs seem to pass right by it. Any suggestions?
Thanks so much. t.
Which salvias and agastaches are best for butterflies?
Don't know about the butterflies, but the finches will go wild for the agastache seeds if you leave them on.
Ah, I had forgotten about the finches loving the seeds! Worth it just for that!
Do you have goldfinches in OH? They have air battles for position on the hyssop, the coneflowers, and the sunflowers. They love to hang upside down on the sunflowers:-) So cute!
And they are the reason I let my lemon balm grow and seed everywhere...finches love the seed.
Yes, we have several kinds of finches.
The goldfinches like the liatris too.
I didn't think of keeping the seeds on the lemon balm for them.
Neither did I...too scary a thought! I'll just keep the thistle sock full:-)
Now back to the answer of my butterfly question LOL
Google-ing brought up this analysis of Salvias for butterflies and hummingbirds. Several were recommended including Salvia uliginosa.
http://www.carolinanature.com/plants/salvia.html
In terms of Agastaches "Blue Fortune seems to be very popular with butterflies.
If anyone has additional comments please let us know. I have a few salvias in our garden and they seem to be ignored by the BFs these days...
Tabasco,
I've had the Swallowtails nectar from my S. black and blue , S. coccinea and my forsythia sage.
Adrienne
asafla, Thanks for replying with your observations!
I was just reviewing this (oldish) thread and the Salvia & Agastache forum for recommendations for Butterfly nectar plants and seeds for a new garden space I am making.
Since posting this question on the forum, I found out that Will Cook from North Carolina has done some research on the butterfly salvia question and he recommends these for the butterflies:
"Salvia spp. - Sage. Smaller-flowered Salvias are good for butterflies. Good perennials include the Texan S. farinacea (Mealy-cup Sage), hybrid S. 'Indigo Spires', and several European species such as S. x superba. The large-flowered Salvias that attract hummingbirds are good for attracting large late fall butterflies, such as Cloudless Sulphurs. Salvia guaranitica is particularly highly recommended because it's so reliable and easy to grow. See Notes on Growing Salvias for more. The best place to get Salvias (by far) is Big Bloomers (see below). Notes: B,(N)."
The above is from the CarolinaNature.com website.
http://www.carolinanature.com/plants4leps.html
I collected seeds from my Agastache plants and I hope they are viable. The gold finches did love them! I will look for some seeds for the salvias he recommends and he also listed sources for the salvias, too.
Thanks again. t.
Agastaches from section Agastache, which are the uniformly small flowered ones (foeniculum, rugosa, scrophulariaefolia, and others found in the northern latitudes) and small-flowered Salvias like keerli, and melissodora (especially these two) attract moths and butterflies. Section Brittonastrum species like Ag. mexicana, aurantiaca, rupestris, pallida, etc are the long-tubed species that attract hummers primarily.
Buddleias and Pycnanhthemums (mountain mints) are also very good. A collection of the latter species will spread out bloom over the summer and also has the added benefit of attracting honey bees and both predatory and parasitic wasps that will guard your garden from larvae. Ordinary brown paper wasps hunt the larvae of cabbage butterflies and braconids hanging around mountain mints invariably control tobacco and tomato hornworms.
You will have to experiment to find out which predators attack non-target versus noxious larvae. Most desired moths and butterflies do not feed on garden crops, I believe.
This time of year, I see lots of honey bees and other species scarfing up as much pollen as possible from even large flowered sages to build up non-caloric stores of food for the winter. They especially like Salvia leucantha.
I have got butterflies on Salvia Subrotunda and Salvia Farinacea Blue.
Butterfly on Salvia Farinacea Blue.
I've noticed alot of small butterfies on my Agastache "Tutti Frutti".
Tutti Frutti has done fantastically for me even though it has only been out for a little over a month. Flowers galore and it attracts lots of small pollinators and hummers, too. A new favorite for me!
Hi tgg, Yes mine is new this year too and I couldn't believe how fast it grew!
The hummers as well butterfies and bees love it!
I'm very pleased with it. :-)
rich--thank you for your careful response to my butterfly question. I am excited to know you post on DG and this forum since I have scoured your listings on the "A World of Salvias" website and studied all the info in the past--what a unique resource for info, plants and seeds!
http://www.eclectasy.com/gallery_of_salvias/
Your observations about the predators and the mountain mints are interesting too. Always something new to learn about the pollinators and planting for pollinators like butterflies takes gardening into a new/different dimension.
Annette--your photos are so beautiful! I am not familiar enough with Australian Butterflies but yours are stunning!
And I will look for Tutti-frutti agastache in the catalogs. Thanks for sharing your observations, pelle and tgg.
Logee's Greenhouses may have Agastache pallida x mexicana `Tutti Frutti'. Ag. `Pink Lemonade' is the reverse cross.
Santa Rosa Gardens also has it.
http://www.santarosagardens.com
Thanks for the links. Since this thread revitalized itself I googled around for the agastaches too. They are really popular these days! (Tutti frutti seems widely recommended for wildlife.)
Bluestone says that the agastaches easily reseed themselves and I'm wondering if that is true for the 'named' cultivars (like Tutti Frutti) too...?
Under salvias Bluestone offers Salvia greggii 'Wild Thing' (new for 2007) and assert that Hummingbirds and butterflies 'adore' the blossoms. Might be one for me to try...
We have a bit of a challenge growing many salvias here in Ohio--so many rot out or even freeze out--I don't know if that is common elsewhere or not...
Agastaches, like oreganos, are very promiscuous, and will cross very readily. This is why they should be vegetatively propagated. Get wild-collected seed of species, or from monocultured stands of cultivated plants.
Once you get past first-generation hybrids, all kinds of plants can emerge, so named hybrids really need to be vegetatively propagated.
I found that ants like to harvest the seeds. Some workers will climb the plant, locate ripe seed about to fall out, yank it loose, mark it with some kind of pheromone, then drop it to the ground where others locate it and carry it to their nest.
Very interesting about the seeds, rich. There is definitely merit in vegetative plants especially since I only have room for a few...thanks.