Planting for butterflies

Q: I've dug out grass in a sunny corner to make a butterfly garden. Can you please suggest a few plants that will attract butterflies to my garden? I don't have a big place, so trees are out.

A: First, and most important, remember that if you want to attract any creature to your garden, banish all poisons from your garden. Pesticides and herbicides kill off the good insects as surely as the ones you'd prefer not to entertain.

Butterflies love lavender, lilac, honeysuckle, virburnum, mock orange, phlox, bee balm, yarrow, cosmos and coneflowers, among other plants. See the list section at the front of the Sunset Western Garden Book (revised edition, 2007) for many more choices.

To encourage butterflies to hang out in your garden, provide a little mud and water by installing a pond liner, or even filling a birdbath or dish rock with water. They like to hang out and engage in "muddling" or "puddling" behaviors, which look pretty much like preening those gorgeous wings of theirs.

And if you grow some broccoli, dill, carrots, hollyhock and kinnikinick you'll feed the caterpillars who turn into butterflies. To get more ideas and see a demonstration garden of butterfly-attracting plants, visit the outdoor area of the Woodland Park Zoo's butterfly exhibit.

Q: I have purchased a Hamamelis virginiana and I don't think it is anything like what you have written about. Will you let me know exactly which witch hazel has great fragrance and blooms in January/February?

A: The liniment witch hazel is made from the bark of Hamamelis virginia, but that's your plant's main claim to fame. The Chinese witch hazels (Hamamelis mollis), and plants crossed with them, are supremely fragrant and bloom in winter (H. virginiana blooms in autumn and its flowers are so small they're often lost beneath the leaves). Some of the earliest-blooming witch hazels are Hamamelis x intermedia, which have the Chinese witch hazels as one of their parents; 'Pallida' blooms earliest in late January or February; 'Diane' has dark red flowers, and 'Arnold's Promise' has large, bright yellow flowers a little later in the winter. All are deliciously fragrant.

Q: A new plant has come to our attention. We are wondering what conditions and care it needs in the Northwest. We saw it at the Point Defiance Zoo grounds. It is from South Africa and may be considered a pest by some. Can you shed any light on the Giant Honey Flower?

A: I'd never heard Melianthus major called the "giant honey flower" nor can I imagine it being a pest in our climate, because while it prefers more warmth it survives our winters when located in the right spot. These are gorgeous soft wood plants, grown for their blue-gray saw-tooth foliage that is tropical-looking, and smells strongly of peanut butter when you rub or crush a leaf.

This showy South African beauty needs well-drained soil and all the sun and warmth you can provide, which it'll reward by growing 5-6 feet high over the summer. If you find a warm enough spot in your garden that melianthus doesn't get nipped down to the ground in a hard frost, you'll get late winter flowers which are dark red and gloomy looking. In most situations, you'll have the best luck getting melianthus through the winter alive by cutting it down around Thanksgiving (which is so hard to do, because they're usually looking full and lush in November) and mulching with its own leaves, clearing the foliage away in spring when it starts to sprout. Melianthus major 'Antonow's Blue', named after the late famed local horticulturist Steve Antonow, is an especially stunning kind with silvery blue foliage.

Note from a reader: "I was sorry to see that you did not include the Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD) in your recent column when answering the question "How can I find a landscape designer?"APLD is an international organization that provides landscape designer certification and continuing education opportunities for professionals. There are chapters for many states, including Washington. Those who are interested in finding a qualified landscape designer can visit the Washington chapter Web site at http://www.apldwa.org.In addition, the Washington State Nursery and Landscape Association awards Certified Professional Horticulturist to those who show proficiency with horticulture and design knowledge and skills. Many CPHs are also landscape designers. The WSNLA web page (www.wsnla.org) includes a Buyers Guide to search for local services.