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Thinking Perennials? Think Butterfly Flower! ©

By: Arlene Wright Correll

Flor de Mariposa! What can sound grander than that? Butterfly Flower! This perennial has brilliant shades of orange that will attract butterflies to your garden.

It can be sown from seed and it takes 14 to 20 days to germinate, 365 days to bloom (so don’t expect to see it the first season) growing to a height of 24 to 35 inches. Plant your seeds about 10 to 12 inches apart and it likes full sun to partial shade.

One it blooms the flowers are shades of orange followed by the decorative brilliant green seed pods and this rangy bushy plant will attract the Monarch butterfly to your garden where you can enjoy watching the full cycle of both the plant and the Monarch.

This Butterfly Flower is very drought tolerant and an easy plant in your garden. It also makes a very good cut flower.

You can sow outside once the danger of frost is gone from your area and you can sow up to the first frost in the fall. Plant the seeds where you want them because once they get established the Butterfly Flower does not transplant very well.

This flower is not to be confused with the Butterfly Bush or the Buddleia (Bud Lee AH) sometimes referred to as the Summer Lilac) which is another great plant to add to your garden because it is the greatest butterfly magnet of them all.

These plants are not neat or tidy and get very rangy but they have a lot going for them as long as you put them where you don’t mind them filling up a space and plant them at least 6 feet apart.

Not only will butterflies flock to your garden, but the bees will come also as both are attracted to the honey-scented blossom especially at noon when the plant dilutes its sweetest nectar. The fragrance will fill your whole garden area and its branches will bloom with lilac like clusters of flowers that are 12 to 24 inches along the branches.

I had planted 2 of them about 20 feet apart nine years ago and by year 4 they were huge and beautiful, but were coming out into the pathways so I asked my grandson to prune them. I had read that one should prune them back to about 14 to 16 inches so that is what I told him to do. Forgetaboutit! These two never recovered and they have a root system that is very large. This year I really am going to hired someone to get them out of there and replace them.

Author Resource:-> For more gardening or cooking information click http://www.learn-america.com/
To see Arlene’s Gardens and to read her gardening diaries or click on Arlene’s Books where you can download or buy her gardening & cook books. Arlene says, "All my royalties from the sale of my books go to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and I thank you for visiting my site."

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