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Gardening is a productive activity that enhances the beauty of your home, and attracts wildlife that is vital for the healthy pollination of your plants. Hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies, are great pollinators. Californians are lucky. They live in a state that is capable of growing numerous vibrant colored plants and trees. Many California plants survive bad drought, and need little water.

Humming birds, native bees and butterflies, are attracted to California fuchsia, which grows brilliant orange-red flowers and needs little water. They also love Salvia Indigo Spires, a perennial that sprouts blue-violet pedals. The Yarrow (Achillea) plant is frost resistant and attracts bees and butterflies. Hummingbirds like fragrant cream colored flower plumes that sprout from "The California buckeye (Aesculus californica)."

Other great California flowers to plant are: Lavender, a purple flower plant, the Pincushion flower, cultivars in blue, lavender, and pink. Gaillardia flowers have a wide variety of hot and vibrant colors, red, yellow, copper and rich burgundy.

Three plants that are recommended for butterfly gardens are, pentas, lantana, and butterfly bush (Buddleia). Pentas are planted as annuals in Atlanta, but in Georgia, some ot them survive as perennials. Fennels will attract swallow tail butterflies. Butterflies are attracted to nectar producing plants, larval food plants, and they need shallow pools of water. Tight throated flowers won't help them. They need opened pedaled flowers that are pungent, and sweetly fragrant. Herbaceous and wood perennials are considered major nectar food plants.

A wide variety of butterfly larvae include willow, wild cherry, milk weeds, sweet bay, passion vine, legumes, crucifers, and asters. Caterpillars also like to eat marigolds, Queen Anne's lace, and violets. Butterflies are attracted to the beauty bush, the butterfly bush, sunflowers, lilacs, snapdragons, and zinnias. Southeast wildflowers are an excellent source of nectar and larvae food. The University of Georgia, commercially markets wildflower seed mixes that can be sown in sunny meadow gardens. It's a simple and low-cost way to supplement butterfly and larvae food source.

Humming birds are attracted to red flowers because bees avoid them, and they find a better quality of nectar that satisfies their sugar intake. They like red roses and red tulips. Red thistle is a magnet for hummingbirds and monarch butterflies. Honeysuckled rose is one of the hummingbirds favorite

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