Spring beauty (Claytonia virginica)

Type: Perennial
Blooms: Delicate white-pink petals with pink veining in early spring; plants are ephemeral: the foliage fades away by early summer
Light: Full sun to part shade
Soil: Moist, well-drained
Size: 4 to 12 in. tall, 6 to 9 in. wide
Hardiness Cold hardy in USDA zones 3 to 8

From the Wild Side: Spring beauties

I had just sat down under our sugar maple tree (Acer saccharum), hoping to focus on nothing, when a bee buzzed by and focused on me. She was smaller, darker and cuter than a honeybee, and I could’ve sworn I saw pink thighs, but she was definitely checking me out. Was she trying to tell me something? Sure enough, when I stood up, she flew to a tiny hole in the soil I had been sitting on; I didn’t see it until she crawled right to it. She was a mining bee, fresh from her own winter nest, busy building a new one for her babies.

Back then, I had no idea that Nashville had hundreds of species of native bees — each with their own requirements and timing — but I did know that some made nests in soil and that I had finally caught one in the act. So I kept watching. Every time she left the hole, she ignored the sweet violets (Viola sororia), early buttercups (Ranunculus fascicularis) and other blooms in the grass to visit only one species of wildflower: spring beauty.

Native bees are pollen specialists

About the size of a dime, spring beauty’s white-pink flower offers nectar and pollen to all sorts of insects. But I had met the one insect who cannot reproduce without it, a spring beauty bee (Andrena erigeniae), a pollen specialist. And get this — the pollen is pink! I was right about those pink saddlebags. If you don’t believe me, check out the close-up view in the photo below.

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How the beneficial relationship works

The female spring beauty bee gathers pollen — and only this particular pollen — to provision each of her eggs with a little pink cake. When an egg hatches, the larval bee eats the spring beauty pollen until it pupates. Then next year, when this wildflower blooms again, new adults emerge, ready to make more bees.

Lawns in my neighborhood used to bloom with so many spring beauties, they looked like they’d been sprinkled with snow. But in the 30 years I’ve been watching, a lawn with even a hint of these flowers has become rare. And when the plant disappears, the bees disappear. What if more neighbors knew about this wildflower sleeping in our seed bank? What if they knew about the charismatic little bee who depends on this flower, and that there are many other specialist bees as well?

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Change garden practices to support pollinator populations

I know from personal experience that falling in love with just one native bee, butterfly or bird can change everything, change us. It’s why I’ve shrunk the lawn, quit herbicides and pesticides, weeded invasives, planted natives and written a book.

I also know that we can’t fall in love with what we haven’t met, which could be, by the way, the best reason to take breaks under a sugar maple even when trying to focus on nothing. You never know who might buzz by.

Keep an eye out for native bees

Want to meet a spring beauty bee? Find the flowers and some sun between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Try when the day isn’t breezy, so the only movement is a bee. If you see a flower tip under the bulk of a visitor, it’s not a spring beauty bee — it doesn’t weigh enough to bend a stem. If you see a small black bee with sparse white whiskers and saddlebags loaded with pale pink pollen, there she is — the real beauty of spring.

Plant sources

• Prairie Moon Nursery, 866-417-8156
• Izel Native Plants, 410-989-3721

Joanna, author of "This Is How a Robin Drinks: Essays on Urban Nature," writes about everyday wonders in everyday habitat loss on Instagram @jo_brichetto and at SidewalkNature.com.

Gardening for pollinators

When it comes to supporting your local ecosystem, providing food and shelter for pollinators is a great way to start. To do the most good, diversity is key! Pollinators need nourishment from the beginning of spring all the way to the end of autumn, so planting perennials, annuals and shrubs together is ideal.

While it may take time to curate a great pollinator habitat, every little bit helps. Adding even one or two food sources for our pollinator friends makes a big difference. The more varieties you add, the more diversity you’ll attract.

Key elements to a pollinator-friendly garden

If you’re ready to make a pollinator-friendly change to your garden, here are a few key things to look for.

1. High-quality food

High nectar and pollen production are key to supporting pollinators. These are the most important factors to look at when it comes to choosing a new addition to the garden.

2. Eye-catching color

Bees and butterflies hunt for food by sight, so look for bright colors such as orange, red, yellow and purple to help them find food sources.

