How You can Have a Healthy Lawn, too!

Building up your soil naturally is the key to healthy lawn care. Following these lawn care tips will provide you with the information to build a healthy lawn that is not only a maintenance free lawn, but a safe lawn for your family, pets and the environment.

Whether you refer to it as natural or organic, it really comes down to the fact that so many of us just want to participate in healthy lawn care. In order to get the desired results, it takes up front dedication, time and knowledge. Much like when someone must change their diet to become healthier, not only do they change what they eat, but there are other alterations within their lifestyle that are made and it takes dedication and time for the change to take place.

We know that we are going to make the change to healthy lawn care, so where do we start?

Improve Your Soil - Healthy soil contains everything needed to grow healthy grass and, as an added bonus, weed seeds don't germinate as well, so less weeds. A soil test can give you a starting point. This can be arranged through your local conservation district office or local agricultural extension agent's office. The results of the test should give you needed amendments to put your soil back into a neutral pH.

Select the Proper Grass for Your Area- Once your soil has been amended, you are ready to sow the seed. A visit to your local hardware store is needed here and should be educational. Visit one of the locally owned stores such as Ace Hardware or True Value Hardware or even your local Farmer's Co-op as these stores typically have staff that is knowledgeable about these things. If you have shaded areas, you need to let them know as they will need to help you select a seed blend especially for that area. After sowing the grass seed, covering the newly sown area with a light layer of straw can prove beneficial as it will help to keep birds from eating the grass seeds, protect the area from washing should there be heavy rainfall before the seed can germinate, provide light shade and keep the soil moist. All of these factors, including warm weather, will help to speed the germination of the grass and it decomposes into the soil.

Mow less with taller grass- Allow the grass to grow a bit more before mowing. Set your mower blades for 3 inches and let the grass grow to 4 or 5 inches before mowing. Cutting grass down much lower can damage the roots and dry out the soil.

There are many organic lawn care products on the market that will naturally help your plants grow, keep weeds down and assist in building up the soil. Calcium, specifically, helps to energize plants and reduce weeds. Soil Conditioners helps to percolate and aerate the soil. Some are also available that contain biological components that can help to detoxify chemical applications from fertilizers and other products as well as help to keep flying insects at bay.

Now that you have healthy soil and grass is growing, how often do we water? Well, that will vary, but the University of Missouri Extension will help guide you through that process and give you tips on watering your lawn:

Home Lawn Watering Guide

Natural or organic lawn care isn't completely without work, but it is certainly worth the initial effort to know that your lawn is healthy naturally and safe for humans, animals and the environment.

Planting Strawberry Plants

To plant and grow strawberry plants is an wonderful way to garden and quite easy when following just a few simple steps.

Here are a few gardening tips that will get your strawberry plants off to the best possible start. Soon you will be enjoying the strawberry fruits of  your labor.

Strawberry plants grow best in well drained soil that has been amended with lots of organic matter. Do not plant strawberry plants in or near soil where eggplants, peppers, potatoes, raspberries, or tomatoes have grown over the past 3 to 5 years, because strawberry plants are susceptible to verticillium wilt. It is also advisable to move strawberry beds whenever verticillium wilt appears. Soils with high lime content may also be unsuitable for this plant. Protect strawberry plants from freezing during the winter months. In addition to mulching, planting your strawberry plants at the top of a gentle slope helps minimize winter kill and frost damage to blossoms.

Plant strawberry plants in rows or hills in areas that receive at least 6 hours of sunlight per day. Plant the plants 15 to 18 inches apart in rows spaced about 2 feet apart. When planting bare root strawberries, be sure to trim the roots to six inches long. Dig holes deep enough to accommodate the roots. Inside the hole, mound enough dirt to be able to have the plant sit on the mound with the roots spread evenly around. The base of the crown should sit at the soil level. If the crown is set too high above the ground, the plant will dry out. Smooth and water to settle the soil. If your plants experience a drought immediately after planting, it may stunt the growth of the plants. Inspect after frost to see if any plants were lifted out of the soil. If they were, gently push them back into the soil and cover.

Once strawberry plants have begun to leaf out, fertilize can be applied. A balanced 10-10-10 blend can be added according to directions on the label. When the plant begins to form blooms until harvest is complete, is the time period that the plants will need the most water. One to two inches of supplemental watering a week may be necessary to keep the plants hydrated. Check the soil for dampness if in doubt.

