Butterfly Host and Hummingbird Attractive Native Plants

[Anonymous]

Hello Friends,

We live in Sunset area # 19 and are in the process of removing some of our lawn in favor of growingplants to host & nurture the butterfly andhummingbird population in Northern San DiegoCounty.

Any assistance in directing me will be most grate-fully received! See you @ the plant sale, in Balboa Park on October 13th

Many thanks for taking the time to respond!

All The Best,

Alain</p>

[Anonymous]

Alain,Congratulations on your decision to invest in our environment and not Brigg's and Stratton. I know you will be well rewarded by the beauty and intrest you find in a garden that is used!Advice off the top of my head would beMake sure there is a water feature of some type there for birds, dragonflies, and butterflies. Does not need to be fancy but is best if low and not around alot of activity.Second, I would make sure to attemp to use a lot of regional natives in your landscape. They fit your particular climate and micro-climate. I'm sure San Diego folks can give you some practical advice there.Third, I would make sure that i provided for both the needs of the adult butterfly nectar and for the catterpillar foliage to eat!. Example: The Monarch butterfly larvae eats Milkweed species only. Painted Ladies go for the Mallow family, etc. Try Peter Bryant's website for particulars. Most adult butterflys are not too picky about the nectar source as long as its a fairly broad platform to land on like Asters and Buckwheats. the catterpillars are very picky, often host-specific, feeders, to have food for them means helping to guarantee next seasons butterflies.As far as Hummingbirds, there are several books that talk about plants they love. To find the native varities ask your San Diego Chapter for examples and visit either the website or the physical site of native nurseries like Tree of Life Nursery on the Ortega highway. They are open on Fridays to the public.Lastly, I would encourage you to intentionally involve many other 'animals' such as other birds Berry producing plants, native bee's, dragonflies, and more!Best-Dan</p>

[Anonymous]

This is the focus of our garden - along with encouraging all birds and insects for them to eat. The rewards are well worth the effort - every plant is prettier with a butterfly sipping from it, or a bird eating its seed. We released 25 monarchs this week, and can't wait for another female to visit our milkweeds.

Hummingbirds are easy to attract - anything red and tubular is a given, and many natives fall into the hummingbird favorites list. From our yard in Los Angeles the favorites include:

Fairy Duster Eriophyllum californica - which also attracts Marine Blue butterflies for some reason;

Galvezia juncea purchased from Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden sale, a large rush-list galvezia that offers incredible texture, branching out on 3ft tall thin reedlike wands tipped with red tubular flowers every bloom is cherished by the hummers - major fights over this one. This species of Galvezia is from Baja. Theodore Payne also sell a shorter variety they also call Galvezia juncea with sticky leaves; the common name they give it is Firecracker, but don't confuse it with the RSABG/Baja plant.

Our native salvias and penstemons offer many hummer favorites - many of the penstemons have long red tubular flowers Scarlet Bugler for instance.

Any variety of Agastache native to the south west but not California are also big with hummers around here. Very drought tolerant. Easy from seed in spring. Goes dormant in winter.

Butterflies are easy to satisfy nectar wise, but if you want to really help their populations you'll need to do a little research into what butterflies come to your garden and what host plant they need for their caterpillars. Couple of sites to check out:

http://www.naba.org/

The LA chapter has a nice butterfly gardening page, available from:

http://www.naba.org/chapters/nabala/Gardens.htm

http://mamba.bio.uci.edu/~pjbryant/biodiv/bflyplnt.htm

enter your zip code at:http://enature.com/backyardwildlife/html/butterfly_garden_home.asp

Good luck!

Trish

[Anonymous]

I must have been sniffing to much white sage when I wrote the last message. Fairy Duster is Calliandra californica not Eriophylla calif. which is Golden Yarrow - a nice native nectar plant for butterflies.

If you can catch the seeds the seed pods explode!, Fairy Duster is easy from seed. I usually put it in a 4' pot with an inch of seed mixture on top. It usually pops up in 2-3 days!, or at least within 2 weeks.

I'm going to check into the confusion with the Galvezia juncea plant; maybe there's a logical explanation why two nurseries have two different plants with the same names!

PS. The Galvezia speciosa is another hummer favorite though - and is great covering a chain link fence.

Trish

[Anonymous]

Hi Alain,

The SD Natural History Museum and the San Diego Chapter of CNPS are trying to pair up to have a butterfly gardening program lecture at the museum and hopefully plants at the CNPS plant sale focused around butterfly gardening this fall. The plant sale normally carries Prunus ilicifolia, Rhamnus crocea, Mimulus sp, Eriogonum fasciculatum, Lotus scoparius, Ceanothus sp, Ribes sp, Salvia sp, Dudleya sp, and Amorpha fruticosa. I know someone was trying to get a few more plants that are good for other species of butterfly and you might try contacting Bertha McKinley of the SD chapter to find out info from her research and about potential availability of plants or where else you might be able to pick them up from a nursery.

Hummingbirds have visited my backyard since I planted Salvias they seem to like all the local species: S.mellifera, S.apiana, S.clevelandii, S.munzii, and a Baja species I have too. I personally like the scent and color of S. munzii a bit better than the S.clevelandii but they all make me smile when I smell them. S.munzii is from the southern part of the county. The hummingbirds visit my front yard since I put in Zauschneria and it is easy to grow even for me. I had never seen any hummingbirds in the front yard before but now I have color and hummingbirds this time of year when most of my other natives aren't looking their most colorful.

Cindy</p>

[Anonymous]

Hi Cindy,

Thanks for the info; this is great news indeed! I will contact Bertha and get more information.I'm going to be comming from Palomar Mountain, soI'm going to need to leave early on the morningof October 13th!

See You There,

Alain</p>