3. The right shape

Different pollinators are looking for different bloom shapes depending on how they visit flowers. Funnel and tube shapes are popular with bees, butterflies and hummingbirds. Other options like bell and composite shapes for bees, clustered or flat-topped options for butterflies and trumpet-shaped flowers for hummingbirds are great choices too.

4. Water access

The pools that form on broadleaf foliage like that of Hydrangea macrophylla are natural and beautiful ways to support thirsty pollinators.

Choose the best location for your pollinator garden

Once you’ve picked your preferred pollinator plants, it’s time to choose a location. Grouping plants together in clumps or mass plantings helps pollinators find food as they wander through the garden. Remember, bees and butterflies rely on eyesight to find food, so placing two or more plants together makes them easier to identify. This also helps birds, butterflies, bees and others conserve energy as they feed.

Choose plants with native roots when gardening for pollinators

Consider using plants with native roots to add the benefits of durability and sustainability. Plants native to your area are well adapted to local pollinator populations, making them easy choices! Proven Winners^® with native roots like Superlophus^™ Sunglow Oenothera, derived from native Texas primrose, and ‘Prairie Princess’ Vernonia, a trending native perennial, are beautiful and durable picks.

And don’t forget classic Proven Winners pollinator favorites like Vermillionaire^®Cuphea, Rockin’^® Playin’ the Blues^®Salvia, Truffula^® Pink Gomphrena, Suncredible^® Yellow Helianthus and the Luscious^®Lantana series.

Learn more

For more advice on creating the perfect pollinator garden, see more resources at Proven Winners: www.provenwinners.com/Gardening_for_Pollinators

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Observing birds in the winter

At daybreak, there are hundreds of robins above the sidewalks. Robins coming to town, leaving town, staying in town, and all of them are eating hackberry fruit — gobbling, gorging on hackberries (Celtis occidentalis). This is a bumper year, and birds know. Robin throats are busy with cheers and chirrs and yeeps and cucks, and there are cedar waxwings, too, whistling way up where the sun touches the tops of trees. I doubt birds can sound happier.

Every winter morning starts with a happy hour. Not just for me — happy to be out of bed and onto the sidewalk — but for the birds. After a long, cold and hungry night, they are ready for a breakfast buffet.

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Berries and plants birds love in my neighborhood

Here in my Nashville neighborhood, breakfast for robins is heavy on the hackberry but also Eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana), American holly (Ilex opaca), winterberry (Ilex verticillata), a few spicebushes (Lindera benzoin) and sumac (Rhus spp. and hybrids), and today I found some withered pokeweed (Phytolacca americana) on the interstate bridge. There is mistletoe (Arceuthobium spp.) in the American elms (Ulmus americana), Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) in the trash alley, coralberry (Symphoricarpos orbiculatus) in a neighbor’s yard and the black chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa) I planted in mine.

Robins and cedar waxwings don’t eat seeds, nor do Eastern bluebirds, hermit thrushes and other birds that need fruit and insects even in winter. They get what they need from native plant drupes and berries, and from all sorts of small creatures hosted in stem, leaf, bud, bark or gall. Winter hummingbirds pluck spiders from dead frostweed (Verbesina virginica). Golden-crowned kinglets glean prey from pine needles. Robins head-butt raked leaves to find snack after snack of overwintering insects, worms and other little invertebrates.

A daily practice of watching the birds

Watching birds gives me joy, but helping birds makes me happy. What’s the difference? Here’s the quote from Annie Dillard that convinced me: “Dedicate (donate, give all) your life to something larger than yourself and pleasure — to the largest thing you can… Happiness lies this way, and it beats pleasure hollow.”

My own “largest thing” is native habitat: to learn about it and to make more where I can. Too many sidewalks take me past silent, manicured turf and the usual exotic “foundation” shrubs that aren’t foundational to our local food web. I’ve learned that even the smallest effort can make big changes, and that what’s good for birds is good for all of us: the right food, clean water, enough space, a place to raise young. If birds ain’t happy, nobody’s happy.

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DIY Happy Hour for the birds

At home, our hackberry tree and three bird baths give robins a mini happy hour every morning. Birds gobble fruit, then grab a drink and a wash. Overhead, they carol — cheerily, cheery-up! — but on the ground, they squawk and call and sometimes fight. It is fascinating to see two robins face off at a bath: sidestepping, sizing up, then darting with open beaks like double daggers. And then a blue jay swoops from nowhere, and all the robins disappear, poof!