Their first growing year in the ground, pinch off any strawberry blooms. This will force more growth into the plants size, creating larger plants with the potential for more blooms producing more fruit the next growing season.

Greenwood Nursery Online Garden Center

Greenwood Nursery is a certified Tennessee nursery since 1979, and online plant store since 1998, with just the right plants for your landscape ideas and gardening projects that you might have as well as providing knowledgeable customer service to help with your planting questions.

A new homeowner or refreshing your old landscape with new foundation plantings? Our article on "How to Landscape Design", will get you started on thesteps to landscaping.

Brighten up your yard from our plant selections of flowering shrubs, including some of the most popular flowering shrub varieties such as lavender plants,golden forsythia shrubs, shrub roses, and red twig dogwoods.

Check our bare root trees for many fast growing trees varieties such as willow hybrid, maples, poplars, and thuja green giant.

Looking for plants for specific purposes? Visit our Landscaping Ideas category with our many sub-departments categorizing our plants according to their varied uses like Small Yard Plant Ideas, Spring Flowering Shrubs, Deer Resistant Plants, shade plants, and Drought Tolerant Plants.

Remember, at Greenwood Nursery, we make it safe and easy to buy plants online. You will find the Greenwood staff helpful, knowledgeable, and ready to answer your planting questions. Our online plant catalog is open 24/7 for your gardening needs. We're here to make sure you're successful with your Greenwood plants.

Choose from our great selection of plants and we'll carefully pack and ship them right to your door.

Greenwood Nursery is a certified Tennessee nursery since 1979, and online plant store since 1998, with just the right plants for your landscape ideas and gardening projects that you might have as well as providing knowledgeable customer service to help with your planting questions.

A new homeowner or refreshing your old landscape with new foundation plantings? Our article on "How to Landscape Design", will get you started on thesteps to landscaping.

Brighten up your yard from our plant selections of flowering shrubs, including some of the most popular flowering shrub varieties such as lavender plants,golden forsythia shrubs, shrub roses, and red twig dogwoods.

Check our bare root trees for many fast growing trees varieties such as willow hybrid, maples, poplars, and thuja green giant.

Looking for plants for specific purposes? Visit our Landscaping Ideas category with our many sub-departments categorizing our plants according to their varied uses like Small Yard Plant Ideas, Spring Flowering Shrubs, Deer Resistant Plants, shade plants, and Drought Tolerant Plants.

Choose from our great selection of plants and we'll carefully pack and ship them right to your door.

Attracting Butterflies to Your Garden with Flowering Plants

What could be more enjoyable than sitting in your garden with lots of beautiful butterflies fluttering about? Gardeners are planting butterfly gardens, which not only have become a popular hobby, but, also, make for very beautiful gardens. While many gardeners plant amazing flower gardens with hopes of attracting butterflies, however, the butterflies don’t come because the wrong shrubs and perennial plants have been planted.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sometimes butterflies will not come to a garden because of pesticide use. The first thing you should do in planning for your butterfly garden is to rid the area of unwanted pests without using chemicals.

There are a few other things you can do to ensure that butterflies will come to your garden. Choose an area in your garden that is sunny with about 5 to 6 hours of sunlight per day, as adult butterflies only feed in the sun. The area needs to, also, be sheltered from heavy winds. As much as butterfly need to eat, they also do not want to fight harsh winds while trying to feed.

Another important aspect to a good butterfly garden is water. Like humans, butterflies need water. A couple of shallow bird baths where you can keep clean water will not only allow butterflies a drink, it will give them a place to rest.

There are two types of plants that butterfly use, those that provide food for the offspring and those that provide nectar for the adults. In a quote from the National Wildlife Federation, "Attracting butterflies involves incorporating plants that serve the needs of all life stages of the butterfly.” They go on to say, "The insects need places to lay eggs, food plants for their larvae (caterpillars), places to form chrysalides and nectar sources for adults."

Most butterflies, including the Monarch butterfly, feed on buddleia, commonly called butterfly bushes, for nectar and milkweed to feed the caterpillars. Other ways to make the area more butterfly friendly are using flat stones or other large flat surfaces where butterflies can rest and spread their wings. Because butterflies are such delicate creatures, they will also need shelter and a little shade.

Plants that attract butterflies are buddleia or butterfly bushes, lavender, monarda or bee balm, veronica, salvia, rosemary, thyme, sage, roses, yarrow, lamb’s ear, hydrangea, weigela, rudbeckia, echinacea, Shasta daisy and yucca are excellent selections for a beginners butterfly garden.

