Jill's Plant of the Month
Jill's Plant of the Month features native flowers, shrubs, or trees you can plant in your landscape to enhance its beauty and feed our bees, butterflies, birds, and other creatures.
If you like purple flowers, you are not alone. Native Smooth Blue Asters attract 100 species of butterflies and moths and 33 species of bees. Monarchs, Painted Lady, and Fritillary Butterflies enjoy the nectar while the Silver Checkerspot and Crescent Butterfly caterpillars eat the leaves. Bumble Bees, Mason Bees,and Leafcutter Bees go for the pollen and nectar. Named for it’s smooth bluish green leaves and stem, Smooth Blue Aster is one of the last asters to bloom in late summer, just in time to provide energy to pollinators getting ready to migrate and those preparing for hibernation. Plant this aster in sun to light shade in dry to medium well-drained soil in a woodland or prairie garden. Smooth Aster looks great in combination with Showy or Stiff Goldenrod, Mountain Mint, New England Aster, Flowering Spurge, Switch Grass and Little Bluestem.
Marsh Milkweed, also known as Swamp Milkweed, Red Milkweed, and Rose Milkweed, grows in marshes and prairies and along streams and lakes. This fragrant flower with beautiful magenta blooms is well-known for being a host to the iconic Monarch Butterfly. Marsh Milkweed with its abundant nectar also attracts a wide variety of beneficial insects such as butterflies, bees, wasps, and beetles. Unlike Common Milkweed, Marsh Milkweed has fibrous roots and will not spread as much. Plant Marsh Milkweed in full to part sun in moist to wet soil. In dryer soil, if you keep Marsh Milkweed well-watered, it will grow nicely. It is an excellent plant for a rain garden, shoreline plantings or a butterfly garden. Grow with other moisture-loving plants like Cardinal Flower, Joe Pye Weed, Ironweed and native sedges. – Jill Trochlell-Ziehr