Preplanned Sunny Hellstrip

Douglas' Aster (Symphyotrichum subspicatum) is a keystone species supporting bumblebees, honey bees, leaf cutter bees, hoverflies, and butterflies with vital late-season nectar. It also serves as a larval host plant for a number of butterflies and moths, including the painted lady, the northern crescent, the field crescent, and the Isabella tiger moth. Blooming from July through October, these bright flowers will be a highlight of your native hellstrip through winter as birds feast on the seedheads.

Canada Goldenrod (Solidago canadensis) is a an absolute magnet for pollinators while being hardy enough to survive in even the toughest hellstrip. Goldenrod is an incredible food source for a diverse set of pollinators including leafcutter bees, gentle, solitary wasps, grey hairstreak and American lady butterflies, and it is a host plant for the northern checkerspot butterfly, several specialist moths, and even some beetles.

As a bonus, this plant looks really cool throughout the winter, holding it's cotton-like, fluffy seedheads high above the surrounded grasses, giving your hellstrip garden amazing texture while providing a snack for hungry birds.

Cascade Oregon Grape (Mahonia nervosa) is a powerhouse, providing four seasons of interest for your sunny hellstrip. The show starts with early yellow blooms that attract and feed bumblebee queens, mason bees, and hummingbirds. Once the flowers fade, bright blue fruit (that can hang around through winter) attracts towhees, robins, and waxwings. Moths and butterflies like the Echo Blue Azure and Brown Elfin rely on this plant as a larval host. Throughout the summer and fall the evergreen leaves redden in the sun and provide excellent cover throughout the winter. The holly-like leaves are a great addition to winter bouquets and the plant even has medicinal qualities for aspiring witches.

Common Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) is the perfect addition to your sunny hellstrip with blooms lasting from April through September. The flat umbel flowers are easy landing pads for tiny bees and a favorite of various butterflies. Solitary bees, sweat bees, syrphid flies, and small butterflies will appreciate the continuous summer forage buffer provided by yarrow while you enjoy how incredibly low-maintenance and drought-tolerant this plant is. Yarrow holds it's seed heads throughout winter offering a beautiful silhouette to your perennial garden.

Roemer’s fescue (Festuca roemeri) is a perennial bunchgrass with a welcome pop of blue-green color to add depth to your hellstrip. Not content to rely on good looks alone, Roemer's fescue provides shelter and food to several Skipper butterflies, including the rare Mardon skipper (Polites mardon) which relies on it as a larval food host.

Harebell (Campanula rotundifolia) will delight you with bright blue blooms that last throughout the summer months, offering seasonal color to your sunny hellstrip and serving as a welcome source of nectar for long-tongue bees and other pollinators preferring a bell-shaped flower. It is not a known host plant for any butterflies or moths, but two species of specialist bees, Colletes brevicornis and Colletes titusensis, rely on harebells as host plants for their young.

Tufted Hairgrass (Deschampsia cespitosa) is a perennial garden superstar popularized by renowned garden designer Piet Oudolf. Native to North America, this powerhouse of a plant offers a full four-seasons of interest and is a larval host for several species of declining meadow butterflies including Skipper & satyrid butterflies. This tufting, non-aggressive grass starts the year as a dark green bunchgrass. In summer, it sends up long sunlight-catching golden blooms that dance gracefully in a breeze. The seedheads remain through the winter offering a welcome food source for birds while creating year-round structure for your hellstrip garden. This plant needs some moisture in the soil to thrive, and can even handle partial shade.

Wooly Sunflower (Eriophyllum lanatum) also called Oregon Sunshine is the perfect plant for your sunny hellstrip. It's a larval foodhost for painted lady butterflies along with several other species of native butterflies and moths. It's bright flowers attract native sweat bees, mining bees, mason bees, hover flies, and tachinid flies. It's also known to attract the endangered Fender’s Blue butterfly as a preferred nectar source.

Arrowleaf Buckwheat (Eriogonum compositum) is the sole larval host plant for the Smith's Blue butterfly (Euphilotes enoptes) along with several other native blue butterflies, making it a critical climate-forward resource to include in your hellstrip. As a keystone “nursery+dinner” in dry PNW sites, it not only supports the continued existence of our butterflies, it feeds bees, butterflies, wasps, and beetles. You'll appreciate the creamy, cottony blooms that float like little clouds above the arrow-shaped leaves.

The long blooms of Aspen Fleabane (Erigeron speciosus) keep Skipper butterflies visiting your hellstrip all summer. The largest and showiest of our native fleabanes, Aspen Fleabane is a host plant to the Dark Little Gem moth, among others. The purple daisy-like blooms last throughout the season, attracting and feeding beneficial insects all summer long, before the leaves turn red and purple while the flowers mature into fluffy white seedheads that attract birds throughout the winter.

Sticky Goldenrod (Solidago simplex) is a larval host plant for a wide variety of generalist moth and butterfly species and can be a great alternative for sites that cannot support the larger Canada Goldenrod. A keystone species across North America, this small, clumping plant attracts native bees, butterflies, and syrphids with it's bright blooms and late season nectar.