Provide a water source for birds in the winter

The baths are just plastic saucers in the driveway: another small effort that pays off big. As the sun comes up, I wait for a lull in traffic noise, then raise the kettle high to let warm water fall and splash. Birds can’t resist the sound of water. If the saucers freeze, I bring a refill, then watch steam rise as birds descend. What joy to see dozens of cedar waxwings appear at once, like magic, and crowd the rims of the saucers — a solid circle of birds on each — while they drink and drink, heads rising and dipping in sudden silence: no more high, sighing whistles until they flit back up to the trees, to the fruit, to the sunshine, happy.

Joanna, author of “This Is How a Robin Drinks: Essays on Urban Nature,” writes about everyday wonders in everyday habitat loss on Instagram @jo_brichetto and at SidewalkNature.com.

Snow bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis)

What do snow buntings look like?

High-contrast black and white plumage characterizes these Arctic birds. During the spring and summer breeding season, the male (shown above) is mostly white with black and white wings. Females and nonbreeding males are mostly white with brown markings around the face, wings and chest. Black beaks or brown beaks with black points punctuate their look. They’re slightly smaller than robins and spend most of their time on the ground eating insects and seeds.

Where you'll find them

These songbirds nest in the rocky areas of the Arctic tundra during the summer. The male uses a flight song display to mark territory and attract a mate, flying straight up and then singing while gliding down. After the spring and summer breeding season, they migrate south in midfall to the northern half of the United States, where they feed in fields and shorelines. They gather in flocks, sometimes with other bird species, and are often quite active, flying in short bursts overtop each other in an effect like snow blowing across a field. Look for them in places where the snow has blown away. In late winter, males return to the Arctic, and females follow in early spring.

How to attract snow bunting birds to your garden

In addition to their diet of insects, snow buntings prefer seeds from grasses and sedges. Because they forage on the ground, you won’t find them at the feeder, but maybe will spy them feeding below it. They’re more likely to congregate in larger open areas, so if you don’t have that space in your yard, keep an eye out for them on your next country drive or winter walk along a shoreline.

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Common redpoll (Acanthis flammea)

What do common redpoll birds look like?

These small songbirds have colorful patterned brown-and-white feathers with distinguished red markings. The males, above, have red crowns and chests, while the females and juveniles develop only red crowns. Black markings surround stout, pointy yellow beaks, and redpolls’ short tails have a small fork at the end. Songs are a combination of sharp chirps, trills and whistles.

Common redpoll habitat

These social birds breed in Northern Canada and Alaska in summer. In late fall they migrate in large groups to the northern United States and occasionally dip into the Midwest and East Coast when food is scarce. Small seeds, especially those of willow (Salix spp.), birch (Betula spp.) and alder (Alnus spp.) trees, and insects make up their diet. In winter, they’re commonly spotted feeding in masses near the edges of forests and in open fields and weedy ditches.

How to attract this songbird to your garden

If you live in their range, it’s likely that you’ll catch a glimpse of these bright little birds at your feeders or in your garden beds. Be sure to offer a bird feeder dedicated to smaller seeds, and don’t cut back your perennials and ornamental grasses in the fall. Leave the spent flowers standing to form seed, and they might become a chattering common redpoll’s next meal. 

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The lowdown on the fall garden cleanup

The days are getting shorter, the nights cooler; your plants are starting to wind down, and after the effort of growing a garden all spring and summer, you’re ready to rest too. But the sight of plants dying back and leaves falling spurs a plethora of different responses in gardeners. Do you go out for a final hurrah of tending the plants? Or do you simply sit back and let the garden put itself to bed? Is there really a method to the madness?

It’s safe to say there are many methods, backed by a variety of philosophies. So I asked several accomplished gardeners to share the details of their hows and whys of cleaning up the garden in the fall. Whether you want a habitat for wildlife, something nice and tidy, or a healthy environment for your plants to grow, you’ll probably find a gardener who aligns with your garden goals and habits.

From raking it all up to leaving it be, you’ll hear about one extreme to the other, and a little bit of everything in between—and there are good reasons for every approach. Read six widely variant responses, and you can rest assured about one thing: There’s no one right way to do it! Weigh the pros and cons presented here, and find which method is best for your garden’s needs.

