Did i mention that Rusty Patched Bumblebees visit my yard? The worst part about this battle is that it will cause the pollinators to suffer.
30 observation in my garden Observations · iNaturalist
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So first, I’d tell your neighbor to pound sand (politely). His mouse problem is his problem and your wildflowers aren’t contributing to it.
I’d look for native wildflowers that tend to stay in place, stay a bit shorter, and are ones that are occasionally found in garden centers. Also sticking to more manicured looking plantings versus mixed prairie style habitats, it looks more intentional to people that aren’t as in to native plants.
Anyway, a small but non-comprehensive list of plants that I’ve found the pollinators love but are a little more well behaved. (I see you already have coneflower though)
Conoclinium coelestinum // Blue Mistflower - blooms for ages and the pollinators love them
Liatris spicata // Dense Blazing Star
Baptisia australis // Wild False Blue Indigo
Chamaecrista fasciculata // Partridge Pea - native annual but reseeds, stays short, and has extrafloral nectaries and the pollinators ADORE them
Penstamon digitalis // foxglove beardtongue - or really, any penstamon. Pick one.
Columbine canadensis // red columbine
Asclepias tuberosa // butterfly milkweed
Tradescantia ohioensis // Ohio spiderwort
Lilium michiganense // Michigan Lily - it’s a lily. There’s zero way they can be mad about this
Clematis virginia // Virgin’s Bower - Okay this one comes with an asterisk. You probably want a male (so it doesn’t escape) and you want to grow it where it can climb - but holy moly this plant was the most insane pollinator magnet in my garden this year. The entire time it bloomed it was absolutey covered in bees, wasps, moths, etc. IIRC it even hosts some pretty neat native moths.
I have to run but I may have some more suggestions later. One last thought though - you have proof that you have rusty patches visiting. As these are a critically endangered species, I find myself wondering if there’s anything you could do to protect your garden as a critical habitat. You might try reaching out to some local conservation organizations.
EDIT: I’d probably basically avoid most Solidago, Symphyotrichum (except maybe S. novae-angliae) and some of the really tall prarie genera like Vernonia, Eutrochium, or Silphium
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Thank you for the plant list. The good news is i have some of those plants, Liatris, Penstamon, B.milkweed, Ohio Spiderwort.
What can you tell me about Blue Mistflower? I was thinking of planting some in the front yard, but i read that they spread aggressively. How tall do they get? When do they start and stop blooming?
I agree, my silphiums and Asters might have to go for various reasons including their size.
Yeah, I figured you might have some of those already.
Regarding the mistflower - full disclosure first, I only planted mine last year so it really hasn’t gotten to the ‘leap’ stage. It mostly maxed out around 2 feet this year - I’m sure it will spread and get a bit taller in the future, realistically, that’s why I planted it. That said, from everything that i’ve read, it’s spready but not terribly difficult to pull up - it seems to be one of those plants that once you pull it, it’s pulled, and doesn’t require you excavating every tiny bit of rhizome to get rid of it.
Basically, it seems like it behaves more like monarda (spready but easy to control) than something like mugwort (if you don’t get every single rhizome it’s never going away.)
Whether or not that is okay is going to be dependant on how neat you want the garden to look - I’m a bit of a chaos gardener, so I really don’t mind - I’ve basically let wild violets fill in anywhere I don’t have something intentionally planted to serve as a bit of natural mulch and extra flowers for early spring pollinators. (Also it doesn’t hurt that my county has a HUGE native plant push so I’m unlikely to receive pushback)
As far as bloom time goes, mine probably started blooming sometimes in august and kept going through like… november almost? It was probably the last thing blooming in the garden and had an extremely long bloom time, and especially in the fall basically always had butterflies on it.
Ladybird Johnson center has more details - https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=coco13. Heigh wise, they say typically ~3ft though it can get taller.
https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=AGAL5 white snake root might not be another bad choice. It CAN get tall but I usually see it much shorter - boneset has similar flowers but seems to like getting tall and top-heavy
https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=ANNE another one I thought of was the various Antennaria sp. // pussy toes; they leaves are functionally ground cover that LOVE getting blasted by the sun (I have them in the driest part of my flowerbed and they thrive) and they put out long flower stalks that top out at around 8". I’ve seen some people near me with monoculture plantings of them in terraced gardens and the talls flower stalks make for a really neat effect when they’re in bloom.
The various Monarda are also one I would plant, especially the ones that like to form clumps; they can be spready but they’re really easy to pull.
A really cool one I manage to get my hands on is Limber Honeysuckle // Lonicera dioca. It’s a bit of a climber, again, though not a big one so a simple trellis would be enough to support it. But they get really pretty flowers, have intersting foliage, and once the flowers are done the berries persist for a while and offer some really nice color (Plus you know, food for the birds!) https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=LODI2
What about some small native shrubs/trees also? Things like service berry, redbud, various dogwoods, etc. Serviceberry especially has a CLOUD of flowers in the spring, and then has berries that continue to feed the wildlife throughout the year - and who is really going to object to small bushes?
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Sounds like others are giving good replies to the ordinance side of this, in general for annuals that attract pollinators I will suggest basil, sunflowers (though if height’s the problem, you’d want to look for dwarf varieties, there are a few that are <3ft tall, make sure they are pollen-producing), tomatillo (4 specialist bee species), jewelweed (Impatiens capensis), fleabane (Erigeron), indian tobacco (Lobelia inflata), nightshade (Solanum), and partridge pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata).
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Many years ago, some Blue Mist (flower) plants showed up in our front yard. We’re in a very suburban area (and our city has enacted some annoying restrictions but not as bad as your situation). Anyway, the Blue Mist plants did spread “enthusiastically” but not what I could call aggressively. Note that our front yard faces SE and we have 3 large oaks overhead and 4 tall pines. And the many “mid-story” trees I planted 15-20 years ago are now growing well.
But the area gets a good 5+ hours of direct sunlight in the afternoon - enough for me to grow a large contingent of “sun” perennials.
And then ……. for the past few years, we’ve had some serious droughts or otherwise month-long drier spells, and I noticed this past autumn that the number of Bl Mist stems was way down. I was very disappointed but this is part of the cycle. I did not collect seeds this time but if the pattern persists this coming season, I will. I love the plant.
I would suggest you give it a try. Also, I don’t really see how anyone could ever complain about a Blue Mist Flower. It is the sort of plant that when you see a pack of them, you can’t help but feel more calm and at peace with the world.
I don’t normally recommend Verbena but I nurse a few stems each year. As an annual it can be pretty aggressive. But it’s also a real magnet for certain pollinators around here and this is why I maintain the few that come back each year (one of the plants that does ok in the mortar lines of our brick patio out back).
As you and others have mentioned, I’ve had a lot of pollinator visits to Asclepias tuberosa, Zinnia, Marigold… I will mention Lantana b/c although it is a “perennial” for some reason in my hands, it is annual. And anyway, they don’t spread at all down here but attract so many bees, butterflies and more. And they can be grown as a very short plant.
Congrats on the Rusty-patched BB. That’s a pretty amazing thing to have going on and I’m quite envious.
At my end, I monitor American Bumblebee and the US FWS just announced a full-species status assessment, with a look to splitting out the Sonoran population to full species. Note that the compilers of this assessment stated in their notification that they are using data from other sources such as iNaturalist (and surely Xerces/Bumblebee Watch).
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If they specify the height limit with a precision of 100µm, they have not given this regulation a reality check. That is about 1.2 hairsbreadths.
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