Speedwell features deep blue-purple flowers on tall spikes, which bloom June-August. Deadhead flowers to promote continuous blooms. Speedwell prefers constant moisture in well-drained soil, but it will tolerate drought once established. The genus Veronica contains many cultivars offering other colors and characteristics. Use it in rock gardens and borders around your yard.
New York Ironweed features purple flowers, which bloom on tall stalks, August-September. The flower nectar offers food to bees and butterflies, and the dried seeds offer food to birds. New York Ironweed can self-seed vigorously. Plant in a mass to use as a background plant in borders, meadows, and in moist naturalized areas of your yard.
Swamp Verbena features purplish-blue flowers, which bloom on tall spikes, a few at a time from bottom to top, June-September. The flowers are a nectar source for bees and butterflies. Swamp Verbena is a host plant for butterfly and moth larvae (caterpillars), including Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia). This plant prefers moist soil conditions. Use it in rain gardens, along water features, or in other moist areas of the yard. It can also be planted in borders and meadows.
Lowbush Blueberry is a flowering deciduous shrub with edible fruit. It features small, white, bell-shaped flowers with pink/reddish edges, which bloom April-May, offering a valuable nectar source to native bees. The sweet and edible fruit ripens in summer and provides an important food source for birds. The berries are used in pies, muffins, and other dishes, and eaten fresh. Showy fall foliage is bronze, scarlet, and crimson. Plant Lowbush Blueberry along borders, as a tall groundcover, as small hedges, or in naturalized areas of your yard.
Eastern Gamagrass is a warm-season bunchgrass, which displays purple female flowers and orange male flowers on the same plant (monoecious), May-September. It is a host plant for butterfly and moth larvae (caterpillars), including Byssus Skipper (Problema byssus). Deer eat the seeds. Cut back Eastern Gamagrass to 8 inches in the winter, after the foliage has died back from frost. Use it in woodland gardens, perennial borders, meadows, or naturalized areas in your yard.
Heartleaf Foamflower features tiny, pink blossoms, which open into white flowers on airy, terminal clusters in May. It prefers organically rich, moist soil; the soil should not be allowed to dry out. This plant spreads by rhizomes (underground stems) to form colonies. Use Heartleaf Foamflower in your shade garden, rain garden, along edges of ponds, or as a groundcover.
Mother-of-Thyme features tiny, red-purple flowers, which bloom in abundance, June-September. The nectar offers a valuable food source for native bees and butterflies. Mother-of-Thyme is easily grown in dry, sandy, rocky, gritty soil in full sun. This plant withstands light foot traffic. Use Mother-of-Thyme as a groundcover, edging plant, or along walkways or cascading borders. Mother-of-Thyme also tolerates drought well, making it a good choice for Jersey-Friendly Yards.