Seventeen Ohio native plants grow along our fences and in the sunny corner, feeding bees, butterflies and birds from March into October. Start at the soft serve window and follow the bees around the beds.
Every plant was picked to feed someone, from the first spring bees to the last monarchs heading south.
Nectar all seasonBlooms come in waves, so adult pollinators eat from March into October.
Larval host plantsFood for caterpillars, so butterflies and moths finish their life cycles here.
Leaves and seedsSeed heads and leaves feed caterpillars and birds into fall.
Rare in Ohio's wildEvery plant is nursery-grown, never taken from the wild.Goldenrods and asters keep flowering. New queens fatten up for winter, and monarchs fuel a migration of up to 3,000 miles.
Bloom months for the Midwest; they can shift a week or two with the weather.
Wild columbine
Pennsylvania sedge
Golden Alexanders
Jacob's ladder
Wild geranium
Golden groundselButterfly weed
Culver's root
Queen of the prairiePurple coneflowerSwitchgrass
Yellow coneflower
Purple prairie clover
Side oats gramaZigzag goldenrodSky blue asterShowy goldenrodThe butterflies, moths and bees each plant feeds. Drawn by Haley Maddox.
Grab a cone and walk the loop. [Idea: a small QR sign at each bed opens its plant cards.]
Drawn by Haley Maddox, one for every native plant in the garden.
Come as a caterpillar, leave a social butterfly. A slow loop of the beds with other dog people, a look at who's eating what (black swallowtail caterpillars love the Golden Alexanders), then soft serve at the window.
One card per plant. These three are the first of seventeen.
Look for flat clusters of bright orange flowers
Fun fact Monarchs store its toxins, so birds avoid them.
Look for blue to blue-violet daisies with yellow centers
Fun fact Its aster mining bee nests underground, marked by tiny sand mounds.
Look for big pink-purple daisies around a spiny cone
Fun fact Echinos is Greek for hedgehog, for its spiny cone.