The Grand Garden Show on Mackinac Island

Last month my husband graciously attended The Grand Garden Show on Mackinac Island with me.  It was a lovely experience all around.  The historic hotel was beautiful, the food was excellent, the garden classes were fun and the garden tours were inspiring.  As we approached the hotel, we experienced this long flower bed that was covered with hundreds of Monarch butterflies.  Unfortunately I waited to take a photo until the last day when it was raining and the butterflies were absent, but when the sun was out it was magical to see so many butterflies all together.

Here is a shot of a dozen butterflies on a single plant in one of the gardens on tour.  In this post I'll share photos of some of the gardens we toured in the afternoons.

Several homes on the west bluff featured bright annual gardens in front.  At the rear of the photo the Grand Hotel is visible.

This little flower garden was adorable.  I love the lavender salvia, mixed petunias and peachy-orange dahlias together.  The warm-colored petunias at bottom are Honey Supertunias, which I grew in pots this year.  They were good performers and you can see they add a new color to the assortment of petunias.

This garden featured many bright plantings of annuals among the green groundcovers, trees and shrubs.

As fun as the colorful annual gardens were, I found myself preferring gardens with shrubs, perennials, and plenty of green for a backdrop.  This hillside was lovely with several types of hardy hydrangeas.  Though we saw many smooth, panicle and oak hydrangeas, I didn't see a single bigleaf hydrangea.  I guess they have hardiness problems on the island as I do in my garden.

Here are some smooth or Annabelle hydrangeas with hostas at the entrance of one home.  Welcoming and relaxing at once.

This was one of the 'cottages' on the tour.  I kept expecting a butler to show up.  The architecture of the old homes was as enjoyable to see as their gardens.

Many homes had fewer flowers and more green space like this.  This garden was very peaceful.

Isn't this an interesting garden?   We were told there used to be a fountain in the center, but to simplify maintenance and keep the grandchildren safe, the homeowners filled it in and planted a garden instead.

A newly landscaped area featured impressive stone walls and stairs.  During the tourist season, no cars or trucks are allowed on the island, so landscaping is accomplished with horse-drawn quarry wagons and manpower.  During the brief windows when tourists are gone for the winter and the weather allows, larger construction equipment can be used for big projects. 

The perennial and shrub combinations at this garden were especially pretty.

I'll post next with photos of the many fabulous container gardens we saw at the hotel and in town. 

The Last Lily of Summer

Crimson Lilium speciosum rubrum have been blooming this month in the main backyard flower bed.  Their stalks are taller than me, and their fragrance is divine.

They nod on the stem, so it's a good thing the main stalk is so tall.

In bloom nearby are 'Miss Molly' butterfly bushes, Russian sage (Peroskvia), 'Rozanne' hardy geraniums and 'Ava' hummingbird mint (Agastache).  The hummingbird mint is visited every day by two or three hummingbirds, and numerous butterflies congregate on the butterfly bushes.

I've ordered similar 'Miss Feya' lily bulbs to plant this fall to add to the display next summer.  August isn't the best time for finding flowers in my garden, so I'm happy to have one area with plenty of blooms.

The 'Royal Purple' smoke bush (Cotinus coggryia) adds beautiful color, though I wonder if annual pruning will keep it small enough once it's fully established.  I'll find out in a few years, I guess.

Buzz Purple, Miss Molly, Miss Ruby and Blue Chip

Today I write about the four types of butterfly bushes (Buddleia) in my grarden.  Butterfly bushes are great for late summer color, and they really do attract crowds of butterflies, hummingbirds, and fuzzy bumblebees.  Above is 'Buzz Purple,' with spikes of 'Caradonna' salvia in front (on its second flush of bloom for the year) and an overgrown dwarf Arctic willow in back.  Can you believe I cut that willow back to the ground this spring?

Here are the flowers of 'Buzz Purple' up close.  All the Buzz butterfly bushes - there are other colors available - are supposed to stay dwarf at 2-3 feet tall and wide, but mine has grown to about 5 feet tall and 4 feet wide this summer.  Four to five feet is still smaller than the old cultivars that grew 8-10 feet.My climate is so cold that all the butterfly bushes die back to the ground each year, so in warmer climates I bet this shrub would grow even larger.  Of course you can control the size no matter where you live by cutting the bushes down to the ground each spring.  The nice thing about this series is that they have very little reseeding, unlike older cultivars which could be invasive.

