- Sedums, both tall and short, are popular with butterflies and make excellent plants for a xeric butterfly garden. Check out our Sedum page in our articles archive to discover more about Sedum.
Which sedum is best for butterflies?
In an autumn garden, bright sedums are a welcome addition. The flowerbeds are lit up by their vivid pink blossoms and juicy green, grey, or purple leaves.
Sedums also provide nectar for butterflies and bees, which is especially important in the autumn when there are fewer plants in bloom. From July/August to September/October, many varieties bloom. They’re particularly beneficial to butterflies and moths that are putting on weight before hibernating. In Britain, most butterfly species spend the winter as an egg, caterpillar, or chrysalis. Brimstone, Comma, Peacock, and Small Tortoiseshell, on the other hand, hibernate as adults (as do some moths). Even in mid-winter, the Red Admiral does not enter a proper dormancy and will become active on warmer days.
The nectar is easy to reach from the multitudes of tiny stars that make up a sedum’s broad, flat flower heads, which make suitable landing pads for insects.
Sedums are perennials that prefer well-drained soil and a sunny location, which is ideal for butterflies. The pink blossoms are also a color that butterflies find appealing.
Their fleshy leaves can store water, allowing plants to tolerate drought conditions. The seedheads can be left in place throughout the winter, and the dead stems can be pruned back in the spring.
There are many different types of sedums to pick from, each with its own leaf and blossom color. Iceplant, often known as Butterfly Stonecrop Sedum spectabile, is the most preferred among butterflies. The leaves are grey-green, while the blossoms are a pinkish mauve color. This plant is most likely one of the progenitors of S. Herbstfreude ‘Autumn Joy,’ a popular and hardy hybrid. However, some people claim that this is more appealing to bees than to butterflies.
S. telephium ‘Matrona,’ ‘Karfunkelstein,’ and ‘Purple Emperor,’ among others, have received the RHS Award of Garden Merit (AGM). From August to October, ‘Matrona’ develops an 80cm mound with rose-pink blooms. From July through October, ‘Karfunkelstein’ is reddish-black with pale pink blooms. ‘Purple Emperor’ is a plant with purplish-black foliage and mid-pink blooms that was named after the elusive insect.
Note: Upright species with big succulent leaves and thick roots (such as Sedum spectabile) have recently been reclassified into their own genus, Hylotelephium (e.g. Hylotelephium spectabile), leaving Stonecrops, the creeping plants with small leaves, to remain in the Sedum genus. However, it appears that the previous name is still in use.
Do monarchs like sedum?
While sedum isn’t the spectacular, colorful perennial that comes to mind when thinking of a butterfly garden, it’s impossible to keep butterflies away from it. Before its late-season bloom, sedum resembles a desert plant with its succulent stems. American painted ladies, buckeyes, gray hairstreaks, monarchs, painted ladies, pearl crescents, pepper & salt skippers, silver-spotted skippers, and fritillaries are among the butterflies attracted to sedums.
Do bees and butterflies like sedum?
When pollinators forage in your garden, they’re hunting for nectar and pollen. This is their diet, the carbs and protein that they require to grow and reproduce. Many different sorts of flowering plants in your landscape and garden will attract native bees.
Consider this: “From early spring to late fall, a menu of blooms is served. Choose from a variety of flowering plants, such as annuals, herbaceous perennials, and native plants, as well as bulbs, trees, and shrubs that are proven to benefit pollinators. Because there are less floral resources available during those seasons, early flowering plants like spring bulbs or Pachysandra, or late bloomers like Sedum or Anemone, are frequently the most essential food supplies for pollinators.
Pruning and frequent dead-heading can help annuals like Tithonia and perennials like Helenium (Sneezeweed) to re-bloom over the summer. Other garden favorites have been bred to bloom over the entire season. Regardless of the size of the insect, providing a variety of bloom sizes and shapes will encourage it. Bees can perch on tubular-shaped flowers with an extended petal, such as foxglove or Salvia, and then enter the bloom. Many helpful insects benefit from open flowers with flat umbels, such as our native ironweed.
Bees browse on a wide variety of flowering plants, but purple, blue, white, yellow, mauve, and violet blossoms are among their favorites. Bees use UV light to perceive patterns, colors, and markings in flowers that our eyes can’t see, allowing them to fly directly to a flower “The pollen source is reached via a “landing pad.”
Human perception of a flower (left) vs. insect perception of a flower (right) (right). MSU’s Zachary Huang took the photos.
Because nectar glands and pollen-laden stamens are more difficult to find in flowers with lush petals, such as roses or peonies, pollinators may be unable to access them. Pollinators do not benefit from plants that have been bred to be sterile (lacking stamens) or do not contain nectar.
Early show
When the windy spring weather makes it tough to navigate higher plants, early spring-blooming plants like Pachysandra and bugleweed buzz to life with insect activity. Siberian squill, Punchkinia, and Chinodoxa are little bulbs that attract the tiniest of bee species. Bleeding heart, foxglove, and Allium ‘Purple Sensation’ are perennial favorites that attract a late-spring show crowd, and larger bees are frequently observed eating on these beauties.
