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BACKYARD SECRET-WEBSITE THAT PROVIDES INFORMATION ON NATIVE PLANTS IN YOUR AREA
The number and variety of native plants that grow in your yard plays a key role on determining what species of wildlife will inhabit your yard. The problem is trying to determine which plants will grow in your neck of the woods.
The National Audubon Society has simplified the task of trying to identify which native wildlife-friendly plants grow in the county where you live.
If you want to access this information, go to the National Audubon Society’s website. Once there scroll to the window labeled Plants that Grow in your Area. You will see a place where you enter your zip code. Type in your zip code; press the Enter button and the plant list for your area will appear.
BACKYARD SECRET – PLANTING GROUPS OF PLANTS BENEFIT HUMMINGBIRDS AND OTHER POLLINATORS
If you are looking for a simple way to benefit hummingbirds, butterflies and other pollinators, plant nectar plants in groups of the kind. You will find that mass plantings enhance the beauty of your yard and makes it easier for these valuable backyard neighbors to locate plants bearing nectar.
With that in mind, plant no less than 3-5 of the same variety together. If have enough room for larger plantings, masses of plants measuring two to three are even better.
I hope you will try this simple technique this year. I suspect that, if you take this advice, the pollinators will love it and you will wonder why you have not adopted this gardening trip before.
LATE BONESET – AN IMPORTANT POLLINATOR PLANT
Once September arrives, pollinator plants become increasingly more difficult to find. However, a native plant that helps fill that void is an herbaceous perennial known as late boneset (Eupatorium serotinium).
Late boneset provides nectar to a wide range of pollinators such as native bees, moths, and butterflies.
In addition, it is the host plant for the clymene and other species of moths. The dorsal side of this moth is most distinctive. Its wings are creamy and marked with bold black markings that resemble a cross. To me, the markings look much like the symbols seen on the shield of an English knight.
While I often see boneset blooming in old fields and along country roads, I rarely encounter it in backyards. Interestingly, my daughter recently found one blooming in her suburban backyard. She finds this volunteer so fascinating; she plans to let it continue to prosper.
Since the plant is easy to grow and is deer resistant, it is a valuable addition to the backyard of anybody interested in promoting native pollinators.
TWO LATE AUGUST POLLINATOR FAVORITES
By this time of the year, gardens are often losing their value to pollinators day by day. The reason for this is many of the plants we plant for their beauty and ability to provide pollinators with nectar and pollen have already stopped blooming. This is unfortunate because butterflies, bees and other pollinators still desperately need sources of food. Consequently, if you spot bees and butterflies flying about your yard vainly looking for flowers, don’t let this happen again. With that in mind, I suggest that next spring you add some nectar plants that continue to bloom until frost. Two of the best are purple coneflower and cosmos.
Both bloom throughout the summer into the fall. They are also hardy. In addition, birds will eat the seeds produced by both plants. Although a number of birds eat the seeds, American goldfinches are especially fond of them.
FEED THE BEES
There is a growing interest in promoting both honeybees and native bees in backyards throughout Georgia. One way that you can enhance both the number and diversity of bees in your backyard is to provide them with plants that provide these important pollinators with food.
Here is a list of ten plants favored by bees. They help provide food for bees from spring into fall. These special plants are blueberry, redbud, beebalm, blanket flower, black-eyed susan, milkweed, goldenrod, horsemint, blazing star (liatris) and fleabane.
All of these plants are growing in my yard. How many are growing in your yard?
We saw two juniper hairstreaks and 16 red-banded hairstreaks. To put this in perspective, the day before I surveyed butterflies on the Annual Fall Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge/Rum Creek Wildlife Management Area Butterfly Count. In spite of the fact that the team I was assigned to spent 7.5 hours in the field and walked some 2.2 while visiting a number of sites scattered across much of the eastern side of Monroe County and a small piece of Jasper County, we spotted only three red-banded hairstreaks.