Recap of How to Attract Butterflies to Your Garden:

• Limit pesticide use
• Place your garden in a sunny area protected from heavy winds
• Plant fragrant, summer flowering butterfly plants
• Use flat surfaces for the butterflies to rest
• Have a shallow water source

By adding some of these suggestions into your garden, you can attract butterflies all summer long.

Greenwood Nursery Your Online Garden Center

How Home Landscape Design Affects the Real Estate Value

Home landscaping is simply, transforming, rearranging, and improving the curb appeal features of the grounds around your home into a more pleasant piece of property from the aesthetic standpoint and for practical use. For example, the garden should have plants or grasses; or the big tree in your backyard needs to be trimmed; or planting complementary foundation plants along the foundation of the house. These decisions can provide a big boost on the value of your real estate. This is especially useful if you plan to list your home for sale.

A neat, attractive home landscape design can increase the value of the home by as much as 15%. So if you have a $300,000 piece of real estate, you've just earned another $45,000 by just adding well designed landscaping. The increased value of your home will not be seen until you decide to place it on the market. The viability of your home does not only lie on the home itself but on the taste of the potential buyers. In other words, an overly personalized home landscape can be expensive but not really viable compared to simple yet attractive design.  The more detailed the landscape, the more work involved in maintaining it.

It is, therefore, important to make sure that you know what type of home landscaping design is more appealing to homebuyers in a span of years so that you keep the value of your home up and at the same time, you attract homebuyers whenever you do decide to sell it.  

English: Part of a landscape and design project by M. D. Vaden of Oregon, in Beaverton, Oregon, with a tree, shrubs, ground covers and ornamental grasses (including blue fescue, Japanese snowbell tree and Nandina domestica 'Gulf Stream'. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Take note of the following tips to learn the best home landscaping designs for the market:

•  Internet, books, magazines, and television shows provide great information about the kinds of landscaping designs that are currently selling.
• Observe home landscapes of other homes in similar neighborhoods. Don’t over landscape for your neighborhood.
• Seek professional help from people in the landscape design business. Hiring a landscape architect for a do-it-yourself landscape design can be well worth the hourly fee.
• If you don’t want to hire professionals, then research and read articles on the basics of landscape design.
• Ask your real estate agent what is normal landscape for your pricing range and what are the latest gardening trends on home design.

You may have followed these tips but you cannot fully guarantee that your landscape design will help your home sell. Take note that your potential buyers seek other factors other than design:

• Special elements, such as waterfalls, fountains, and artificial ponds are some of the most sought after landscape elements that buyers look for. It is surely an attention grabber.
• Low maintenance home landscape design. Different buyers will have different tastes when it comes to the design, but they will surely look for one thing: a low maintenance home landscape design.
• Year-round visual interests. Shrubs, evergreens and other plants that grow all year round are great addition to your garden since buyers usually look for homes that grow plants that never fade during the winter.

Selling your home must start from the outside with curb appeal. That is why it is very important that you have a good landscape design to increase not only the value of your home, but also the viability of it. 

How Home Landscape Design Affects the Real Estate Value by Greenwood Nursery.

Gardening Tips for Beginning Gardeners

If you are a beginning gardener, don't be afraid to delve right in, as it isn’t meant to be difficult. Once you feel the connection, you’ll be hooked on gardening. If you don't know how to start, there is always an avenue of knowledge for you: gardening neighbors or friends, gardening books and gardening magazines to read, watch for new gardening trends, and the Internet to browse for more information. 

English: old books in Château de Breteuil, France (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

At one time, it seemed gardening only appealed to the older folks. But nowadays, people of all ages, children, young adults, adults, and older folks alike enjoy gardening. They see gardening as a refreshing and rewarding hobby. With all the benefits that you get, being a busy, working person should never be used as a hindrance to start growing your own plants indoors or outdoors. You will see the big difference when you get to reap your own fruits of labor.

Would you enjoy a bed of beautiful, colorful flowers, a country garden full of wild flowers and shrubs, manicured lawn strategically placed with shrubs and trees, or just a simple backyard with lots of pots and containers filled with amazing plants? It’s all within your reach to have.  Learn the basics of landscape design.

For a starter, you will need these basic tools: trowel, spade, lawnmower, rake, and plants of your choice to grow. It would help a lot if you have a garden plan based on the space that is available. It will not be difficult to place flowerbeds, lawns, or paths. 

