Plan Your Landscape or Garden to Help Beloved Backyard Visitors The presence of birds, bees, and butterflies suggests a healthy, earth-friendly place. These most welcome guests also bring joy to those who appreciate watching them. Now, you can turn your yard into a perfect habitat that attracts them and, more importantly, helps them thrive. Acclaimed author and expert entomologist Jaret C. Daniels provides all the information you need in this must-have guide for Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. You can learn how to landscape and create pollinator gardens with native plants. The book begins with an in-depth introduction to native pollinators and to birds. It’s followed by a “field guide” section to 109 native plants that are widely available to utilize, are easy to care for, and provide great benefit to birds, bees, and butterflies. The species are organized by level of sunlight needed and then by plant types. Each species includes full-color photographs and information about hardiness zones, what they are most likely to attract, soil requirements, light levels, and Jaret’s notes. As an added bonus, you’ll make use of blooming charts, tips on attracting specific species, and more! Plus, the invaluable garden plans and projects show you just what to do and can be customized to suit your own specific interests. Plan, plant, and grow your own beautiful garden, with native plants that benefit your favorite creatures to watch and enjoy. Jaret C. Daniels, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Entomology at the University of Florida and Director of the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity at the Florida Museum of Natural History, specializing in insect ecology and conservation. He has authored numerous scientific papers, popular articles, and books on wildlife conservation, insects, and butterflies, including butterfly field guides for Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, Ohio, and Michigan. He is also the author of Vibrant Butterflies: Our Favorite Visitors to Flowers and Gardens; Backyard Bugs: An Identification Guide to Common Insects, Spiders, and More; and Our Love of Bees. Jaret currently lives in Gainesville, Florida, with his wife, Stephanie. Common Milkweed Asclepias syriaca Family: Apocynaceae Plant Characteristics: Tall upright herbaceous perennial 2–6 feet or more in height with large oblong green leaves and showy rounded clusters of fragrant lavender flowers. Weedy growth habit; Spreads rapidly by rhizomes and can form extensive colonies. USDA Hardiness Zone: 3–9 Bloom Period: Summer (June–August) Growing Conditions: Prefers full sun and medium to dry, well-drained soils. Tolerant of poor soils and drought. Attracts: Very attractive to butterflies, bees, and other insect pollinators, as well as hummingbirds. Notes: As its name implies, this native perennial is one of the most widespread and common encountered milkweeds in our region and a key larval host resource for the monarch. Regularly found along roadsides, fencerows, woodland borders, and in old fields and prairies, it is an aggressive colonizer of disturbed sites, spreading by both underground rhizomes and airborne seed. Common Milkweed is very easy to grow and fast to establish. The plant is tolerant of poor soils, drought, and neglect. Despite its weedy habit, it is a worthy addition to gardens and larger naturalized or wild spaces, adding unique texture and interest. A profuse bloomer, the large rounded flower clusters perfume the air with a delightful fragrance and are exceptionally attractive to butterflies, sphinx moths, beetles, bees, and many more insect pollinators. Later in the season, the flowers give rise to large, elongated, and somewhat spiny seedpods that split open at maturity to release copious amounts of silky-tufted seeds that spread by the wind. Deer resistant. Easy to propagate by seed.