Lavender Cotton is a mounding perennial, which is also sometimes used as an annual. It has silvery-blue evergreen leaves and features button-like, bright yellow flowers, which bloom on rising stalks, July-August. The aromatic foliage has been used in sachets and as a moth repellant. This plant requires good drainage. Use Lavender Cotton in borders, or as a groundcover or edging plant.
Red Elderberry’s clusters of creamy-white flowers bloom May-June, and provide nectar to native bees and butterflies. The berries are reputedly poisonous and are inedible to humans, but are an attractive food source for birds. Hollow stems offer nest sites and nest materials to native bees. Red Elderberry attracts beneficial predatory insects, which prey on garden insect pests. Use Common Elderberry as a small specimen tree or large shrub in borders around your yard.
American Black Elderberry is a spreading, deciduous shrub with clusters of white flowers from June-July. It provides an attractve nectar source for butterflies and bees. Berries ripen in late summer and provide a food source for birds. The fruit can be used in jellies, pies, juice, and wine. Use American Black Elderberry in shrub borders, moist roadside plantings, or as a privacy screen around your yard.
Scarlet Sage is a tender perennial, grown as an annual. Its showy, red flowers blooming June to frost provide a nectar source to a host of pollinators, including bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Use it in mixed borders and containers, or plant it around your yard for a burst of summer-long color.
Salvia,or Sage, is a large genus offering many species in various sizes and colors. Sage is a wildlife-friendly plant, which is very attractive to hummingbirds, numerous native butterfly species, native bees, bumblebees, and honey bees. Sage is typically a low-maintenance plant tolerant of dry soil. It offers consistent summer blooming. Use it in mixed borders and butterfly gardens, or to provide colorful accents around your yard.
Blackeyed Susan features daisy-like flowers with bright yellow-orange rays and brown center disks. The long bloom time lasts from June-September. This plant provides a nectar source for bees, and birds eat the ripe seeds. Blackeyed Susan is a host plant for butterfly and moth larvae (caterpillars), including Bordered Patch (Chlosyne lacinia) and Gorgone Checkerspot (Chlosyne gorgone). It does not tolerate prolonged, wet weather. Use Blackeyed Susan in your borders, beds, meadows, and naturalized areas. It also makes an excellent fresh-cut flower for bouquets.
Orange Coneflower features daisy-like flowers with bright yellow-orange rays and brown-purple center disks. The long bloom time lasts from June-October. This plant provides a nectar source for bees, and birds feed on the dried seeds. Use Orange Coneflower in naturalized gardens, rain gardens, in masses in the perennial border of your yard, and as fresh-cut flowers.
Virginia Rose features pink flowers which bloom June-August. This plant provides a nectar source and nesting material for native bees and honeybees. Virginia Rose is valued by beneficial predatory insects, which prey on garden pest insects. The fruit, called “hips,” contain vitamin C. Fall foliage is purple, to orange-red, to crimson and yellow. The red fruit and canes can be attractive in winter. Use Virginia Rose in the back of borders, along foundations, and in natural areas of your yard.