Lovely! Looks like hyssops?
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Yes!
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Bumbles and hummingbirds are obsessed with that stuff. I let mine go to seed regularly and don’t have any regrets (it pops up in all my beds) because 1) you can make a nice tea or syrup out of it; 2) it brings all the pollinators to the yard; and 3) it’s native, so no guilt
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my bumbles are all over my crown vetch growing on the steep ditch near the road. its their fave in late summer.
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Spent a couple of hours looking for tired bumbles and bumbles that have not moved from the same plant for a few days. I picked them up and moved them to the new blooming clovers. They lit up and absolutely loved it after the first few sips. Some barely moved on the hyssop that’s about done for this period’s bloom so i figured they were starving. After a few minutes on the same clover, they moved to other clovers nearby. The wasps have been boguarding all the water spots so I’ve also been spraying the clovers as well to give them water.
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Someone’s been busy eating all the new growth on a US-942 citrandarin. I kinda wanted that one to put on some more size, but I don’t mind a little setback. Just stay off my Clementine!
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Black swallowtail eat citrus? We usually find them on parsley and fennel and the giant swallowtails on the citrus.
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Apparently. I have read that they’ll use Zanthoxylum as a host, so Citrus isn’t too far a jump. I also just didn’t plant any Apiaceae this year, so maybe they didn’t have their preferred host and one settled for the US-942. I always have very heavy Swallowtail pressure on the dill and fennel I plant. They often eat through the entire supply and kill the plants there’re so many of them. I’ve been thinking about getting a big patch of Queen Anne’s Lace established just so I have a chance of keeping up with the Swallowtails demand for host plants.
Funny enough, after three years of growing milkweed, I’ve yet to see a single Monarch caterpillar. And that’s native milkweed. Passion flowers have oodles of Gulf Fritillaries though. I sometimes have to squish a few of them to protect small plants and seedling passion flowers, but there are enough Gulf Fritillaries on the established vines that I’m not concerned about the population. There’re so many of them that even tiny seedlings will get visited and have eggs laid on them, so…
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I do realize that Queen Anne’s lace is not native to the eastern US, but my options are somewhat limited unfortunately. Around here, the most common plants in the Apiaceae are Queen Anne’s lace, rattlesnake master, and a mixture of water hemlock and other wetland species. My land isn’t well-drained enough for rattlesnake master, and I’m really hesitant to plant water hemlock since, well, it’s arguably the most toxic plant in eastern North America. Most other plants in the Apiaceae either are cool season plants that only grow at the tail ends of the growing season, annuals that bolt as soon as it gets warm, or both. I’ve been trying to use fennel, but it never seems to size up enough before the swallowtails arrive.
I could plant some of the shrubby Apiales like Aralia, but I don’t think most swallowtails typically feed on them.
So that more or less just leaves Queen Anne’s lace. I’d say in this case there’s a pretty good argument for it being a good invasive.
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Thats interesting as well. Thats the prefered native plant for Giant Swallowtails (Wild Lime down here). Their caterpillars are so cool, look like bird poop. We have lots of wild lime, helps keep them off my potted Calamansi (my other citrus are all big enough).
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I’ve wanted to put in some kind of Zanthoxylum for a while, maybe I’ll prioritize it next spring. I’d love to have some Giant Swallowtails establish themselves. And if the Black Swallowtails also take to it, then that would take care of my issue with not being able to adequately feed them into summer.
Finally going to be putting in some pawpaws this fall, including smallflower pawpaw if I can get ahold of some, so maybe I’ll get some Zebra Swallowtails as well.
On a related note, I’ve planted some coontie palm (Zamia integrifolia, the only Cycad native to the continental US) which theoretically hosts Atala butterfly, but it’d be deeply shocking if some Atala butterflies made it this far north. If I could convince a few thousand homeowners along the eastern seaboard from here down to Miami to also plant coontie palm, then perhaps I’d stand a chance of seeing Atala butterflies.
Man, it would be awesome if that did ever happen. Look at these cool things!
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The swallowtail (black, spicebush and eastern tiger) butterflies here… are super into the joe pye weed right now.
Spotted joe pye weed is known to attract numerous pollinators such as ants, bees, beetles, butterflies, flies, moths, skippers, and wasps. While most pollinators visit because of spotted joe pye weed’s nectar, bumblebees and long-horned bees collect pollen.
Also forage for Monarchs.
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we have tons of wild joe pye weed here. id love to transplant some on the property but its size would be a problem, shading out alot of my other plants.
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There’s a cultivator called “little Joe” that is identical to the straight species but just compact. I think theoretically they can grow to 4’ but the ones I planted at my parents house in full sun stay around 2’. I always see bees and monarchs on them.
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Atalas are my mom’s favorite butterfly. We have been trying to get them on our property. I’ve brought 5 or 6 caterpillars up from South Florida but they never stick around. The northernmost we’ve seen them naturally is in Lakeland, so they are moving into our area, just not there yet.
They are a conservation success story. They were thought to be extinct in Florida until they found a population in the Keys and managed to bring them back into their native range. We used to rarely see them at our house when we lived in Ft. Lauderdale, now you can see them all the time in Broward.
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…and someone ate him. I blame the deer. It probably wasn’t actually the deer, but at this point I blame all my problems on deer.
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A pair of robins made a nest in one of my pawpaw trees this year. The robins and catbirds, in particular, like hanging out in the pawpaw orchard, as do my skunk friends looking for grubs under the mulch.
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Just wasnt looking hard enough! 
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