The kinds of garden plants that you will grow will depend on what you want, the availability, and the climate of your location. There are plants that grow only for the season, called annuals, and there are others that can be cultivated to grow year after year, often referred to as perennial. If you consider yourself a hobby gardener, then you would want to have plants that do not grow more than a few seasons. These are perennial plants that allow you to tend to things other than gardening.

If you don't know what plants to start growing, you can always ask assistance from your online plant nursery. The expert staff will know what plants will thrive specifically considering the climate in your area. Also, you can use the Greenwood Nursery Plant Finder online to narrow down your plant search.

The small young plants are great choice if you want to have an automatic decorative display on your garden. 

Smaller, younger plants are easier to plant and require less watering and care to get growing than larger container plants do.

Gardening should be this fun and exciting, and, of course, rewarding, even if you are a beginner. Ready for more? 

Here is a free online gardening course courtesy of BBC Gardener's World. Learn at your own pace.

Learn the basics of landscape design to understand placement of plants and how they are used. 

Gardening Tips for Beginning Gardeners by Greenwood Nursery.

The Most Common 8 Gardening Mistakes and How to Fix Them

Do you realize that gardening mistakes happen right in your front yard? Whether you think that your garden looks good or not, if everything doesn't work together, the entire garden doesn’t work. Let’s talk about the most common gardening mistakes and how to fix them.

Lawn&Garden (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

1. Grass is not greener. This ranks number 1. Why? Most gardens and yards have lawn, but one may be slightly greener than the other. If your lawn looks browner than the soil underneath, it is time to reassess your watering, fertilizing and mowing schedule. Think where you may have gone wrong and make the necessary lawn care adjustments. Tired of lawn care? Consider other lawn substitute options such as ground covers such as periwinkle. Visit Greenwood Nursery for more on lawn substitutes.

2. Tools and clutter are everywhere. They may be useful objects, but if they are just stacked in your garage or tossed in a box, then you think they are not worth the storage. At that point, they don't just look like junk; they are junk. Sort through them one by one and determine whether you want to keep them or not. Your criteria when deciding if they deserve the trip to dump or not is simple: Ask yourself, do you specific plans for them?

3. Your house and garden can be seen from the road. There are several short- and long-term solutions to using plants to create privacy. One quick-fix solution is to build a concrete wall that would separate your garden from the sidewalk view. For a longer, much appealing look, planting fast growing shrubs is a good idea.

4. Weed invasion. Keeping your lawn regularly maintained can solve weed problems. Do a regular walk through to check for weeds about twice a week during the growing season. Dig the weeds out by hand to keep them from re-growing by seeding the empty areas of your lawn.

5. Limited space. If your problem is space, then here's one idea that can definitely help you maximize every square inch of your garden: think vertical gardens. With vertical gardening, you can create a sense of lush greenery by using wall space, arbors and trellises to allow plants to climb upwards.

6. Where's your house? If shrubs have swallowed your house, then hedge clippers comes in handy. You don’t want plants blocking the way from your drive to the front door so some serious pruning may be in order. You want landscaping, not a house in the middle of the forest. Also, tall and over grown shrubs are a security hazard providing a burglar with the protection and opportunity that they would need to break into your home. It's time to select curb appeal plants.

7. Selection and winter care. Some garden plants will not survive winter temperatures without proper care. When planning your garden, be sure to select the majority of your plant that will grow year round and always include a few evergreens and plants with winter interest. In fall be sure to provide your garden plants with a good thick layer (approximately 3 inches) of shredded bark mulch to insulate and provide moisture over the winter months.

8. Fences are falling apart. Fences are not just to separate your property from your neighbor's. They also add to the overall look of your garden. Make sure that you maintain your fences like the way you keep your plants. Use fences as backdrops for your landscaping projects.

8 Gardening Mistakes and How to Correct Them by Greenwood Nursery

The Perfect Mix of Shade Garden Plants for Your Landscape

A shade garden can be a great place of relaxation and serenity. Sitting under the shade, you can do a lot of restful activities without sweating under the sun. Just sit under the shade and enjoy the beauty of the nature, read books, or have casual talks with family members. The uniqueness of the shade garden plants is that they flourish well in areas frequented by limited natural light. The decreased light may be of a morning sun, gloomy sun, or filtered sun. 

These plants require moist soil that is rich in organic matter to grow well. Ideal places to grow the shade-loving plants would be the areas where there is blocked light from tall buildings or in areas receiving diminished light due to tall trees in the surrounding area. When compared to the sun garden plants, the shade loving plants bloom well even with little care and water. They are also easy to maintain.

