Native Plant Series: Bee Balm

Plant This: Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) is a bright orange native wildflower that grows in well drained and rocky soil. It is also a great plant for a steep slope in your garden or yard. Butterfly Milkweed attracts butterflies (obviously) as well as other pollinators to its flowers. This plant is a host plant for the universally loved Monarch Butterfly. Butterfly Milkweed is a great replacement plant for the Day Lily. Although these plants are very common in our area, I am sorry to say that the Day Lily is an invasive, problematic plant that is in so many of our yards. The most common variety, the Tiger Lily (Hemerocallis fulva) and other orange Day Lillies should be removed from your landscaping. They are taking over naturalized areas because so many people don’t realize that they are a problem. Time to put on the garden gloves and start digging!

To learn more about native butterfly milkweed and other preferred native plants, visit https://extension.umd.edu/resource/recommended-native-plants-maryland/

To learn more about the dangers of invasive day lillies, visit https://www.invasive.org/alien/pubs/midatlantic/hefu.htm