Two houses up from us live these wonderful people who help raise and protect monarch butterflies. This means that on our block and in the surrounding neighborhood, there are monarchs. Nearly year-round. Like I just said, wonderful people.
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| Monarch on Heliotrope, April 10th, 2026 |
I am not so wonderful. (True confessions here: I don't really like to grow milkweed plants in my garden. Those non-native orange aphids just creep me out.)
I prefer to grow plants that feed the adult butterflies, who then go on to make new baby butterflies. A different "circle of life". After a few years of observation, I have found that there are two plants that 1) I love; 2) the butterflies and other insect-types love; 3) are easy to grow and bloom year-round (especially the heliotrope); and 4) don't need gallons of water to thrive.
They are Heliotrope, especially the white version (Heliotropium arborescens 'Alba') and Verbena Bonariensis. Now one entirely valid criticism of both these plants is that they are non-natives. True. So am I a non-native. But they do the job, probably better than I could ever do.