Birds, Bees and Butterflies are Back in the Garden

If you grow them, they will come. So I planted shrubs that attracted songbirds, hummingbirds and bees along with hosts and nectar plants for butterflies. Then Hurricane Ian came along.

When Hurricane Irma made landfall on Marco Island in September 2017, I lost ten mature fruit trees and my landscape went from shady to full sunlight. I planted a combination of Florida native and Florida-friendly non-native plants which are considered to be more salt and drought tolerant.

In Marco, it was reported that the surge was about seven to eight feet during Hurricane Ian with salt water flooding many backyards, damaging properties and wiping out vegetation.

As residents living in coastal Marco, we are all too aware of the damaging effects of salt to plants. Salt burned the roots and salt spray burned the leaves of plants leaving us with defoliated trees and brown crispy hedges. Many are wondering if their brown fruit trees such as mangos and avocados will bounce back.

For the first several weeks post Ian, my backyard was flowerless. The bees and butterflies had lost most of their foraging food sources. During a normal September, the butterfly bushes would be full of ripe berries for the birds.

Hope came three weeks later when we sighted a lone hungry hummingbird trying to sip nectar from a dried flower spike. We quickly put out the supplemental nectar feeder and made sure the bird seeds for the birds were fresh and the birdbaths were clean. Soon the cardinals and the doves came back, and we were surprised by a stunning painted bunting foraging in the underbrush. We also spotted a house finch feeding on white millet seeds in the caged feeder. 

For the second month, suddenly our bright Red dwarf powderpuff and Pink powder puff started to bloom with layers of soft fuzzy flowers and buds and the honeybees were deep inside the blooms.

Post Ian I’ve noticed more visitation from Florida’s giant swallowtail butterfly (Papilio cresphontes), so I planted host plants such as rue, parsley and dwarf citrus plants. Mainly I want to promote wildlife and pollinators in my garden providing a steady source of nectar and food to butterflies and other feeders.

The Dombeya wallichii shrub is now covered with clusters of tightly packed balls of pink flowers resembling a corsage. I grew this plant for the honeybees and the bumblebees (Bombus griseocollis) but the bumblebee has yet to visit. 

Here is a list of plants that came back and are in different stages of buds and blooms providing a whimsical rainbow of colors: Firebush, Firespike, Red Rocket Firecracker, native Purple Passion Vine, Coral Honeysuckle vine, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, Red Salvia, Panama Rose, Gaillardia pulchella, Dune sunflower, sunshine mimosa ground cover and coreopsis.

It is now two months since Hurricane Ian and my mango and avocado trees still look brown… should I cut them down? I’ve observed a slow transformation in some of the fruit trees in the neighborhood as they are showing signs of recovery. Depending on the variety it might skip a season to bear fruit.

Immediately after the hurricane I gave my shrubs and small trees a good washing to rinse the salt away. I am often asked the question “are native plants better than non-native plants” in surviving a hurricane. I am not an exclusive native only gardener and I don’t know many who are. I planted a mix of natives and non-natives after Hurricane Irma and I believe this diversity is what gives my garden a unique identity giving it a “wild and natural” look.

I have a beautiful scented Ylang Ylang tree that is native to Asia - I love its shape and fragrant blooms, and it also provides shelter to wildlife. But I try to avoid invasive plants because they are difficult to control in the landscape. 

I’ve purchased many of my native pollinators from the Florida Native Plant Society – a good resource for native plants at: www.fnpsnaples.org.