There are certain varieties of shade garden plants that grow for more than three years under mottled or full-shaded areas. The good thing is, as these plants flourish in the shades of the neighboring trees, they are well protected from the damage or breakage during the extreme temperatures of summer and winter. A perfect shade garden would be the one that has a blend of bright colors, arousing fragrance, nice foliage, and pervasive combination of heucheras.

Shade garden, coming along - 21 June 2012 (Photo credit: mmwm)

Color

By planting a cluster of perennial shade-growing plants in your garden, you can witness a steady presence of colors in your shade garden. Azalea is a colorful shade-flourishing plant that bears brightly colored flowers during the spring. The astilbe bears flowers with varying colors- red, pink, purple and white. It blooms a variety of such colors predominantly in the June and July. Bee balm is an attractive shade garden plant that bears white and red fragrant flowers starting in mid summer and lasting till the end of fall. This means, you can sit back and have an extended garden season on your landscape.

Fragrance

Two shade garden plants, the daylily and hydrangeas are well known for their fragrances. The flowers of daylily live for only a day but produces magical fragrance. Hydrangeas have green foliage and naturally scented flowers. Hydrangea blooms will vary in color according to variety selected and the pH of your soil. White blooming hydrangeas are not affected by the soil’s pH.

Foliage

Add foliage to your shade garden with an assortment of ferns. Large growing ferns such as the royal and ostrich ferns make excellent backdrop plants while the delicate lady and maidenhair ferns mix well with other plants such as hostas. Variegated hosta varieties like the patriot, revolution and Francee brighten up dark shaded garden areas.

Heuchera

A shade plant garden would certainly look incomplete without the vibrant foliage of the many evergreen heuchera varieties. The leaves can be seen in various hues- green, pink, purple and many more. Grow the North American native Heuchera plant in the shade landscape; this colorful plant won’t fail to grab the attention of any visitor that visits your shade garden.

Tips for Growing Fern Plants in Shade Loving Gardens

When you think of fern plants, the first thing that comes to your mind is their long attractive leaves. Fern plants are interesting for many reasons. They can thrive in the shaded areas to great heights, texture and color. Ferns flourish better in a woodland garden that requires at least partial shade. When grown in a sunny garden, they will require protection from the hot afternoon sun. 

Ostrich Fern Fiddlehead (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If your have a large maple or an oak tree in your yard, the fern plant would be one of the best shade-loving plants you will want to include. There are different types of fern plants that can be grown indoors as well as outdoors. The indoor fern plants might need a little bit of more watering while the outdoor fern plants can thrive well in predominantly shady lawn and garden areas.

Ferns are among the few species of non-flowering plants. They reproduce by means of the spores that found underneath their leaves. Ferns come in different shapes and sizes. Their height can range from a few inches to as much as 6 feet tall.

Some of the popular types of fern plants are Lady Fern, Cinnamon Fern, Maidenhair and Japanese Painted Fern. Two unusual ferns are the arborvitae fern, which really isn't a fern, and the true ostrich fern, which produces edible fiddleheads.

Popular evergreen ferns are the Autumn Brilliance and Christmas Ferns.

Generally, ferns prefer soils with more moisture content but not too watery. Some types of ferns will freeze during the winter. It is important that you choose your fern based on two things: the climate in your area and the type of landscape (shaded or sunny).

Tips for outdoor ferns:

One important thing you need to know is that over exposure to sunlight might dry out the ferns. Therefore, it is best to plant the fern plants in the shady areas of your garden. Let the place be mildly shady but not completely shaded. Ideal shades would be those from the tall trees creating a woodland feel with filtered light. Ferns like maidenhair grow well in dappled shade.

Test the quality of the soil before planting the ferns. They generally prefer soil that is more acidic than alkaline. If your soil is alkaline then you might have to get some fresh soil that is more acidic and plant your ferns in it. A suitable soil can be prepared by adding peat moss and sand in the ratio of 3:1 and mixing it up with the fresh soil.

Planting the ferns is simple. Just dig a hole that is more or less the same size of the fern pot and plant the fern in the hole so that the plant sits just above (approximately 1 to 2 inches) the ground level.

