Monarchs and Friends Paradise Kit

PLEASE NOTE: Pickup is June 5-7 in Maywood or June 6-7 in Lemont. Click the link in your order confirmation or main webpage to sign up for a time slot in either location--Maywood or Lemont.

This 15 plant kit provides an easy way to add beautiful Monarch butterfly attracting plants to your existing or new sunny garden. 

All the plants like full to part sun, medium to dry soil and range from 2-3 feet in height. The season spanning blooms will provide nectar and pollen for native bees and other important pollinators. The kit can be planted in an area of 10-15 sq. ft. 

Kit contains 3 plants of each species:  

• Butterfly Weed is the only orange-flowering milkweed. It provides a food/host plant for Monarch caterpillars and nectar for the adults and also for bees and other pollinators.
  
• Pale Purple Coneflower provides early summer nectar for a variety of insects, and seeds for the birds in winter.
• Calico Beardtongue’s pink and white tubular flowers provide late spring nectar to butterflies, bees and hummingbirds.
• Showy Black-Eyed Susan's bright yellow blooms attract butterflies all summer and seeds feed goldfinches in the fall
• Early Goldenrod provides mid-late summer food source for butterflies (including the Monarch), moths, wasps and numerous other insects.  

Add Some Grasses

We recommend planting kits interspersed with grasses and/or sedges to create a native plant community.  In the prairie native flowering plants grow intermingled with grasses which creates habitat for wildlife. The grasses provide food and cover for birds, insects and other small animals. This approach also helps control weeds.

Recommended Grasses:

Blue Grama, Side-Oats Grama, Purple Love Grass, Little Bluestem, Prairie-Dropseed, June Grass

Kit Details:

• Kit costs $45. You save $7.50 over the cost of purchasing plants individually.
• Light: Full to mostly sun
• Soil: Medium to dry
• Height: Plants range from 1- 2.5 feet
• Blooms:  May-October

Plant Care Tips: New plants need care for the first growing season.

• Plant ASAP in a spot that gets full sun (6+ hours) or at least 4 hours direct sun. 
• Water them every day, or as needed depending on precipitation and other weather conditions for the first month. 
• They might need temporary shade.
• Consider protection from rabbits in the first season.
• Mulch and regular weeding are also required until plants fill in.

Photo credit: 1. Monarch-Illinois Dept. of Natural Resources, 2. Stephanie Walquist - Wild Ones West Cook, IL Wildflowers-www.illinoiswildflowers.info