Attracting Birds, Bees and Butterflies

Perhaps most importantly for the home gardener, native plant communities are rich in biodiversity. They attract many different kinds of butterflies, native bees and other beautiful pollinators to their flowers. In turn, birds, amphibians and many other species that survive by eating insects will be attracted to your yard, and many will stay to nest and raise their young. You will have created a habitat that will simply buzz with beauty and life!

Some important maintenance tips to keep in mind:

Don’t use pesticides or herbicides! You’ll be killing the insects and birds you want to attract.
Do leave the fallen leaves in your beds. They are the best mulch your plants could have, they provide habitat for insects throughout the winter, those insects may be winter food for hungry ground-feeding birds, and they are free!
Consider leaving you spent perennials standing through the winter. They may be shelter for insects, food for birds in the form of both insects and fruit/seeds.

Native Plants Are for the Birds

If you want to attract birds to your own backyard, planting native species is the way to go! As they have evolved alongside native plants, birds have adapted to eat their berries and seeds, to use them as cover and nesting sites, and as hotspots to forage for the insects that also rely upon native species. Keep in mind that insects, especially caterpillars, are an essential part of most birds’ diets, so consider species that support a variety of butterfly and moth caterpillars.

Below is a list of some of our favorite native trees and shrubs that are great for birds. Many of these species are available for purchase at our nursery:

Common name	Scientific Name
Oaks	Quercus sp.
Blueberries	Vaccinium sp.
Arrowwood	Viburnum dentatum
Red Chokeberry	Photinia arbutifolia, Aronia arbutifolia
Black Cherry	Prunus serotina
Flowering Dogwood	Cornus florida
Spicebush	Lindera benzoin
Winterberry	Ilex verticillata
Red-Osier Dogwood	Cornus sericea
Elderberry	Sambucus canadensis
Eastern Red Cedar	Juniperus virginiana
Serviceberry	Amelanchier canadensis, A. laevis

For more detail on these plants, refer to Native Plant Profiles from A to Z.

For more recommendations:
Bringing Nature Home by Douglas Tallamy
Audubon Native Plants Database https://www.audubon.org/native-plants

Pollinators Are All the Buzz

Pollinators are the engine that keeps our ecosystem running. Without pollination plants cannot reproduce, and 80% of plants are pollinated by insects. Our pollinators are in serious decline and each native plant that you provide can help them to survive. Although plants can be pollinated by wind, birds (hummingbirds), and mammals (bats), the term pollinator is often associated with insects. Bees, butterflies,moths, flies, beetles and wasps provide the bulk of our pollination services, and we welcome their presence in our gardens. Without insects, many plant species would die off.

When planting for pollinators, try to provide a diversity of plants that bloom throughout the growing season. Following is a list of plants that bloom in succession, from spring through fall:

Common Name	Scientific Name
Bluebells	Mertensia virginica
Columbine	Aquilegia canadensis
Beard-tongue, Foxglove	Penstemon sp.
Bee Balms	Monarda sp.
Milkweed	Asclepias sp., NOT A. curassavica
Coneflowers, Sunflowers	Rudbeckia sp., Echinacea purpurea, Helianthus sp.
Mountain Mints	Pycanthemum muticum, P. muticum, P. virginianum, P. tenuifolium
Hyssop	Agastache scrofulariifolia, A. foeniculum
Goldenrod	Solidago sp., Euthamia sp.
Asters	Aster sp., Symphyotricum sp., Eurybia sp., Doellingeria sp.
Mistflower	Conoclinium coelistinum

For further information: http://xerces.org/

Butterflies Are a Flutter

When searching for butterfly-friendly plants, most of us look for plants where we can observe them sipping on nectar. We tend to forget, however, that before there is a butterfly there must be a caterpillar. Butterflies are very specific about their caterpillar plants—many of them have a few closely related plants that their caterpillars can eat to survive. If you want to see butterflies, you need to feed their kids, too – the caterpillars.

Many gardeners worry that insects will destroy their plants, but it would be counterproductive for our native insects to destroy the plants on which they depend. Damage by native insects to native plants is minor and life giving.

Here is a list of common native plants that support butterflies, either as host or nectar plants:

Common Name	Scientific Name
Asters	Aster sp., Symphyotricum sp., Eurybia sp., Doellingeria sp.
Coneflowers	Echinacea pupurea, Rudbeckia sp.
Goldenrod	Solidago sp., Euthamia sp.
Joe-Pye-Weed	Eupatorium sp., syn. Eutrochium sp.
Milkweed	Asclepias sp. Note: NOT Asclepias curassavica
Mountain Mints	Pycnanthemum muticum, P. incanum, P. virginianum, P. tenuifolium
New Jersey Tea	Ceanthus americanus
Sedges	Carex sp.
Sunflowers	Helianthus sp.
Violets	Viola sp.
Wild Bergamot, Beebalm	Monarda sp.

For a more complete list of caterpillar food plants for many of the butterflies in our region:

NJ Native Butterfly Host and Nectar Plants

For further information:

Bringing Nature Home by Douglas Tallamy

Audubon Native Plants Database https://www.audubon.org/native-plants

National Wildlife Federation Native Plant Finder https://www.nwf.org/NativePlantFinder

For more detail on these plants, refer to Native Plant Profiles from A to Z.

Grow Native Plants

GARDEN WITH NATIVES