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Prevent the possibility of pests with fall garden cleanup

David Trinklein | Associate Professor of Horticulture, University of Missouri

If you’ve fought the disheartening battle against pests and disease in the garden, then you might feel an urgency to keep them out. A professor of horticulture at the University of Missouri, Dr. David Trinklein practices integrated pest management (IPM), a comprehensive approach to controlling pests that seeks to reduce the use of pesticides.

No home for pests

Cleaning up the garden is key to not only removing infestations, but preventing invasions in the first place. Even if you think you don’t have a pest or disease problem, Dr. Trinklein says they are probably lurking unseen or nearby, and with the proper conditions, they can quickly multiply out of control. In his opinion, the garden needs to be thoroughly cleaned up in the fall, even if your garden is seemingly problem-free.

How clean is clean?

The main concern is that disease inoculum, pest eggs and larvae will make debris their home for the winter until they can emerge in full force in spring. So rake up all fallen leaves and debris, such as dead annuals and vegetables, and cut back all perennials to the crown. If there is any disease infecting the leaves or stems, like the peony (Paeonia spp. and hybrids) diseased with powdery mildew in the photo above, you want to remove any opportunity for it to spread or for borer pests to overwinter in pithy perennial stems. Compost dead material only if you are sure your compost pile gets hot enough to kill pests and disease (usually around 140 degrees F for multiple days). Use a compost thermometer to help you know. If you aren’t sure, bag up debris and dispose of it in the trash or city compost.

What about good bugs?

His final philosophy: We might do our pollinators a greater service by cleaning up the fall garden and taking steps to reduce the need for pesticides, which harms the pollinators in the end.

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Nurture beneficial pollinators

Sarah Foltz Jordan | Pollinator Conservation Specialist, Xerces Society

Sarah works to make her garden a pollinator habitat not just because of her work for the Xerces Society, but because of the entertainment value, too. Growing more native plants and creating a habitat for wildlife means her garden is alive with busy bees and butterflies. So how does she create a pollinator’s haven? To sum it up: Don’t bother cleaning up the garden at all.

Leave the leaves

Let your leaves be (even if they fall on the lawn). You can rake a light layer up to use as mulch in your beds if you’d prefer. Chopping leaves with your mower might harm queen bees and butterfly eggs, such as the red-banded hairstreak, whose larvae also eat the leaf litter. You might be concerned about smothering out patches of grass in your lawn. But it’s actually helpful to almost 70 percent of native bees who need access to bare ground to make nests.

A motto at Xerces: Every yard should have a dead log. Many species of bees, such as mason bees and leaf-cutter bees, use decaying wood in their habitat, as well as lady beetles, fireflies, butterfly pupae and many other beneficial insects.

To cut perennials, or not to cut perennials?

Another important shelter in the garden: your perennials. Leave as many stems as possible over the winter. Perennials with pithy stems, such as bee balm (Monarda spp. and hybrids), aster (Symphyotrichum spp. and hybrids) and goldenrod (Solidago spp. and hybrids), provide nesting sites for bees. As early as you can in spring, cut back stems at a variety of heights from 6 to 24 inches. Providing a fresh cut helps bees access the stems. As small carpenter bees, yellow-faced bees and leaf-cutter bees emerge from their overwintering sites, they’ll find easy access to the cut stems, where they can make nests and raise more bees. After cutting this once, don’t cut again for risk of removing nests. Notice in the photo how the sedum’s new growth is about to overtake the old stems.

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Know what you grow

Barbara Pleasant | Author of "Gardener’s Guide to Plant Diseases," "Gardener’s Bug Book" and More

Every garden is unique. That’s why Barbara, longtime gardener and author of books on garden pests and diseases and veggies, encourages concentrating on really knowing how to care for the plants you have in your garden.

Determine what you need to cut during fall cleanup

There is no one solution to keeping pests and disease out, so get to know which ones your plants and growing conditions are most susceptible to. Barbara prefers to leave most perennials standing through winter so spent stems can act as an umbrella over the crown of the plant. The tops of most perennials catch snow and shelter crowns from ice. She grows two varieties of bee balm and cuts her larger one back to a foot tall to provide enough winter protection but leaves her smaller variety uncut. Her woodland phlox (Phlox divaricata) often go through bouts of powdery mildew, some years severe, some years not at all. She keeps an eye on it but has come to trust that it’s going to be OK, so she doesn’t bother cleaning it up in the fall.