Above is 'Miss Molly,' a Proven Winners selection that is supposed to grow 4-5 feet tall and 5-6 feet wide with no reseeding.  Both of mine grew that tall but stayed really skinny this summer.  I'm not sure if that's what they will do every summer or if this odd shape is due to specific climate conditions.  I'll have to wait until next year to see.

'Miss Molly' is advertised as the reddest butterfly bush available, with the red color more pronounced in warmer climates.  I have noticed the flowers that open during hot spells are more red than the ones that open during cooler times.

I planted this 'Miss Ruby' bush earlier this summer, so it hasn't had time to grow to its full size.  Its color is a softer, cooler pink than 'Miss Molly,' though its predicted size is the same as MM.  Butterfly bushes are hardy in zones 5-9 and prefer full sun and well-drained soil.  They are supposed to be deer resistant as well.

Here you see the flowers of 'Miss Ruby' up close, with a dying spike of flowers at the bottom.  Eventually the bloomed-out flower spikes fade to black.  They don't look awful if you don't get around to deadheading, but the shrubs do look better if they are regularly deadheaded.

My final butterfly bush is 'Blue Chip' from the Proven Winners Lo and Behold series.  This type has actually stayed dwarf through several seasons, growing to about 2 feet tall and wide.  I have 6 of these in the backyard and they haven't reseeded, as promised.

The color of 'Blue Chip' is less flamboyant than the other bushes in my garden, and the butterflies seem to prefer the shrubs with brighter colors.  But I still see a few butterflies and hummingbirds on this type.
This summer I have enjoyed cutting flower spikes from the butterfly bushes to use in floral arrangements.  They last several days in a vase and work really well with my English Roses.  That is yet another reason to find a spot for a butterfly bush in the garden, especially with these newer, smaller, noninvasive cultivars available.

Midsummer Lilies and Etc.

Midsummer is lily and daylily season, and above you see giant 'Big Brother' Oriental lilies blooming in my backyard.  They have that wonderful spicy fragrance you get from 'Stargazer' and other Oriental lilies.

I love daylililes, like these double 'Frances Joiner' plants in my front yard.  But the flowers only last one day and then need to be deadheaded to look tidy.  That gets overwhelming, so recently I've been giving away more plants to nearby gardeners.  I'm planning to replace a couple of daylilies in the front yard with nonflowering 'Helen von Stein' Stachys byzantia, whose fuzzy silver leaves will provide interesting texture without any deadheading required.

'Little Lime' (above) and 'Limelight' panicle hydrangeas are blooming profusely, and their long lasting flower clusters will become shaded with pink and then maroon as we progress toward fall.  My 'Annabelle' and pink 'Invincibelle Spirit' hydrangeas have finished an impressive flush of blooms, and 'Tiny Tuff Stuff' is giving a moderate showing.  But the mopheads (Let's Dance 'Big Easy) have just one flower cluster between the six of them.  Even reblooming-type mopheads are a disappointment around here.

Petite 'Kahome' Filipendula is covered with airy sprays of pink flowers right now.  It makes a nice edging plant because it stays smaller than other types of meadow rue.

Even though there aren't many flowers in the northeast corner, I feel pleased with how the design is working.  The arrangement of plants looks balanced.  The forms, textures and shades of green are working well together.

The northwest corner, in contrast, is kind of a mess right now.  So I'm only showing a close up view.  These 'Miss Molly' butterfly bushes (Buddleia) and Russian Sage (Peroskvia) are doing well and attracting cute hummingbirds and butterflies, but other parts of this corner are failing.  The delphiniums aren't getting enough love to keep them healthy and happy, so I'm going to replace them with sturdy Baptisia.  Other plants need to be transplanted, divided, or removed.  I suspect it will take a few more seasons of trial and error before this area comes together.  

