First Flowers

It came to my attention one day last week that I had seen virtually no butterflies on the property since moving in with just a handful of invasive Cabbage Whites and a single native Mourning Cloak the only exceptions.  Soon thereafter I realized why: There are no flowers on the property.  None.  Not even invasive ones.

Common Milkweed seedlings at 14 days.

I decided that I needed to get something in the ground immediately to deal with the problem.  This was easy because I have had a number of species I planned to plant for years already.  First of all I have about two dozen milkweed sprouts germinating.  I collected the seeds from pods last fall.  If my research is correct there are four native milkweed species in New Jersey and mine are of Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca).  These should produce pink flowers in not too much time.  These are very valuable plants for native lepidopterans (butterfly species).  Check out this article by James M. O’Neill from northjersey.com about planting milkweed in Northern New Jersey as means to assist native lepidopterans like the Monarch Butterfly.  In mid-article Don Torino, president of a North Jersey Audubon chapter, is quoted as saying this is something anyone can do to make a difference to an otherwise overwhelming problem.  I concur.

In addition in my moving boxes I found a can of assorted wildflower seeds that I sprinkled on a bare patch of ground.  The seeds are native, but the can was packaged for the 2008 season and I expect a low germination rate.  Today I came across some Eastern Purple Coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea) on sale at a local nursery.  It is late in the season and many plants are on clearance, so some good deals can be found.  I purchased two purple-flowered plants (something like the wild types) and two that are white (obviously a domestic breed).  This is a case where I am willing to be flexible: The white variety is not a wild phenotype, but it seems unlikely the pollen or leaf chemistry has been altered much in changing the flower color and therefore native insects and birds should still be able to utilize the plants just the same.  I will be making close observations of the animals that visit the plants to confirm or deny this.

In short these were some simple and quick measures to bring some color to the yard and fill what is right now a major whole in my natural food supply.  Best of all, these are perennials and the coneflowers are fairly drought-resistant.  My lawn is already beginning to brown in the summer heat and rather than unsustainably waste hundreds if gallons of water to keep it alive, I intend to gradually replace more and more of it with native, heat-tolerant perennials.