Van Dycks

Hardy Tall Phlox 'All In One'
Item # 65494 Butterfly Bush 'Royal Red'
Item # 64372 Blue Sea Holly
Item # 64189 Gaillardia Burgundy
Item # 61369 Gaillardia 'Oranges & Lemons'
Item # 61365 Astrantia Moulin Rouge
Item # 62635 Coneflower Jade
Item # 64985 Coneflower Sunset
Item # 64991 Coneflower Magnus
Item # 64814

Imagine sitting in your garden hearing the lovely song of a chirping bird or seeing the erratic progress of butterflies as they flutter from flower to flower. There are many things you can do to ensure that your garden will be rich enough to bring this kind of joy to your home for many years to come. One is adding a few of the flowers listed below. The other is providing plenty of food, water, nesting sites and protection for these small creatures.

Lets start with food. During the growing season it is easy for birds, of all kinds, to find food. From worms and insects to seeds and berries everything is readily available. That is until the dreaded winter rolls around and food is scarce. Most birds migrate south for the winter but adding birdseed and suet cakes to your backyard will ensure resident birds are able to ride out the chilly weather.

Butterflies will sip the nectar from each and every butterfly friendly plant in your garden. All the while aiding in the pollination of these beautiful flowers. They are a joy to watch as they bounce around from bloom to bloom. Here's a tip, plant your butterfly friendly blooms in clusters so they are easier to see from the air.

A small birdbath can easily provide drinking and bathing water for these little gems. Be sure to place yours near a sunny, protected area so hunters, like the next-door neighbors cat, don't get any ideas. The fountains, ponds, and streams on your property are also excellent sources for water.

Birds and especially butterflies need a safe nesting site and protection for their young to thrive. Evergreen and deciduous trees with leafy branches can screen a birds nest from predators' view while at the same time protecting young butterflies until their wings dry enough to fly. As an added bonus, they also beautify your winter garden.

In return for your hospitality, birds and butterflies are a constant source of entertainment. Their melodious song, silly attitude and remarkable beauty will keep you amused for hours. They also eat their weight in mosquitoes, beetles, and a host of other garden pests.

Here are a few plants that are guaranteed to add the life, sound and beauty of birds and butterflies to your garden.

Tall hardy phlox 'All in One' blooms in profusion with huge 5-6” flower heads. The lilac-lavender flowers are an unusual bi-color variety with white edges surrounding each petal. An excellent cut flower and deer resistant their fragrance and color will add to your summer garden. Perfect for zones 3-8.

Butterfly bush (Buddleia sp.) is, as its name suggests, a butterfly magnet. A particularly beautiful variety is B. davidii 'Royal Red', which has tiny reddish-violet blossoms tightly packed along long, dense trusses. Lightly scented, flowering from June until frost. The shrub has dainty, willow-like grey-green foliage and grows 6-8 feet tall. Lovely!

Butterfly plant, butterfly weed and milkweed (Asclepias sp.) are all common names for an essential host plant for Monarch butterflies. Don't be fooled by the word “weed”; they are low maintenance, garden worthy perennials. A. incarnata , has rosy pink flowers and A. i. 'Ice Ballet', has flowers of snowy white. Plant them in full sun to partial shade and they will reward you with beautiful flowers from June-July. The seed heads that follow are also attractive, to both you and the visiting butterflies.

Hummingbirds visit many of the same flowers as butterflies, though their long, narrow, pointed beaks are specially designed to allow them to draw nectar from tubular shaped blossoms. One of these, hardy fuchsia, F. magellanica, are especially tantalizing to hummingbirds. They are covered with dainty and colorful hanging blossoms with prominent stamens. 'Madame Cornelissen', sports fuchsia-pink outer petals with white centers and rose-pink stamens. 'Ricartonii' is bright red on the outside, with shocking purple center petals and brilliant red stamens.

Blue sea holly, Eryngium alpimum, has unusual, thistle-like flowers with pincushion centers. The steel-blue blossoms are very long-lasting, whether used in a vase as a cut flower or dried for a seasonal arrangement. Plants grow 18-30 inches tall from July to frost in zones 4-7.

Blanket flowers (Gaillardia sp.) are versatile daisy-like flowers that are at home in poor, dry soil as well as in rock gardens. They bloom prolifically on 12-24 inches tall plants from June to September in zones 3-10, and produce many seeds. 'Burgundy' , has reddish-burgundy flowers with a yellow eye. New this year is 'Oranges & Lemons', whose flowers are lemon yellow with bright orange centers.

Yellow pincushion flower, Scabiosa ochroleuca , is also new this year and quite different from the better-known pink and blue pincushion flowers. This plant is 18-30 inches tall and sports bright yellow ruffled petals all summer and into fall. Perfect for zones 3-9.

Check out Astrantia 'Moulin Rouge' it has unusual dark red flowers with purple-red tips. Hardy in zones 4-7, it will grow 16 to 18 inches tall and, like the others, will bloom from June to September.

Another new plant for 2007 is Silene robotii 'Rolly's Favourite'. Lovely, rich pink blossoms top low mounds of dark green foliage. Height 16-18 inches tall. Plants are hardy in zones 5-9

Spice up your garden with the airy blossoms of Perovskia 'Little Spire'. A shorter version of the award-winning Russian sage at 25 inches tall. 'Little Spire' is just as delightful. It has blue-green foliage with fragrant blue flowers that look impossibly delicate.

Probably among our most popular native plants, the coneflowers (Echinacea sp.), are very attractive to both butterflies and birds. Lately, there have been many new introductions that have expanded the color range of these hardy flowers and given us beautiful new choices. Coneflowers are stately plants that are easy to grow, low maintenance once established, and often have a rose-like fragrance. Flowers appear in July to September in zones 3-9. 'Jade' has dramatic white flowers whose petals are tipped with green and whose cone-shaped center is the color of jade. Plants grow 25 to 30 inches tall.  'Sunset', as you might imagine, has warm, russet-orange flowers with prominent brownish central cones. It grows 32-36 inches tall. Probably the most popular of the magenta colored coneflowers is 'Magnus', whose rose-red petals are set off by striking dark button eyes. Chosen as the 1998 Perennial Plant of the Year by the Perennial Plant Association because of its outstanding characteristics, it grows 24 to 36 inches tall.

As you can see, it is easy to fill your garden with plants that are attractive to you as well as nature's precious birds and butterflies. They will entertain you all season long. Now you can have the garden of your dreams, while providing safe habitat for these beautiful creatures. Invite some of these little gems into your garden today.