Plants for butterflies

The seed catalogs are starting to come in-but noticeably fewer this year than I'm accustomed to.

- CAROLINE SPEAR

Online sources are plentiful, but I like to peruse and dream page by page in a catalog I can hold in my hands. One that has arrived is among my favorites because it provides very useful information regarding native seeds and plants, how and where they can be used, and what pollinators each attracts. Prairie Moon Nursery (prairiemoon.​com) is based in Winona, Minn., which is hardiness zone 5A, slightly colder but otherwise similar to our area.

I also recently attended a National Garden Bureau webinar on plants for butterflies (ngb.org/great-garden-webinars). The key takeaway from this is to know your area's species of butterflies and what they and their larvae feed on; know your zone (ours is 6) and what plants thrive or don't ("right plant, right place"), and use native plants where you can. Butterflies are attracted to scents and can smell nectar. They also can use sugar water like hummingbirds when nectar sources are in short supply.