The 'Red Dragon' contorted filbert (Corylus avellana) above is my plan for a new focal point plant in the northwest corner.  Right now it's sitting in its pot by the faucet, and I'm trying to remember to water it daily until I can transplant the roses in fall and get this plant into the ground.  Its corkscrew branches will be lovely all winter, and the maroon leaves (which turn greener in summer) will be pretty for much longer than the few weeks that the roses are in bloom.  At least, that's the plan.  We'll see how it turns out after a few years.

Gardening for Butterflies

My children and I have really enjoyed watching the butterflies in our backyard this summer.  Above is a fritillary, which was the most common visitor after the cabbage whites.  After buying a book on butterflies (Kaufman's Field Guide to Butteflies of North America), I learned that fritillary caterpillars eat violets.  I checked the clumps of 'Queen Charlotte' violets growing at one corner of the house and sure enough, they were chewed to pieces, which was perfectly alright.  I'm planning to spread the violets around even more so we can attract more of these beauties next summer.

 

Please forgive my poor photos - it's really hard to get good photos of moving creatures without scaring them away, so I ended up cropping a lot.  And of course butterflies prefer to fly in midday when the light is awful.  Maybe someday I'll get a better macro lens.  We have also seen plenty of skippers, a large black and white unknown butterfly, a swallowtail, and a quick glimpse of what looked like a Monarch. 

 

I have been researching how to attract more butterflies to our garden.  The adults really do love the butterfly bushes, like 'Buzz Purple' above.  'Miss Molly,' below, is another favorite.  They seem less excited about the 'Blue Chip' butterfly bushes, which have a differently shaped flower, though some flutters land there.  'Walker's Low' catmint, 'May Night' and 'Caradonna' salvia, Russian sage (Peroskvia) and 'Rozanne' geraniums also attract a lot of butterflies.  I plan to add a few Liatris and try seeding Verbena bonariensis again (though I've tried and failed with that plant before).  In spring I have seen whites on my Chionodoxa bulb flowers.  But what I've been especially researching is the larval plant foods of the various butterflies that live in our area.

I was pleased to find that I already have many types of larval foods in my garden.  I knew that Swallowtails liked parsley, so I've been using that as an edging plant along the path.  I will also plant fennel for them next year.  Some swallowtail larvae eat willow and buckthorn, so they can have at my dwarf Arctic willow and 'Fine Line' buckthorns.  Some comma, mourning cloak, admiral, hairstreak and duskywing larvae also eat willows.  Swallowtails also eat aspens, which are planted in my neighbor's yard right along the fence.  Neighboring yards also have birch for commas and mourning cloaks.  Crescents like asters, of which I have a few, and checkerspots eat snowberry like my 'Vivid Pearl' snowberry bush.  Skipper larvae eat grasses, and though I don't plant ornamental grasses because they give me a rash and we probably keep our lawn too short for caterpillars, we have seen the adults regularly on the butterfly bushes.

The photo above shows popular butterfly foods like 'Walker's Low' catmint and 'May Night' salvia (for adults), plus a 'Fine Line' buckthorn for swallowtail larvae.  Other larval foods already in my garden include wisteria, Baptisia and other legumes for skippers, duskywings, sulphurs, hairstreaks and blues.  Copper larvae eat blueberry bushes, of which I have three.

My daughter grew a cabbage for a school project this summer, which provided food for many cabbage white butterfly larvae.  We're not big fans of eating cabbage, but I'll find space for one each summer so we can attract the cute little whites.  Also on my 'To Plant' list is Malva fastigiata, which is in the mallow family so hopefully will provide food for hairstreak, painted lady and west coast lady larvae.  I've had milkweed seeds (Asclepias incarnata 'Milkmaid') for Monarch larvae for over a year but have hesitated to plant them because they can be invasive.  I'm going to go for it next year and get them in the ground.  I've found a few places to squeeze in some 'Morello Cherry' and 'Noble Maiden' lupines for duskywing and blue larvae, as well as a 'Ritro' Echinops (ornamental thistle) for crescent, painted lady and west coast lady larvae.  I'm hesitating over planting nettles for satyrs, though.  Ouch! 
I'm also thinking of how I can make a permanent muddy puddle (not too large, dear hubby, in case you read this), since many flutters love mud.  Of course we won't attract all of these types to our garden, but with all of these foods available I hope that we will see more over the years.  Watching butterflies on a summer afternoon is one of life's sweet and simple pleasures.