Leaf debris

Learn where pests overwinter: Cabbage worms, cabbage aphids and asparagus beetles overwinter in debris in and around the veggie garden. Remove dead material from the veggie bed and, as an extra caution, from perennial beds near the vegetables.

Cucumber beetles, Colorado potato beetles and squash bugs overwinter in bark crevices and old logs, so debris or not, some bugs may still be finding a place to live. But sometimes for Barbara, insects are a welcome sight because it means good bugs will be present, too. Leaf litter is home for pollinators and some species of snails, which attract and feed birds. Earthworms love leaves, too, and they’ll enhance the soil drainage as they break leaves down.

Make sure to mulch in fall

Teri Dunn Chace | Author of "Seeing Seeds," "How to Eradicate Invasive Plants" and More

Teri, avid gardener in New York and author, reminds all gardeners: Cleaning up the fall garden is not like cleaning up the living room. Your goal is not necessarily tidiness. Learn to appreciate the natural beauty of the fall and winter garden. Some flowers, such as coneflower (Echinacea spp. and hybrids), look amazing in the winter.

Don’t cut

In fact, Teri leaves all her perennials standing through the winter. The stems protect the plant, and if you’re growing any marginally hardy plants, as Teri often does, you’ll want that extra protection. If one of her perennials comes down with a disease, she removes the plant from the garden altogether. And, even after a first frost, a plant is still sending energy to the root system to fuel next year’s show, so cutting too soon can inhibit the plant’s performance next season.

Consider if plants are aggressive or invasive

As author of the book How to Eradicate Invasive Plants, Teri answers the question: Should you really leave the seedheads of aggressive or invasive plants? No, you should not. Remove flowers before seeds are formed and dispose of them in the trash. If you’re trying to completely remove an aggressive or invasive plant, fall is a good time to pull it. Energy levels are decreasing, and it has a harder time fighting back.

Leave no bare ground

Above all else, Teri emphasizes the importance of covering bare ground in the perennial bed. She uses mulch, which she makes herself. Her secret mulch recipe is to chop up fallen leaves and mix them with straw, leaving some leaves in piles for pollinators. This mix is relatively inexpensive, decomposes well and enriches the soil. Teri likes to mulch thickly, covering beds with 4 inches of mulch. A good layer of winter mulch can prevent aggressive plants from spreading — they’ll pounce on open ground in spring — and can help protect marginally hardy plants through the cold days. An extra perk of a nice layer of mulch in fall: It looks tidy.

Utilize perennial ground covers

Another option instead of mulch is to cover bare ground with a fast-growing but easy-to-remove perennial ground cover. Lamb’s ear (Stachys byzantina) works well in her garden. It covers a lot of space while she waits for slower-growing plants and shrubs to fill in, looks good with everything and is easily removed when she needs more room for other plants.

Clean up the fall garden over time

Alan Branhagen | Director of Operations, Minnesota Landscape Arboretum

Cleaning up the garden in the fall is a lot of work, but saving it all for spring can be just as exhausting. Alan’s advice: Don’t make a chore out of cleaning up the fall garden.

Cut down plants only when you need to

Instead of rushing out to clean it all at once, leave perennials standing. Don’t worry about cleaning them up until the stems start to flop with wind or snow, or the plant in general becomes an eyesore. Some perennials are nice to look at even as their stems turn yellow, but when it’s not so nice anymore, go ahead and cut them back. It’s fine to cut perennials in winter as long as you only cut them back to 1 foot tall. The leftover stems protect plants and provide a spot for nesting bees.

Bundle up and enjoy the process

One of Alan’s reasons for cleaning up the garden slowly is that it gives him a reason to enjoy the outdoors in the winter. If that seems shocking, Alan, who mostly gardened in Missouri until his recent move to Minnesota, says even a chilly winter garden can be enjoyed as long as you wear the right clothing! Another of his favorite parts of the winter garden is to attract birds.

