This vase is a result of my plant shopping trip last week. I posted some pictures last week on my blog from the tropicals nursery I visited with a friend (made through gardening on social media, not blogging, though). The idea for the vase was started by another nursery we visited, Indian Trails Natives Nursery located in Lake Worth, Florida. Here is a link to their website Indian Trails
The nursery has an extensive stock of native plants, a demonstration garden and they will give a price list. Meaningful. I bought several plants and decided to deadhead my new Black Eyed Susans in hopes of more flowers -the genesis of this vase.
I have been working on my native pollinators garden for a little over a year. The results are amazing, so I keep adding butterfly and bee plants concentrating on natives. My big however is … I don’t feel that it’s mandatory that every plant is native. I would go as far as to say non natives enhance the appeal of the garden to pollinators. No elitism in my garden!
Plants in this vase include: the Black Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) – these are Florida’s native Black Eyed Susan, I grew Rudbeckia fulgida ‘Goldstrum’ further north and tried to grow these Rudbeckia from seed to no avail. Hopefully, the plants fare better and I end up with too many. Red flowers are Tropical Red Sage (Salvia coccinea); blue flowers are from Porterweed (Stachytarpeta); off white spikes are Wireweed (Don’t know whatis); white flowers are from the one non native, Sweet Almond (Aloysia virgata) hailing from Argentina, our native (endangered) Atala Butterflies love this one. Pink plumes are from Muhly Grass (Muhlebergia) just starting their fall show; the sticks are from the native grape Muscandines (Vitis rotundifolia) – I stripped the leaves, the raccoons ate all the grapes.
Here’s our native Atala butterfly emerging from their chrysalis on native Coontie Palms. Their mom enjoyed nectar from Beautyberry and Sweet Almond before settling down to lay eggs.
The Shrub Queen 
Love your arrangement. So, is that butterfly only found in Florida?
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The Atala is found from me south to the Keys on the Southeast coast of Florida and the Caribbean. Their main larval host, Coontie Palms had been decimated by disease and the butterflies were nearly lost in Florida – now they are rebounding.
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Beautiful. I collect seeds from any wildflowers I see growing and add them to my bag of random seeds. Can’t wait for the day we dump them all in our field. Another beautiful vase! Thanks for sharing
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Thank you, I am trying Phlox drummondi this year and may be too far south – probably perfect for your field and butterflies love it.
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A lovely arrangement of mostly wildflowers. Sounds like some fun nursery visits. Must come back and read your earlier post! Happy new week!
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Thanks, Peter, having some fun here.
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Nice and wild, the way I love to see flowers arranged – lovely! That is a beautiful butterfly, glad that your garden is helping them reproduce.
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Thank you, I like a little wild myself. The butterflies have been an unexpected bonus and a real treat to watch.
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I agree it would be a shame to stick to natives – certainly UK gardens would be very much poorer if we did. Good to read that the wildlife are enjoying your choices (even the raccoons!)
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Attracting wildlife is always a double edged sword! Butterflies vs rats and raccoons.
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Beautiful vase and an even more beautiful butterfly! So you have problems with pesky raccoons too? My grapevine didn’t produce a single grape this year so I guess their disappearance is one source of irritation I avoided – one can’t miss what one doesn’t have. I don’t even try to focus on natives here as the climate and soil seriously limit which SoCal natives will survive in my garden. Instead I focus on adapted Mediterranean plants that can manage with our ever-decreasing rainfall.
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Thank you, I was thrilled to see the Atalas. I was surprised to find that the Muscadines are male and female, whichever it is, the grapes are mostly seed and bitter. The only problem with the raccoons eating them is they spread the bitter grapes everywhere! Natives are in many cases harder to grow than imports.
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What exotic natives you have. Lovely arrangement and what a gorgeous butterfly.
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Thank you, Salvia and Black Eyes Susans, exotic?
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Nice wildflower showcasing Amelia. The colorful Atala is lovely, have never known this one before.
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Thanks,I am at the northern limit of the Atala.
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The Atala is beautiful.
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A new favorite, we get tiny Miami Blue Butterflies I have yet to capture with a photo.
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