Prime time
By the time spring arrives, garden favorites such as single peonies have shown their pollen-laden anthers and are attracting bees’ attention. New coral bell hybrids bloom throughout the season and well into the fall, with new bloom spikes appearing every few weeks. Summer bulbs such as Allium christophii and Allium ‘Millenium’ give color and attract bees. The possibilities are unlimited with Allium cultivars that bloom throughout the spring and summer.
Traditional perennial border plants such as sneezeweed, globe thistle, and blazing star, which bloom in the middle of the season, provide a plenty of foraging options for many pollinators. Coneflowers, both native and non-native, are a favorite of bees. Sneezeweed responds well to deadheading and will continue to bloom until the first frost. Colorful annuals and herbs may provide a splash of color to your garden while also giving a long flowering season. Many kinds of bees and hover flies find borage to be alluring. You can supply fresh blooms for a longer period by choosing sunflowers that are branched and range in days-to-harvest by a week or so. Tithonia, a tall late summer annual, begins blooming in early August and continues until frost. These flaming-orange blossoms are prized by butterflies, bees, and hover flies. Bees of all sizes frequent the towering purple orbs of Verbena bonariensis and the scented annual Heliotrope. Bees rarely visit several zinnia cultivars, but some of the more open forms, such as Zinnia ‘Benary Giant,’ are top contenders in annual gardens. Tall salvia (Victoria blue or white), lantana, and Pentas are other annuals that offer color and give nectar and pollen for a variety of bee species.
Late show
Sedum is one of the most diverse plant families in the garden. Their petals are intoxicating for many bees and flies, from low-growing, colorful ground covers to the upright stately sedum ‘Autumn Joy.’ Along with garden favorites like Japanese anemone, sweet-smelling snakeroot, and Rudbeckia ‘Autumn Sun,’ these late-season bloomers help extend available pollen and nectar.
Trees and flowering shrubs, both native and non-native, play an important role in pollinator support. Lindens blossom in the early summer, with pleasantly fragrant panicles of golden blooms tucked between their leaves. Button bush, a favorite for wetland edges or damp soil, blooms in mid-summer, and panicle hydrangeas, with their towering towers of blossoms, attract bees and flies later in the season. Many different kinds of bees visit the blossoms, and these plants provide food for them.
Putting it all together bee intentional!
Smart gardeners are conscious of their actions and activities in the garden. While deadheading plants like sneezeweed encourages more blooms, deadheading Hosta blossoms too early may deprive pollinators of a tasty meal. Blooming coleus may be unattractive to humans, but not to bees. These little blossoms, which are a member of the mint family, are particularly appealing to bees. Perhaps it has something to do with the way we think about it “We relaxed our “garden tidiness” and let certain things go.
This is a field guide “If you want to learn more about bees in the Great Lakes region and the wildflowers that sustain them, visit the Michigan State University Extension Bookstore.
The importance of pollinators
Pollinators are vital to our environment and have a special relationship with our food supply. They pollinate almost 85% of the world’s flowering plants and are ultimately responsible for the seeds and fruits consumed by humans, songbirds, and even black bears. Gardeners are learning how to make good contributions to pollinator insect conservation as a result of recent concerns about their reduction. Understanding bee habitat requirements and food sources, as well as changing our garden maintenance routines, is a step toward pollinator conservation.
Although the honey bee is commonly thought of as a pollinator, Michigan is home to over 400 kinds of native bees. Native bees come in a variety of forms and sizes, and while they are frequently associated with native trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants, they will also work with a wide range of garden plants.
Beneficial insects are also the world’s hardest-working workforce, as they keep harmful insects at bay. A varied range of native and non-native plants, as well as cautious pesticide usage and vigilant gardeners, combine to form a strategy for keeping bees and other “good bugs” in our landscapes and gardens.
Gardening for Pollinators: Smart Plants to Support Pollinators is available as a downloadable PDF.
Is sedum a host plant for butterflies?
Sedum is a kind of sedum (Woodland stonecrop) Flowers on fleshy sedum plants last for a long time and often change color as the season passes. They’re an excellent plant to utilize to attract butterflies and bees because of their long flowering season.
What plant do butterflies lay their eggs on?
Is that a butterfly or a moth? Monarch butterflies lay their eggs on milkweed leaves, which are then eaten by monarch caterpillars. Plants that cater to the needs of butterflies at all four stages of their existence, the egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, and adult, make up a successful butterfly garden.
What is a butterflies favorite flower?
A healthy garden is one that is bustling with activityearthworms in the soil, flying animals visiting the blooms that attract bees. If you want to attract butterflies, just like bees, there are particular blooms that will have them fluttering over your flower beds. This selection of beautiful annuals and perennials that support and attract butterflies is a great place to start.
Plant milkweed, zinnias, and the Miss Molly butterfly bush if you want to focus on attracting Monarch butterflies. Goldenrod and sedum, which bloom in the fall, attract butterflies long after summer has ended. Your butterfly garden will keep those flying beauties in sight all season long once it is established.