Birds will come

Birds do love the nutrition from seedheads left through the winter, but some birds also love leaf litter. Alan recommends leaving leaves in the perennial bed for the sake of pollinators, but also for the birds, such as white-throated sparrows and Eastern towhees, who scratch through leaves to snack on grubs. Some leaves, such as oak (Quercus spp.), which roll up and decompose quickly, or honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos inermis), with small leaflets, can be left whole in the garden without a worry.

But other trees, such as Norway maple (Acer platanoides) and ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba), take longer to decompose and can stick together, suppressing plants and lawn. Either plan to chop these leaves up with a mower before leaving them in your garden or avoid growing them at all.

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Enjoy the winter garden

Bobbie Schwartz | Landscape Designer and Author of "Garden Renovation: Transform Your Yard into the Garden of Your Dreams"

For many years, Bobbie has been working with gardeners in Ohio to help them design dream gardens and equip them with knowledge so that they can become great gardeners. Here’s a secret about Bobbie: She actually doesn’t like the term “fall garden cleanup” at all. Instead, she prefers to preserve the fall garden so that it looks good in winter.

Don’t rake the leaves in fall

Once again, fallen leaves are an important part of the garden — they are Mother Nature’s way of nurturing the soil. It may take longer than a season, but insects and microbes gradually break down the fallen leaves into a valuable humus for your soil. Don’t bother shredding them, but covering leaves with a thin layer of mulch helps hurry decomposition a bit. Only worry about raking thick piles of leaves gently away from ground cover perennials to keep them from getting smothered.

Add winter interest and protection

Not only do perennials and ornamental grasses feed and protect wildlife, they also provide incredible form and texture in winter and fall, especially when covered in snow. Don’t cut them back and they’ll serve as a visual reminder that the garden isn’t dead! The only exception is for disease. Cut the diseased stems back to the basal foliage and leave the healthy stems. Most ornamental grasses should be cut back in spring, except for bluegrasses — just comb out the dead leaves with your fingers in spring.

What about the common concern that certain plants, such as brunnera (Brunnera macrophylla), won’t be able to emerge through dead foliage in spring, or bearded iris will become infested with insects if uncut? Bobbie has never had a problem with plants emerging, and instead of growing bearded iris, she grows Siberian iris (Iris sibirica). It blooms longer, needs less maintenance and has interesting seedheads and bronzy foliage, which you can see in the photo above, in winter. If you cut back perennials in the fall, you might miss a plant’s subtle beauty in winter.

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Hosting butterflies on the doorstep

Walking out the door one September morning, I saw a tiny black blip at my feet. It was the final molt of a pipevine swallowtail caterpillar, the old, squashed skin (and face!) that drops when a butterfly caterpillar becomes a chrysalis. So, I looked up. And there was the chrysalis, fresh and glistening, hanging from a brick above my head. But the best part was when I made my kid look at the black blip, and then he too looked up to find the butterfly-in-progress who dropped it. He knew.

The fascinating relationship between host plants and butterflies

The little wad of caterpillar skin tells a big story: the story of a native plant and animal interaction, and of the astonishing specificity of a larval host plant. Here, the plant is wooly pipevine (Aristolochia tomentosa), and the larva is the caterpillar of a pipevine swallowtail butterfly (Battus philenor). Pipevines, also known as Dutchman’s pipe, are the only plants a pipevine swallowtail will lay eggs on because that’s what her caterpillars can eat. The plant and animal evolved together in the habitat native to this place, Nashville, Tennessee. This is why I grow plants that make new butterflies. And why my boy and I knew what the blip was.

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How to make a butterfly

A butterfly host plant at the door means we get to see, just by taking a step outside, every stage of a butterfly life cycle. It’s an ideal show-and-tell for what a host plant does. We can watch as a fluttering pipevine swallowtail mom extrudes one tiny orange egg at a time, her abdomen curved to aim at a leaf just so. We can see the hatchlings emerge, watch them eat their own eggshell, and then start eating the leaf. When they get bigger, we can even hear them munch! With a host plant, leaf damage is a good thing.

Best of all, we get to see a caterpillar become a chrysalis, and a chrysalis become a butterfly. When I showed my mom the pipevine action, she freaked. I’d been talking about host plants for years, but she’d never witnessed proof. “You should tell people,” she yelled, “people who want to make butterflies! They can just plant this vine!”

