Excellent resources for reference. I really like Tallamy, who is more native trees.
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i have butterfly weed and noticed the hummingbirds like them also. also noticed for the 1st time this year that hummingbirds were feeding on my honeyberry flowers. i never realized they were around that early. glad they found them as i hadn’t put up my feeders for them yet.
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Borage: The Super Plant with Stellar Qualities This plant has it all. A magnet for pollinators, honey bees and bumble bees love it. It’s a good companion plant for tomatoes, squash and strawberries. Companion planting is planting two different plants together because they will benefit each other in some way. Borage is a host plant for good insects—the ones that eat harmful insects. Good insects are spiders, damsel bugs, ground beetles and parasitoid wasps, to name a few. Borage is useful for breaking up clay soils because it has large tap roots. This process is referred to as green manure. It reseeds prolifically and, if you’re game, you can eat the leaves and flowers. They taste a bit like cucumbers.
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There’s a difference in ‘rosemary’ and the creeping variety…it’s only hardy to about 5 degrees F.
Good to know!
I’ve got this little ruby throat visiting honeysuckle blooms still.
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I have some wild milkweeds. Noticed a hanfull of seeds and silk in a path today.
Be out of town a few…but if it doesn’t rain, they may still be there.
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also consider its perennial cousin, comfrey. i grow bocking 4 and 14 hybrid comfrey. makes lots of free compost. i leave the flower stalks for the bees. chop and drop around your plants. can also be dried to be used as a early spring fertilizer.
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Perhaps, but I wonder what the botanical name is for the creeping one you refer to. There are various forms of Rosemary, including R. officinalis ‘prostratus’ ( now Rosemary is Salvia rosemarinus) and I’ve seen various ones that trail more than others. All are listed as hardy to zone 7, so 5 degrees is right, just like the ones I kept in an insulated cold frame. Mine were uptight growing and even with cutting back they eventually outgrew that arrangement. My cold frame was about six inches in the ground. The first year I left the rosemary in there in its’ pot laying on its’ side I didn’t have much faith. But in spring it popped out all ready to grow. The only plant the damn voles would never touch.
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One of my favorite times of the year is when my big mimosa tree is in full bloom. To sit underneath is to be right in the midst of butterflies, bees, and most recently hummingbirds. They are everywhere, chasing each other, darting from flower to flower, and chittering in the most delightful way.
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I posted a similar experience last year and got blasted because it was invasive and non native. Boo.
Anyone that has seen one of these trees in full bloom can see that it makes the things that live in our area happy. And in my opinion theres not enough of that.
Technically… i am non native and an invasive species.
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My parents have a Seven Sons tree. It’s not native to around here but every Fall, it’s draped with activity from all sorts of pollinators for about two weeks. It’s truly a sight to see and the flowers smell nice.
I don’t have too much experience rooting cuttings (other than figs) but I’m going to try to root this tree when it goes dormant.
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The tree was in my yard when I bought the house about 10 years ago so I inherited it. I was delighted because I lived next to my grandfather who had a mimosa tree until I started kindergarten. Some of my most wonderful memories are in his backyard under that tree.
It sits smack dab in the middle of a large yard and I don’t imagine that it’s going to proliferate anywhere.
I have that experience of that tree brimming with life every year. It is so magical that I’ve taken videos so I could try and experience it again.
I couldn’t agree more, and thank you for saying that @krismoriah
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Haha! Thank you for your long, detailed post!! Every word I read from you kept making me nod! A well mowed lawn has its beauty…it is beauty where I find it attractive when all around your yard may be overgrown and takes on a natural livelihood. Case in point - I have allowed my yards to acquire a natural look including letting leaves fall and lay on the ground and becomes a brown bed which it is mulch. I recognized too that a overgrown lawn comes with clover flowers that bees go to, thus my Abellia plant used to be hedged often, I stopped it. For 3 seasons now, Abellia gets hedged once in winter, and then it blooms from June to late December. Bees, hummingbirds use all the blooms. So, yes, if you mow or hedge, you are stopping the food supply the ‘nature’ needs. Still on mowing though, this spring I continue to landscape my flower garden, and decided to add a strip of grass, 6" by 30’ by seed. It took a meticulous watering schedule (savg water as much as possible), the 2 strips of grass were successful! When I gave them a haircut, boy they blended beautifully with the adjacent plants. My point here is, a bit of mowing or a bit of hedging probably satisfy those of us who seek beauty with other essentials the nature depends on! Interestingly you mentioned weeds most of us rip them out. For 2 years now, I have been saving one or two weed plans from baby to full grown, and I noticed its plant form habit giving nice leaves and handsome leaves flower plume! So, yes, weeds are really plants someone needs them. Easily sown to life.
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Do you have any photos of your area? Sounds like a great compromise.
Yes, I do. I will post them, just right now I am so overworked beyond having sleep. Thanks for asking. BTW, I am in southern CA, for decades we have had a drought. I have been ‘watering’ and landscaping to be as natural as possible. I ask the tree trimming trucks to stop and dump in my 10’ x 50’ lower front yard (also its utility company’s 5’ wide easement. So, I guess I got lucky that my lower front yard keeps enough mulch for my garden use.
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I added some alliums last year…the bulbs are pretty cheap and sold at places like Aldi and Wallyworld during the right time of year. I didnt have alot of visitors this year to them…maybe they were too young.
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I don’t know much about the ornamental alliums ?
Some seem to be attractive to pollinators , wonder if they / some are edible too ? Be nice to have one good to eat as well as good for pollinators .
I saw a patch of garlic chives that was buzzing with insects a year ago. Collected some seeds this year , also from a taller one.
Said to be good to eat too. I have not tried it,. Hear it can spread a lot. That could be good / and / or bad ?
Anyone have comments about garlic chives or other allium family stuff ?
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Leeks
Elephant Garlic
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I removed my creeping thyme due to some comments here. But my leeks never have any flowers.
i have garlic, regular chives. nodding onion and Egyptian walking onion. they do spread but not aggressively. ive been eating some of the Egyptians. they dont get huge heads. more like shallot but are very good and productive i use the chives where any recipes call for a green onion, the nodding onion is still small yet. all but Egyptians have flowers bees feed on.