If Only One Plant...

to attract both Butterflies AND Hummers what would you pick? I am trying to find the biggest bang for my bucks so to speak...and my bucks are very limited!! lol

Yellow Butterfly Bush, but I'm not sure how it would do in your zone.

No doubt about it - the number one plant for both butterflies and hummingbirds (in my yard) is the Buddlea aka butterfly bush. The second one I have found to be Lantana.

In my yard the Butterflies are the only ones that love Lantana; I've tried it 2 years in a row now. I'm glad it's working well for you Kay.

Do Butterflies like Monarda? My Hummers went crazy for that.

nanny, i have some white butterfly bush seed i got from my plant in my (soon to be re-energized) bfly garden...I am very new at this seed gathering stuff...but I will be more than happy to send u some of the seeds for u too try and see if th ey will grow for you.

modellasmom@gmail.com
send me you address/email and i' ll mail them out to you tomorrow.

hugs,
melanie

In my yard the #1 plant for both butterflies and hummingbirds was plain ol' tall zinnia.
Once the Tithonia (Mexican sunflower) started blooming the butterflies really preferred that but still visited the Zinnia. I can't get my butterfly bush to grow, it isn't dying but it isn't growing - I think the spot it is in is too windy. Butterflies liked the lantana but only so-so and both liked the Russian Sage but hands down winner was Zinnia. Grew it from seed - very cheap!

I had two favorites in the yard. Old fashioned phlox and zinnias. I bought a butterfly bush later in the year but it was small so not as many visitors, probably because of that size. I've seen hummers at both of them.

oh wow, Mrs Ed that is stunning!! Gotta get me some phlox, does it bloom for very long?

It DOES have a nice long bloom time, through most of July and August. Comes on after coneflowers and bridges the gap to the zinnias. I wish I could remember exact dates. I did some searching and found…

I have a picture of it blooming July 5
I also have this picture of it still in bloom 9/1 (though at the tail end)

Mrs Ed --

Is that annual or perennial phlox? It's beautiful whichever it is!

Thanks,

Liane

It's perennial. It's the old fashioned one that comes up everywhere from seed. I got it from my sister's place. When first transplanting, it needs water a good amount of season. then the second year it is very hardy. I collected a few seeds last year and going to try and start them. I have some in another location coming up too. Here it is with an overgrown trumpet vine.

I just found one more picture of it Sept. 23. by this time it only has a couple of late flowers and mostly is seed. So yah, that's a nice bloom time. I DO remember that I wanted some asters to go with the zinnias for the late butterflies because the Phlox were finished.

Lots of asters in the wild around here and they seem to attract the biggest variety of butterflies. I'm very happy when one volunteers to grow in my yard.

And here is one in August (16th). A little wilty in my sandy soil. K, I'll quit my raving now!

I had a beautiful BF bush that I loved. I got it from Bluestone..I had ordered Nanho Blue but they sent me the wrong one. I just loved the color of it.

I had it at the corner of the front porch. Did not realize that is where north & west meet so like you angele I think the strong wind killed it.

I think I will take Melanie up on her offer of seeds and checkout Bluestone and maybe order another one from them.

This message was edited Feb 20, 2009 9:49 PM

I must say Duranta (either erecta or repens) without a second thought :o)

Although I have numerous lantana, pentas, butterfly bush, mist flower bushes, salvias, honeysuckle and other blooming beauties - the duranta is the one that attacts the most variety of butterflies and of course the hummies flock to it as well.

Another positive about the duranta is that out here is stays green all year long and will continue to put out new blooms when the end tips are pruned back.

Numerous winter tourist mobile home parks have it growing as hedges around their perimeter fencing and they turn out to be some of the best butterfly hotspots in the Lower Rio Grande Valley! A couple of those parks are even on our annual festival tours :o)

~ Cat

Well darn, Bluestone doesn't have that one anymore!!

That's a beautiful plant Cat. Wish it were zone hardy here. I'm going to attempt to grow some new items and bring in during the winter, maybe that will be one of them!

Nanny, what was the color of yours?

When I sent Bluestone a pic of too get an ID on it the said it was Pink Delight...but it was more raspberry in color to me. It wasn't pale....very vibrant and rich color. Man, I had pics of it but can't find them! I even had some posted here with BF on it . arrgh!

I may look for one called Peacock. It is a small variety and it grow more upright.

Ah. Mine is "Attraction". It was the one that most of the butterflies went to at the nursery.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/78709/

Yes the color was close to that!!

I had the "Pink Delight" BF bush but spidermites took it over & I had to dig it up
& burn it. I've had BF bushes for about 10 yrs now, & they are a magnet for BFs
& hummers. I had a really bad spidermite infestation in summer, '07 & despite
an heroic effort on my part, they returned with a vengeance in '08. Nothing I did
could keep them from coming back on the BF bush. A local gardening guru said
the BF bush is particularly prone to them. I'm gonna try again, tho!

ooo, spider mites, that's not good. Good for you to try again!

Here is "Attraction" at the end of the summer.

I had spidermites on mine. I have a lot more bugs problems out here where I am now than I did where I lived before. Awhole new learning curve for me!

Beautiful pictures Mrs Ed...
made me smile on a cold snowy day in Massachusetts!

I'd have to say perennial salvia - hands down!! It is my sign that it's time to put out the hummer feeders - they show up just when the buds begin to open, & it blooms until nearly Christmas, unless we have a real whopper of an early freeze! It comes in many varieties & colors - something to fit every landscape! I happen to really like the scent, but some people don't. Hummers go nuts for it & b'flies love it, too! Samantha

I love salvia's & agastaches too!

Wow! I'm surprised nobody here mentioned 'Tithonia Torch' Mexican sunflowers!!!

We've got 7 Butterfly Bushes...4 'Plum, 1 'Petite White Snow', 1 'Royal Red, and one 'Black Knight'. The Butterflies love them, but our Hummers couldn't be bothered.

If I was allowed to only have one plant...it would be the 'Tithonia Torch'!!! Not only did both the Hummers and BF's love them, but the hummers also loved to perch on the spent flower stems...perfect for their little tootsies, and the Goldfinches loved them for their seeds too...so there was triple action in them...awesome!
AND, no, the Goldfinches didn't scare the hummers away. I have a vid where they were side by side and "doing their own thing :)

I'll post a few pics...here's the 1st one of an immature male RT on a spent bloom stalk...

Here's a Dustywing...

Here's a Painted lady...

Here's a Monarch...

This pic was taken at the end of summer...the very day the Monarchs were Migrating through Lincoln, Nebraska on September 24th...(you can check "Journey North" Fall Migration map for 2008)...See if you can find 6 Monarchs in the pic...and, that's only a small area of our 'Tithonia Torch' Sunflowers...when I took that pic...there must have been nearly 50 Monarchs all over them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was AWESOME! :)

This message was edited Mar 6, 2009 12:43 AM

This was taken mid-August...

Here's a couple of other pics of how they grow and how tall they get...
These next 2 pics were taken early September...

Side view...

Unfortunately, I don't have a pic of a hummer using the 'Tithonia Torch'...BUT I have mini videos! If you want to see one or 2, I'll send copies of them to you. Send me a D-mail with another e-mail addy since I can't send it to you on a D-mail or attach it here :)

Wow! How many did you plant ?
Am going to try to find this plant or seeds !!

Susan,
I had forgotten how huge those get. Thanks for posting. I got a packet of seeds for this year and would have planted them in the wrong spot. Now they'll go with the sunflowers.

That would be nice but sure where I would put one right now.....will put it down for future reference tho!!

you'd have to put that on the outside of your fence there along the road, Nanny.