Sunday, September 18, 2005

In the Butterfly Garden: Blue Plumbago

Giant swallowtail on plumbago Black swallowtail on plumbagoI have lots of Blue Plumbago (Plumbago auriculata) in my butterfly garden. It's one of the best flowering landscape plants in Florida: cold hardy and blooming all year round with beautiful periwinkle blue flowers. It's considered a major butterfly plant because it's a host plant for the tiny blue cassius butterfly. But lately I've been seeing many species of butterflies using it as a nectar plant as well in spite of the fact that there are many of the best nectar plants for butterflies to choose from in the garden.

1 comment:

Pacha Mama said...

Yer blog is so inspiring! We just had a landscaper rip nearly everything out of the front yard (mostly invasive trees and scorched shrubbery). The remaining life: 5 palms, 1 hibiscus and 2 blue plumbagos. I LUV these plumbagos and have decided to create a native-plant-butterfly garden around them.