What flower attracts monarch butterflies?
Monarch butterflies returning to North America from their wintering grounds in Mexico travel along a well-marked path. The milkweed is what these beautiful orange-and-black butterflies are looking for (asclepias). Planting milkweed in your garden is like putting out a welcome mat for monarch butterflies.
The monarch butterfly’s breeding season begins in the spring, and milkweed is critical to the species’ survival. Many flowers, especially native species, are excellent sources of nectar for monarch butterflies, but monarch caterpillars only eat milkweed leaves. Monarch butterflies place their eggs on milkweed plants so that the little caterpillars get nourishment right away when they hatch.
In recent decades, industrialization and agriculture have resulted in the loss of millions of acres of habitat for monarch butterflies and other critical pollinators. Planting a small milkweed preserve will benefit monarch butterflies and other pollinators. “We teach everyone that there are things they can do to aid monarchs, and the first thing is to grow milkweed,” says Katie-Lyn Bunney, coordinator for the University of Minnesota Monarch Lab’s Monarchs in the Classroom program.
Which butterfly bush is not invasive?
Horticulturists discovered a remedy to the problem just as you were about to compost your butterfly bushes for good. Breeders of Buddleia varieties created sterile cultivars. Because these hybrids generate so few seeds (less than 2% of regular butterfly bushes), they are classified as non-invasive. The state of Oregon, which formerly had a strict restriction on Buddleia, recently changed its ban to allow these non-invasive varieties. It appears that you can have your butterfly bush and plant it at the same time.
What insects are attracted to sedum?
At our farms, we raise a wide variety of plants. This allows us to observe them at various phases of growth and development, and tall sedum is one of our favorites to observe. When tall sedum blooms, it attracts a swarm of bees and other pollinators, making sedum cultivation a fascinating project for our farm’s nursery team. We’ll show you how to grow tall sedum and why you and your neighborhood pollinators – will benefit from having it in your garden.
Pollinators Adore Tall Sedum
Tall sedum should be on your buying list if you want to encourage beneficial pollinators like bees and butterflies to visit your yard. Just a peep into our farm’s grow house demonstrates how appealing sedum is to the local bees. Hannah Richardson, a nursery stock grower, has changed her watering plan to prevent disturbing the hundreds of small bees that swarm the sedum blooms in the afternoon.
Hannah claims that you don’t realize how many bees there are at first because they’re surprisingly silent in their job. However, upon closer inspection, she discovers at least three or four bees of diverse species busy working on each plant. Hannah initially assumed that sharing a grow house with hundreds of bees would be intimidating, but it turns out to be a very calm scene. They continue their industrious gathering and with the faintest contented hum if she is silent and respectful. Three of the five sedum kinds in the grow house are blooming right now, and Hannah predicts a pollinator party when the other two open their blooms in the coming weeks.
People Love the Blooms Too
Tall sedum’s distinctive flower attracts more than just bees. Tall sedum produces multiple dense, flat clusters of small, pale green blooms on top of robust, succulent stems, setting the stage for the show. In fact, they’re likely to remind you of broccoli. The tiny blossoms change color from green to pale pink, then richer colors of pink and mauve as the seasons move through summer and into fall.
In late summer, when the blooms are fully open, you’ll observe a noticeable increase in pollinator activity around tall sedum. A sedum plant may attract a dozen or more bees, butterflies, moths, and other nectar-hungry insects at any given time. Tall sedum is extremely important to migrating butterflies, such as the endangered monarch butterfly, which uses it as a refueling station on their lengthy journey south for the winter.
When winter arrives, the dried flower heads remain on the stalks, adding winter appeal to the environment, especially when they catch snow on top.
Versatile + Full of Texture
Tall sedum adds a unique dimension to Midwest gardens in addition to its famous blossoms. Tall sedum, also known as showy stonecrop, is a succulent plant with towering, robust stems and rich, mushy foliage. Tall sedum looks great as a specimen, in a border, or mixed in with the rest of the perennials in a cottage-style perennial bed. Its compact, mounding habit and clean, succulent foliage offer a contemporary aesthetic to basic landscape designs as well.
Easy as They Come
Tall sedum is also as low-maintenance as any other perennial you may discover for your garden. New stems emerge from the ground each spring, forming orderly mounds of succulent foliage and stems. These mounds maintain upright and neat when exposed to enough light. Some sedums may start to flop if they don’t get enough sun, so choose a location that gets plenty of it. Tall sedum can tolerate a lot of heat and dry soil once it’s established. Simply take a stem cutting and place it in the soil to propagate. You’ll have a completely new plant after a while.
Bring on the Bees
As you may be aware, pollinator numbers are declining as a result of climate change, habitat loss, and other factors. Tall sedum is a favorite of our bees, butterflies, and other beneficial insects, and even a few nectar-rich perennials in your landscape can provide a welcome resource for them. Stop by the Nursery Yard and look at our collection of tall sedum and other pollinator-friendly plants to see for yourself. Look for activity above the flowers and listen for that subtle hum if you don’t spot them right away.