Beautiful Brad. :) I'm going to go spend time oogling the rest of the pictures. LoL Love pictures! ;)

~Tina

Great plants, Brad. You are another success story at Winter Sowing!

Your Soapwort is really unusual. I like it. Does it get much butterfly action?

I love my WSed Tropical Milkweed. I saw a female Monarch the other day and haven't even had time at home to check for eggs. I hope to raise some more this year.

It is so dry here that I was worried that we wouldn't get any Monarchs.

Looks like you have a beautiful butterfly garden this year. How is your butterfly bush doing?

Betty

Thank you Tina and Betty!

Betty, I haven't seen any butterflies yet on the soapwort. Congrats on seeing the Monarch! I hope you do find eggs! My butterfly bush is doing great. We're going to transplant it next month when we do some garden rearranging since the Red Prince weigela we have isn't doing so well. Who knows what I'll plant in the spot my BB is currently in? Maybe another BB or a sweet autumn clematis. Too many choices! lol

Brad AKA Moonwolf

Just beautiful, Brad!
I've never planted soapwort, and I've never even seen asters like that, but they're so pretty!
Sherry

Brad, thanks for sharing the photos of your plants. It's great to hear that you are seeing butterflies in your neck of the woods! Don't give up on the BB yet. They are the absolute fav of all the butterflies in my garden.

Sandy

Thank you Sherry and Sandy!

Sherry, belive it or not, I got the aster seeds at the dollar store! I read in one of my gardening books that annual asters are not true asters! However, these are very easy to grow so I highly reccommend them!

Sandy, you're welcome! I'm always happy to share pictures! Oh it's not my BB that's in trouble, it's a weigela (Red Prince) shrub we planted a few years ago that's looking a little weakened. The hummingbirds like it though.

Brad AKA Moonwolf

My soapwort was invasive and had to go.
VB and trop milkweed are the best.

Gorgeous pics, Brad - thanks for sharing! I have been thinking about planting some Soapwort, too. Is that also known as Bouncing Bet? I have heard that the sphinx moths love to nectar on it.

I agree with you on the Tropical Milkweed and the Verbena bonariensis. I had less of a population of it this year, so I have been spending a lot of time scattering seeds around the garden when I deadhead them.

Other great nectar plants include Cosmos, especially Cosmic Orange, and Mexican Sunflowers (Tithonia). I really like the Fiesta del Sol much better than the species because it doesn't get as tall and out of control.

Susan

Susan, how do you decide when to deadhead the Verbena?
Does it shoot out new stalks when you deadhead?

Thanks for sharing your pictures Brad!