Ensure that the soil has good amount of moisture content but continually damp or wet. At times when there is heavy rainfall or excess humidity, see to that the moisture content doesn’t change drastically. The best way to combat such extreme climatic conditions is to bring the ferns indoors. If they are maintained at a temperature of not more than 60 degrees then they will maintain the moisture content that is required for their growth. What if the temperature is on the lower positive range? In such cases, you might allow the ferns to freeze temporarily. Once the climate gets back to normal, add more organic manure to the soil and replant them back in the outdoors.

Tips for Growing Vertical Gardens

The new buzz phrase in gardening is vertical gardening. Vertical gardening is landscaping or using plants to draw the eye upwards which creates a larger, more airy space. Any space or landscape can benefit from vertical gardening, especially small yards, apartment balconies, limited spaces as well as large unused exterior walls.

The new trend in vertical gardening is to build up. Pallet gardening is one way to build up. 

Other ways are trellises, arbors, teepees, window boxes, hanging baskets, varied sizes of containers, or merely planting shrubs and trees that are tall and narrow.

Vertical Gardening Planting Tips:

• Mix water retentive polymers into the planting soil.
• Water frequently - daily during hot weather.
• Add nutrients to the soil more often than ground growing plants.
• Prune regularly.
• Deadhead flowers right away.
• Harvest fruits or pick vegetebles as they mature.

Plant Ideas for Vertical Gardens:

• Vines
• Small growing fruits such as strawberries.
• Succulents - Hen and Chicks
• Ferns
• Hostas
• Columnar evergreens - North Pole and Emerald Green Arborvitae (planted in the ground)
• Creeping phlox
• Drift roses
• Heucheras
• Creeping sedums
• Creeping euonymus (ground covers)
• Vegetables - tomatoes, peas, beans, etc.
• Herbs
• Ivy
• Small ornamental grasses

Butterfly Bush Gardens Make Welcoming Habitats for Butterflies and Hummingbirds

Growing butterfly bushes is a popular hobby for many Americans? The enchanting colors of buddleia flowers, the bracing fragrance of the leaves, the hypnotic effect of the stems swaying back and forth, the sight of the trees rattling their leaves when touched by the gentle breeze, and of course, the green background of the landscape - all contribute to the uniqueness of a scenic butterfly garden. Hey wait a minute; is something missing? Yes, the butterflies!

Who doesn’t like to see a rabble of butterflies fluttering in the garden? Watching those colorful butterflies flit from one plant to another and circling in rabbles can be a great stress-relieving site for anyone. If your garden is without the butterflies then you might consider making it colorfully attractive by planting butterfly bushes.

Also referred to as summer lilac or buddleia, butterfly bushes are attractive flowering shrubs that can embellish the look of any garden. They grow fast, filling the neighboring space in quick time. And they flourish well in any type of well-drained soil; regardless of it is gravel, clay or sandy type. The butterfly bushes are flowering plants that provide a welcoming habitat for the butterflies and hummingbirds. Butterflies and bees love to feed on the nectar-rich flowers. One good thing about the butterfly bushes is that they don’t drop dead flowers.

Butterfly Bush Planting Tips

There are different butterfly bushes that thrive well in different climatic conditions. They generally spread quickly; hence should be planted at a distance of at least 6 feet away from each other, depending on the specific variety. The butterfly bushes grow at heights ranging from 5 to 15 feet, although some of the newer hybrids are small growing at 3 feet. Typically, they need at least six hours of direct exposure to sunlight everyday and should be watered regularly.

Maintenance and Variety

Butterfly bushes require regular trimming as they can grow fast in quick time. For best growth results, constant pruning of the dead petals should be done; this will make them bloom longer and grow denser. The ideal time for pruning is from July till the tail end of winter. There are over 100 varieties of butterfly bushes in the world. The flowering plants of butterfly bushes come in multiple colors ranging from red and blue to pink and purple to white and yellow and lots more. As a warning, do not use insecticides on your butterfly bushes as they can kill the butterfly larvae or sometimes even the butterflies.

Best Butterfly Garden Plants Habitats

Having butterfly bushes to attract the butterflies and humming birds is a great idea. But it would be wiser to think out of the box and create a friendly habitat for the butterflies. One such idea is to incorporate a few flat rocks in the surrounding area where the butterflies can enjoy and bask in the sun. Also, butterflies need some place to cool off. You can provide a relaxing habitat by including small muddy patches in your garden.

Butterfly bushes are available in a large variety of single colors- purple, orange, blue, red, pink etc. They are also available as bi-colored plants. A great selection of butterfly plants is available in smaller container sizes that are easily affordable from Greenwood Nursery.

Check out our Instant Butterfly Garden Plant Package!