Home yard pollinator plants

Cool-looking things aren't they? Those 2 dark antennae on their heads remind me of wasp wings - like a "v" shape. They come in to our phlox and "obedient plant" flowers fairly often.
Been getting around the last couple days. Up to (4) hummingbird moths in three different counties all on wild bergamot. Couple of those areas are my properties and the other is John Muir state natural area in central WI. It's adjacent to the boyhood home of John Muir after his family immigrated from Scotland
 
My wife dead-headed the butterfly weed after the initial flush of blooms. Now those plants gave twice as many blooms as the first time around. The insect traffic on those butterfly weed flowers is crazy! She dead-headed the obedient plants too, and they're already pushing up new flower spikes. Hummingbirds paid a visit 2 days ago on those, and the hosta flowers, too. Joe Pye weed flowers going nuts with many flower heads. We put out multiple water dishes for critters and insects as well. All get hit daily - birds, rabbits, squirrels, and all kinds of pollinating insects are liking the water.

Surrounding neighbors all have varieties of flowering plants too. We've seen good numbers of monarch butterflies this year, along with a number of other types of butterflies flying from yard to yard.
 
I was graciously given some pollinator plants for the rain garden in my yard 2-3 seasons ago from Ernst Seed. Some didn't get eaten by rabbits and deer. The one that seems to be growing like a weed is some type of senna. It's a later season blooming plant. It's just starting to develop flowers in zone 7a. It's starting to spread, and I'm mildly worried it might choke everything else out. It creates seed pods, which I spread near some swampy areas at camp. I hope to harvest a bunch more this year.

 
My wife dead-headed the butterfly weed after the initial flush of blooms. Now those plants gave twice as many blooms as the first time around. The insect traffic on those butterfly weed flowers is crazy! She dead-headed the obedient plants too, and they're already pushing up new flower spikes. Hummingbirds paid a visit 2 days ago on those, and the hosta flowers, too. Joe Pye weed flowers going nuts with many flower heads. We put out multiple water dishes for critters and insects as well. All get hit daily - birds, rabbits, squirrels, and all kinds of pollinating insects are liking the water.

Surrounding neighbors all have varieties of flowering plants too. We've seen good numbers of monarch butterflies this year, along with a number of other types of butterflies flying from yard to yard.

Are you seeing much activity on the Joe Pye weed? I have yet to see much use mine. They are hammering my blue vervain right now.
 
Are we listing wildflowers on our place? I like that game.

Bee balm
Black eyed susan
Willowherb
Jewelweed
Yellow sweet clover
White sweet clover
Balansa clover
Alfalfa
Chicory
Goldenrod
Buttercup
Anemone
Swamp aster
Food plot aster?
Skull caps
Lady slipper
Canada thistle
Bull thistle
Dandelion
Cosmos
Milkweed
Birdsfoot trefoil
Wild parsnip (I do not care for this one, spent an hour whacking the piss out of it)
Hairy vetch
Catchfly
Burdock
ROD
Chokecherry
Arrowwood viburnum
Elderberry
Raspberry
Strawberry
Faba beans
Pink banana jumbo squash
Wild crab apple
Prairie magic apple

That's all I can think of.
 
The big draw this past weekend was bee balm and Canada thistle.

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I never posted this pic, but the bees and gold finch were in the Canada thistle big time.

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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
My wife has always wanted common milkweed for the monarchs, so a couple of years ago I stopped on a roadside patch grabbed a couple of pods. She got the seeds and I kept the fluff for archery season. A month ago we were doing something outside and she said look there’s a monarch, so we watched it feed and then it laid eggs on the leaves. She only laid 1 egg per leaf. It took about 4 days to hatch and it doubled in size every day or so. The 1st few didn’t make it more than a week. Seems like they get preyed on by a parasitic fly or wasp. Seems to be some hatching every week so I last looked at them a couple of days ago and saw a couple that were around 2” long. Here are some pictures of the 1st hatching.
The adult IMG_2238.jpeg
The eggIMG_2239.jpeg
1 day old
IMG_2243.jpeg

4 days old
IMG_2241.jpeg
 
Monarchs certainly are beautiful. Them and hummingbirds are my favorite summertime viewing.
 
Are you seeing much activity on the Joe Pye weed? I have yet to see much use mine. They are hammering my blue vervain right now.
Yes - we see butterflies on it, what looks like yellow swallowtails and a black one with blue markings on the rear of the wings. Small bees, flies & hoverflies too. More flower heads to open up yet.
 
Humming birds been really hammering my Rose of Sharron bushes and small butterflies have been on my Cuban Mojito mint.
 

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