Good morning friends! How's everyone? I'd like to find out how both the late and tall bonsets improve the atmosphere in any wildlife garden day in and day out and do they aid birds in some sort of way? Also heard they're a substitute for the milkweed for nectar during migration. Where they fit into a wildlife garden? Please let know how these plants benefit your gardens and how they help butterflies and other creatures. Have a good day!
Thanks! Do these plants belong in the background with the taller plants such as sunflowers and grass? Which other insects benefit from them besides monarchs? Anybody spotted these butterflies visiting the plants during migration and how they react?
Bonsets attract lots of insects when in bloom, and so do other late blooming flowers in the aster family too. The more the merrier. Monarchs like visiting the Jerusalem artichoke flowers as they migrate through. But I wonder if they already left when the bonsets are blooming in your area.
I got some sunchokes, milkweeds, sunflowers, asters, wild bergamot and stuff and will my sweet everlasting do well with them since I'll be having some soon?
Late flowering boneset is covered in tiny pollinators every time I have checked them. I don't know if they would specifically benifit monarchs. They do benifit my family. During flu symptoms we use dried leaves, with equal part dried willow leaves as a tea several times a day. We tend to recover more quickly than other folk who are ill at the same time.
Depending on how good the soil is, in my yard it can grow from 2 to 5 feet tall. That's the difference between grass and garden locations.
I don't know if it benefited them but when I was growing up we had a large wide spreading black willow tree that got was covered in monarchs once each fall. A few dozen would show up for a couple of days then many 1000's would show up late in the day one day and be there thru the next morning and be gone. It was apparently a reliable rest stop going south.
To be clear, late boneset is not used as an ice tea. It is not a yummy thing without honey. Also, it is probably better medicinally with the dried flowers. Buuuut, they always go to seed on me while drying. Gone to seed flowers produce a nasty flavor. I don't use them dried for that reason. I shudder in memory. We use late flowering boneset for anything that common bonesset is used for. This is my decision, and it lacks clinical studies to back it up. I know not all herbs can substitute a sister variety.
For willow, the white ones have the most research done on them. But I believe they all can be used for their benefits. My yard only grows the black willow, so that is what I use. Also medicinally only. Too much can become a problem.
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