Every butterfly species needs particular food plants for the larval stage, as do 90 percent of all insects that eat plants. They are specialists. Monarch butterflies are a famous example; they cannot reproduce without milkweeds (Asclepias spp.). But all specialists have adapted to digest particular chemicals in certain plant families, genera or species. This is why every butterfly garden needs not just nectar plants for adults, but also caterpillar host plants for babies.

For example, one of the easiest species to “make” at home is black swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes). Its range is huge, and the caterpillars eat plants in the carrot family — also huge — which includes not only the gorgeous native perennial golden Alexander (Zizia aurea), but related, non-native herbs, such as parsley (Petroselinum crispum), fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) and dill (Anethum graveolens). Other easy show-and-tell species are Gulf fritillary and variegated fritillary butterflies, which use passion flowers (Passiflora spp.) native to your area.

Keep an eye out for an overwintering chrysalis

Note that if a swallowtail caterpillar becomes a chrysalis late in the fall, it’ll overwinter to emerge in spring. Larvae abandon their host plants when it’s time to pupate, so there could be a camouflaged chrysalis on any random stem (or porch brick), or even down in the leaf litter. And because butterflies overwinter as either eggs, larvae, pupae, or adults, they all need protection from pesticides, leaf blowers and excessive tidying, so that each big story can get the happy ending and new beginning it deserves.

Joanna, author of This Is How a Robin Drinks: Essays on Urban Nature, knows that trees and shrubs can make butterflies too, but they aren’t as convenient for show-and-tells that freak people out. Follow her blog at sidewalknature.com.

Sleepy orange butterfly (Abaeis nicippe)

A small, glowy orange butterfly with striking thick brown margins gets its name from faint curving marks that look to some like closed eyes on the center edge of the forewing.

How to identify sleepy orange butterfly

The yellow undersides of the 1½- to 2¼-inch-wide wings show various blurry brown and black markings. In the cooler months, the yellow color deepens to rust. Both the male and the female butterfly look very similar.

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Life cycle

Females lay slender oblong eggs on host plants in the pea family. Caterpillars are green with a slight blue cast and have short, fine white hairs and a long, creamy white stripe on either side. Chrysalises have long, pointed ends and are often green, but can be a range of colors, including dark brown.

Habitat of sleepy orange butterfly

During summer months, you might see sleepy orange butterflies in the southern half of the United States. In winter they migrate further south, into Central America.

What they eat in the garden

The caterpillars feed on Southern natives, such as sensitive partridge pea (Chamaecrista nictitans) and wild senna (Senna hebecarpa). The butterflies tend to be active in open fields and along waterways, and frequently feed on minerals on wet soil and in mud puddles. Any source of nectar suits their fancy.

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Bird nesting boxes bring big benefits to the garden

Placing nesting boxes around your garden is a great way to encourage feathery friends to start a family there. With more birds in the yard, you’ll enjoy the benefits of these little garden helpers as they eat unwanted insects, munch on pesky weed seeds and help pollinate your flowers. Plus, watching them build their nests and raise chicks is great entertainment!

We spoke with Robyn Bailey, NestWatch Project Leader at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in New York, about how you can make your birdhouses safe and welcoming nesting boxes for the birds you want to host. She said that different species of birds prefer different house styles and locations and shared a few things to keep in mind as you decide what works best!

Tips for cleaning out bird nesting boxes

Clean out nesting boxes once a year before breeding season starts (by February in the South and mid-March in the North) or at the end of summer when it’s over. Since bird nests are susceptible to parasites and diseases, it’s a good idea to wear gloves and toss old nests and debris in the garbage rather than the compost.

Once you’ve cleared a box, scrub it with a mixture of 1 part bleach to 9 parts water and give it a good rinse. The type of birds who are visiting and nesting in your yard will determine whether or not you should add any nest materials. Some birds, such as American kestrel, northern flicker, chickadees and owls, appreciate a layer of wood shavings in the bottom of the box, but most birds prefer to find their own nest materials.

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To paint or not to paint a bird nesting box?

It’s not necessary. For protection from predators, a nesting box that blends into its surroundings is usually best. But painting the outside of a box white to reflect the sun helps control temperatures. If you do want to paint, use nontoxic acrylic or latex paint or wood stain on the exterior and leave the inside unfinished.

What makes a good nesting box?

