Garden Tour Part 2: Perennial Bed

How FALL Planting Benefits the 2025 Garden?

June 07, 2025

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Happy weekend GROWer,

we’re back to our seasonal temps and with ample rains, and the spring garden is in fine form to support monarchs and other pollinator visitors.

Early June brings a short spring lull after the lilacs have finished blooming and most of the favored nectar plants haven’t started blooming yet. By mid-to late June a bounty of nourishing nectar will be available for butterflies and more. But even so, the climbing roses are blossoming in full force and the ageratum is putting out its first flowers. And, of course, several milkweed varieties are ready to support monarch caterpillars.

In Today’s Newsletter:

  • 2025 UPDATE: Growing Milkweed Under Water

  • 🎥 Garden Tour Part 2: Fall Planted Liatris + More

  • PAGE UPDATE: Butterfly Garden Resources

🌿 Growing Milkweed Under Water❓🤿

If you followed our garden adventures last summer, you witnessed our successful attempt to grow an Asclepias incarnata plant under water.

Not only did it grow from the depths of our water feature, it was used as both a nectar plant and host plant…I even retrieved a large caterpillar from a leaf to finish raising it indoors.

So, why did we move this swamp milkweed plant back to dry land this year? We saw three potential issues with this set up:

  1. Our resident leopard frogs are lurking underneath and it was only a matter of time until they crawled up this plant to investigate and, most likely, devour the unsuspecting caterpillar.

  2. If a caterpillar ever fell off this plant, it would instantly drown…or be devoured by 🐸

  3. The frog can also snatch butterflies mid-air, so no more nectar pots by (or in) the water feature

While it’s true that most monarchs won’t survive in your garden (estimates vary between 1 and 5% survival rate) it’s not my goal to set up death traps that make survival even less likely. So sometimes experiments work, and sometimes you need to pivot…

If you’re able to monitor your milkweed daily, it’s still an option to consider trying, but just be aware of the potential pitfalls with ‘under the sea’ milkweed:

Growing Swamp Milkweed Under Water ⬅️ (photo and Instructions)

Garden Wildlife Report

The night after your last newsletter, I heard another loud tree frog out by the water feature, but didn’t bother to check for eggs this time, as it seems most are likely to perish before reaching froghood. What about raising a few frogs? It’s like raising monarchs, but 10x harder and it takes 100 days! 😳

This video illustrates the trials and tribulations of raising frogs and reminds me of when I brought in pearl crescent eggs and was overrun by caterpillars (I need to get on that blog post!). As with everything, moderation is the key:

As for pollinators, I have seen no less than 3 lovely 👸 ladies dropping off their kids in the past week! 🦋🦋🦋

I have also seen a couple tiger swallowtails, and a couple other butters too far away to ID.

We have a resident hummingbird, but I think it’s a new one because he/she seems much more afraid of us. She even flies off when she sees me through the office window. Also, it has some particularly strange habits compared to past hummers…

It likes to dip his beak in the waterfall of our water feature (never seen any do this before) and prefers blooms to the feeder (especially strange in spring when less nectar is available). I tried re-cleaning the feeder and putting in more sugar water, but that did not increase visits. She had been feeding on the lilacs, but those are finished for the season. The ‘may night’ salvia is blooming out front, so that should keep her satisfied until more flowers unfold.

Garden Plant Report

This week belongs to the climbing roses which are a favorite nectar source for smaller bees:

I don’t know the exact species because these were compliments of the last gardener that lived here. Thank you Marjorie! 😇

The yellow climbing rose (also a pollinator plant) is not blooming yet, but check it out from our old garden here ⬅️

Let’s continue with the next edition of Garden Tours…

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🎥 Garden Tour: Off the Deck Part 1 

This next garden is located just off the right side of our deck and is successfully transforming to a perennial garden, from more annual the past couple seasons. Check out this emerging pollinator paradise and see the single annual plant we include…can you guess what it is?

Thanks for your patience during these first videos. They will get better over time with more practice. At least, that’s the plan…🤞

Check the resources section below for more info on some of the plants in the video…

Garden Resources

Here are some resources from today’s newsletter:

Growing Swamp Milkweed Under Water ⬅️ (photo and Instructions)

Quick Fab Fire Panicle Hydrangea ⬅️ (pollinator plant)

Liatris ligulistylis (meadow blazingstar) ⬅️ (ULTIMATE monarch magnet)

Butterfly Garden Resources ⬅️ (blog page update)

Abelia Sweet Emotion? 🤔 I’m not finding enough first-hand growing info, so I’ll be sharing more updates from our 2025 garden before recommending it, or not…


🦋 Spread the GOOD BUZZ 🐝

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Coming Up Next?

The Garden Tour Continues….I’ll show you our central backyard garden bed including our water feature, where, perhaps, you’ll catch a glimpse of our resident leopard frog. 🐸

Blue Skies and Butterflies,

Tony your Butterfly Guide 🦋