Why xeriscape to attract hummingbirds, butterflies, and/or bees? The importance of providing safe habitats for butterflies, hummingbirds, and other assorted creatures, including yourself .

The importance of providing both Nectar and Larval foods for butterflies; Least hassle combinations of Nectar and Larval foods; Combinations of Nectar and Larval foods for diverse butterflies

Plants to repel pests but attract butterflies; plant trivia; Nectar and Larval foods for particular butterflies

Nectar foods for butterflies that for the most part also attract hummingbirds and are drought-tolerant, low maintenance; and, Larval foods for butterflies that are drought-tolerant, low maintenance and for the most part also attract hummingbirds

How did I get interested in all this? My Mom .
My mother's thumbs are so neon green anyone within a 42-yard radius can read by their glow. She can grow anything. Dad used to say that her plants grew so well they were going to overrrun the house and strangle him in his sleep. When my houseplants have taken all the abuse they can and are on their last root I take them to her and she nurses the green back into their cheeks. When TLC doesn't work she has a method that -- albeit contrary to her nature -- works! For example, when her African violets aren't blooming very well, despite they're in the care of the African Violet Queen, she tells them "Bloom, or I'm thowing you in the trash." Well, guess what.
So what does Mom's dedicated green thumbs have to do with my interest in xeriscaping?
Well, my thumbs are so black anyone within a 42-yard radius thinks I have gangrene. For every watering-, fertilizing-, nuturing-, pruning-ability she has, I have the opposite ability.
Unfortunately, I did inherit her love for plants and flowers, but not the fortune it would cost to keep replacing the plants I kill. I have to use plants that grow without me and/or despite me.
Her love of hummingbirds also infected me. But while she is vigilant in refreshing their sugar water (1 part sugar to 4 parts water, boiled, cooled, NO RED COLORING , put in a thoroughly cleansed, if not sterilized, hummingbird feeder) so that it doesn't spoil. Despite my good intentions, I fail at that, poor hummers.
So what is a flop like me to do? Xeriscape with plants that will feed hummingbirds for me! Many of the plants on Donald Burger's hummingbird-attracting plant list , i.e., Giant Turk's Cap (Malvaviscus arboreus) ; Lantana (Lantana camara) ; Salvia ; and, Trumpet vine (Campsis radicans) , are also drought-resistant, low-maintenance flowers.
The added bonus is that half of these plants also attract butterflies. So why not also garden with xeriscape plants that butterflies can lay eggs on and catepillars can eat so that they may become an addition to our rapidly dwindling butterfly population? After all, is it possible to grow a flower more beautiful than a butterfly or a child smiling at a butterfly? It's up to us to intercede and provide butterflies a chance to live in this ever more herbicidal, pesticidal, increasingly-everything-cidal toxic world. Your grandchildren need butterflies ( Remember that even if you're only currently four years old. Remember the most foreboding warning Dr. Suess's "The Lorax" could give to us..."Unless." Be a Lorax -- speak for the trees...and the birds, and the fish, and the air...and the... )

National Wildlife Federation's " What You Can Do About the Pollination Crisis" and "Create a Pollinator Garden "

Fort Worth Star Telegram's " Going native: Some plants actually flourish under the punishing Texas sun "

Butterflies in Literature:

"Over the Hedge" Sunday clip

To The Sunflower Patch

The Butterfly Seeds

Hummingbirds

Courtesy of the Hummingbird Web Site designed and maintained by Larry & Terrie Gates

Behavior | Legends & Lore | Nests & Babies | Identification Tips

Color | Resources & Links | Hummer World Book Store | Videos | Pictures of Seventeen Species | Questions & Answers

Other loves in Mom's life:

Twin granddaughters (She says she has to kiss the pocket right between their eyebrows because the pocket is "Whoville" and only she can hear them begging "Kiss me! Kiss Me!";
Dad ;
me ;
the other half of me ;
looking at/taking photos of all of the above;
family and friends ;
family history ;
sitting in on my Hitchhiker Parties at the End of the Universe and listening to my friends singing and or lip-synching at said parties;
and, china tea cups that feel good in your hand.

She's not so crazy about emus anymore, unless it's as a fat-free, disease and chemical free, heart-healthy roast (buy a hollowed out emu egg from us and maybe she'll feel better).


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