Looking for pollinator plants for San Antonio’s Tricentennial Pollinator Habitat Challenge?
GardenstyleSA has an exhaustive list, curated specifically for San Antonio. Check it out here.
Other useful resources:
- Butterfly Gardening–Useful article with links to more resources assembled by Texas AGrilife Extension, home of the Texas Master Gardeners
- Native plants for Butterfly Gardens–curated by Native Plant Society of Texas
- Planting for Pollinators–by the Houston Arboretum
- Gardening for Monarchs–Monarch Joint Venture
San Antonio straddles several ecosystems and can benefit from multiple lists, thus, exceptionally useful are two plants lists from the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center, based 70 miles up the road in Austin.
Their list of recommended pollinator plants of Central Texas includes 103 species, and their choices for South Texas add another 116 to the appropriate pollinator plant palette for our region.
Another great resource, especially for San Antonio: Plant a Butterfly Garden, assembled by botanist/horticulturist and Gardening Volunteers of South Texas icon Charles Bartlett. The handout lays out step-by-step what to do and how, which plants and where and everything in between.
The Pollinator Partnership, a pollinator advocacy organization based in San Francisco, offers regionalized plant guides, including one just for our part of the world, Selecting Plants for Pollinators in the Southwest. Their free and downloadable 24-page booklet does a fantastic job explaining the importance of pollinators while also recommending specific plant recommended specifically for our region.
The Xerces Society, an Oregon-based invertebrate advocacy organization, also has great regionally curated plant lists. Texas belongs in the Southern Plains Region. The selected plants for our region are available in the three-page handout, with a chart
If you’re wondering about milkweed species, this article on Aslcepias curassavica for the Native Plant Society of Texas Magazine includes info about the pros and cons of planting nonnative milkweed.
Useful posts
- Planting a pollinator garden? Here’s tips on how to do it
- Cowpen Daisy plays host plant to Bordered Patch Butterfly
- Frostweed earns its name with intriguing ice sculptures at first frost
- Mostly native urban butterfly garden outperforms lawn anytime
- New study: nectar plants more important than milkweed for monarch butterfly migration