We’re now solidly through 2017 . . . A re-read of this Important Post would be good, very good, for very many, we think. I’ll bet Leslie, Virginia, Angela, Barbara Ann and Cathy would vote with me on this!
This flawless, magnificent Hibiscus bloom was growing at the entrance to the Phipps Conservatory’s Outdoor Gardens in my hometown, Pittsburgh. The earlier post we made, with this same flower, shared that despite alot of time spent posted right there, there were no insect visitors. None, and I was there in the middle morning, when flies, bees, butterflies, beetles and others are at their busiest. Nothing flew or walked or crawled to get the nectar of this stunning giant of a flower.
Recently, a visit to Kathy at Sylvania Natives, a Pittsburgh nursery that devotes itself to selling native plants, led to her recommendation that I read Douglas W. Tallamy’s Bringing Nature Home (Timber Press, 2007). It was slow getting into it, then . . . . Wow! The Revelation? It was something that has puzzled me for much of my life. I remember the gardens, carefully coiffured, of the…
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Winged Beauty Butterflies 
There are natives from the hibiscus/mallow family with just as stunning blooms that would be appropriate for our butterfly havens and habitats. My favorite is Hibiscus moscheutos L. You can read about it here: https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=himo
They do best with wet feet and semi shade and are easy to start from seed. I especially like the white ones with the crimson centers. The first time I ever saw them blooming in the wild was in Ohio along the Lake Erie shoreline and I was totally “WOWED”
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