Attract Butterflies With A Shrub That Brings Color To A Shade Garden

Butterflies are a welcome visitor in any yard. Aside from their striking beauty, they're also beneficial pollinators. If you want to attract more butterflies to your garden, there are a variety of plants you can keep in your yard that they love. One option you can consider planting is the copper bush honey suckle (Diervilla lonicera 'Copper'). This resilient woody ornamental plant has a lengthy blooming season, displaying yellow, honeysuckle-like flowers from late spring into early summer. With their abundance of yellow blooms, the bush honeysuckle is like a giant neon sign to butterflies saying "stop in this yard". This plant is also brilliant addition to shade gardens with its low maintenance nature.

The copper bush honeysuckle is not a true honeysuckle (Lonicera spp.)—it just features a trumpet-shaped flower. It also features copper-colored new growth that shifts bright green as it matures. In the fall, all the foliage turns a bronzy red, and the plant is most suitable for USDA Hardiness zones 4 to 8. The copper bush honeysuckle can grow up to 2 feet tall and 3 feet wide. They're suckering plants meaning they spread easily, forming dense thickets when given the space to. This can make them an asset in soil stabilization in areas where there are erosion concerns.

Copper bush honeysuckles are a fairly easy plant to care for. You can throw them in just about any condition and they will thrive. The bush honeysuckle does well in partial shade so it's a great plant to consider for your shade garden. They will tolerate a diverse array of soil environments including loam, sand, or clay soil. They prefer pH levels around 6.1 to 6.5 but will do just fine if those numbers climb higher. It requires medium moisture but can also tolerate occasional drought.

Luckily, the copper bush honeysuckle doesn't have any major pest or disease issues to worry about. Occasionally you might see powdery mildew or leaf spotting, but you won't need to stress about much else. This flowering shrub is even deer-resistant and attracts hummingbirds! The copper bush honey suckle does a great job at drawing in other types of pollinators, even to low-light yards, gracing healthy shade gardens with a delightful splash of color.