1. For most houses, a sloped roof with a 2- to 4-inch overhang will keep the inside dry and predators away by limiting their reach to the entrance hole.
   
2. Add some drainage holes to the floor of the nesting box in case it does get wet inside.
   
3. The nesting box should have ¾-inch-thick walls and a ⅝-inch hole on each of the side walls near the top of the box; these are important for ventilation and keeping temperatures regulated.
   
4. Finally, skip the perch outside the entrance — it just acts as an invitation for predators.
   

Right bird, right nesting box

The style of the house and the size of the entrance hole and house will determine which type of bird might take up residence. Check out a sampling of nesting box types below:

• House wrens prefer a round 1-inch hole.
  
• Purple martins nest in colonies but prefer houses that are 60 feet away from nearby buildings. Mount a purple martin house on a pole 10 to 15 feet tall.
  
• American robins utilize nesting shelves mounted in a sheltered spot.
  
• Mourning doves nest in the open — make a basket of hardware cloth and place it in a forked branch or on top of an arbor.
  
• If invasive house sparrows are a problem in your yard, only provide houses with the smallest entrance holes since these birds will move into anything 1¼ inch in diameter and larger.
  

Learn all the information you need to know about each bird’s specific birdhouse requirements and more (including how to predator-proof). Visit nestwatch.org to learn more!

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Which birds will visit my nesting box?

Keep an eye out for these common North American birds in your yard. Grab a bird field guide and start tracking which feathered friends are frequenting your area:

• American kestrel
• Barn swallow
• Chickadee
• Flycatcher
• Mourning dove
• Northern flicker
• Nuthatch
• Owl
• Purple martin
• Robin
• Tufted titmouse
• Warbler
• Wren

Keep spacing & height of bird nesting boxes in mind

Many birds prefer to nest 20 feet or more from another bird of the same species, but don’t seem to mind if other species nest nearby, as long as they aren’t predatory, such as owls.

Songbirds like chickadees and wrens are happy to have their nesting boxes at a convenient height for humans to reach for cleaning and mounting. However, some birds prefer a height that’s a little more difficult to access: Owls and wood ducks prefer to nest 10 to 30 feet above ground.

Did you know?

Cornell’s research has shown that a predator guard placed on the pole or tree can improve the odds of a nest succeeding by 7%!

Where NOT to put a bird nesting box

Skip these spots when you’re looking for real estate for your feathered friends:

• Next to bird feeders and birdbaths. This makes them an easy target for predators, such as cats and raccoons, which frequent these spots.
• High-traffic areas close to the mailbox or the front door. Even though some birds, such as Carolina wren, happily build nests in those spots, others, such as tufted titmouse, are shy and prefer to be farther away from people.
• Near drainpipes, an overhang or gutters. They’re too easy for predators to climb.
  

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Switchgrass has many natural benefits

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum and hybrids) is a great alternative to non-native ornamental grasses, such as maiden grass. Songbirds, ducks and gamebirds eat the seeds, and the dried foliage provides cover and nesting material. Massed plantings of switchgrass also create a protective habitat for small mammals. It’s even a host plant to several species of butterflies!

This hardy native warm-season grass blooms as days lengthen in the summer. The airy flower panicles develop yellow, pink or purple seedheads, depending on the cultivar. As fall arrives with cooler temperatures and shorter days, many switchgrass varieties’ leaf blades transform from green or blue-green to gold, red or burgundy. A beautiful addition to any garden, learn more about four butterflies that rely on switchgrass as a larval host plant below.

Grow switchgrass as a larval host plant in your garden

Switchgrass is the larval host plant for the four butterfly species shown on the lettered graphic above. Adult butterflies lay their eggs on the leaf blades, and the hatched caterpillars feed on the foliage. Find information about each butterfly’s range below to learn which species you can support by planting switchgrass in your garden.

• A) Arogos skipper (Atrytone arogos)
  Range: Isolated colonies in the Midwest from North Dakota to Texas, and in states along the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.

• B) Delaware skipper (Anatrytone logan)
  Range: All of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains.

• C) Hobomok skipper (Poanes hobomok)
  Range: Most of the United States north of Oklahoma east of the Rocky Mountains and into southern Canada.

• D) Northern broken-dash (Wallengrenia egeremet)
  Range: All of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains.

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