Pollinator garden

Resources

• Garden insect predators
• Butterfly Gardening in Fall

Advice for selecting

Source

Rather than using the Department of Agriculture’s hardiness zone maps, he starts with the Environmental Protection Agency’s Level III Ecoregions maps, to learn more about the greater ecosystem a property lies within.

Next, he turns to native-plant search tools and guides on websites like Pollinator Partnership, Audubon, Xerces Society or National Wildlife Federation that offer lists of regional natives. Not all of them will be suited to your design concept, precise location or site conditions, though, so that’s when the homework really begins.

Narrow the possibilities by reading up on each plant, Mr. Vogt advised. A regional field guide to natives is another good tool. Your state or local native-plant society will have valuable resources to explore, too.

Maybe no plant choices are more important than which grasses to use.

“Since grasses ground a meadow visually and are the dominant plants, choose them first,” Mr. Wormser writes. He typically incorporates one or two clump-forming, warm-season grasses into a small-scale design (or up to four in a large project), which form “the backbone of my meadows.”

NYC is Ecoregion 59. Northeastern Coastal Zone

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Good plants for pollinators (check if local?)

• Liatris spicata (dense blazing star)
• Symphyotrichum laeve (smooth aster)
• Echinops ritro (globe thistle)
• Lavandula latifolia (spike lavender)
• Echinacea purpurea (purple coneflower)
• Hylotelephium ‘Herbstfreude’ aka Sedum ‘Herbstfreude’ (autumn joy stonecrop)
• Bouteloua gracilis (blue grama grass)
• Helenium autumnale ‘Brilliant’ (sneezeweed)
• Origanum laevigatum ‘Herrenhausen’ (oregano)
• Glandularia canadensis, formerly Verbena canadensis (rose verbena, rose vervain)
• Solidago speciosa (showy goldenrod)

Butterfly Garden Plants

• Aster
• Asclepia (milkweed)
• Buddleja Butterfly bush
• Bee balm
• Anise hyssop
• phlox Northeastern Nectar Plants
• asclepias tuberosa
• aster spp
• buddleia davidii
• cephalanthus occidentalis
• clerthra anlifolia
• echinacea purpurea
• eupatorium spp
• phlox paniculata

Butterfly Gardening in Fall

![[2003fa_butterflygarden.gif]]

Illustration by Paul Harwood.

The butterfly garden is full of activity in autumn. Yellow sulphurs alight on coneflowers, while burnt-orange skippers jostle with bumblebees on oregano and lavender. Monarchs, on their long journey to overwintering grounds in Mexico or California, stop to rest and take nectar from asters and other late-blooming flowers. The bright yellow blossoms of goldenrod are especially favored by monarchs and painted ladies. A host of beneficial insects and birds looking for an insect meal also flock to goldenrod.

As the extravagance of the summer garden winds down, some perennials bridge the gap into fall. Purple coneflower and globe thistle attract butterflies through September, forming handsome seed heads that eventually feed birds. Ornamental grasses often change color in the fall and form interesting seed heads. Skipper caterpillars feed on grasses and may overwinter at the base of the plants.

The illustration above is a simple, low-maintenance design that will lure butterflies to your yard in the fall. It includes a number of North American natives like dense blazing star, smooth aster, showy goldenrod, sneezeweed, purple coneflower, and blue grama grass. Most of the plants require full sun and well-drained soil of moderate to low fertility. They’re all fairly drought tolerant, though the blazing star needs regular watering.¹

1. Liatris spicata (dense blazing star)
2. Symphyotrichum laeve (smooth aster)
3. Echinops ritro (globe thistle)
4. Lavandula latifolia (spike lavender)
5. Echinacea purpurea (purple coneflower)
6. Hylotelephium ‘_Herbstfreude’_ aka Sedum ‘Herbstfreude’ (autumn joy stonecrop)
7. Bouteloua gracilis (blue grama grass)
8. Helenium autumnale ‘_Brilliant’_ (sneezeweed)
9. Origanum laevigatum ‘_Herrenhausen’_ (oregano)
10. Glandularia canadensis, formerly Verbena canadensis (rose verbena, rose vervain)
11. Solidago speciosa (showy goldenrod)

Read more about how to design and care for a fall butterfly garden on our blog.