have to plan a grand opening, won’t we? After all, we want to give the new business the right send-off.” She gave a critical look around. “I’ve been meaning to get these steps fixed. And I’ll need to do something about the landscaping. All those weeds—”
“China and I were just thinking about that,” Ruby put in quickly. “We were saying that it wouldn’t be very much work to extend China’s herb garden all the way across the front of the Emporium.” She gave me a meaningful look. “Weren’t we, China?”
“Oh, absolutely,” I lied happily, as the gas station began to fade into the realm of remote possibilities. “How about a butterfly garden, with salvia and echinacea and fennel and yarrow and—”
“A butterfly garden!” Constance exclaimed, her brown curls quivering. “I swear, y’all are so full of ideas and energy, you’re getting me excited, too! This is gonna be fun! ”
Constance managed to maintain her excitement long enough to get the porch steps fixed and the sidewalk patched. Ruby and I worked evenings and a weekend, putting in the new butterfly garden. And when Olive moved out, we all pitched in to fix up Ivy’s new gallery, which she was calling Wild, Wonderful Weeds. By the second week of the month, the grass-green carpet was laid and the walls were painted white and printed with fern-frond borders. Ivy hung her prints, arranged tasteful displays of her cards, fabrics, and giftwraps, and was ready for her grand opening.
“I’m so nervous, China!” she whispered as we stood near the door. She was wearing a sweeping green and white dress made of fabric she’d printed herself, and her pale hair was pulled back in a chic bun at the back of her neck. “What if they don’t like my work? What if nobody comes?”
Butterflies are nature’s loveliest pollinators. You can lure them to your yard by offering their favorite plants. Here are some butterfly plants, listed with their hardiness zones. (Visit the USDA hardiness map on the Internet at http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone / ushzmap.html or ask your librarian to help you locate a hardiness map.) Those that attract the greatest variety are starred.
Anise hyssop, Zones 3-9
New England aster, 3-9
Black-eyed Susan, 3-10
*Butterfly bush, 5-10
*Butterfly weed (larval host to
Monarch), 3-10
*Button bush, 5-10
Chaste tree ( Vitex ), 7-10
Purple coneflower ( Echinacea ),
3-9
Coreopsis, 3-9
Fennel (larval host to Black
Swallowtail), 3-9
Gayfeather, 4-9
Globe thistle (larval host to
Painted Lady), 3-8
Hollyhock (larval host to
Painted Lady), 3-9
*Joe-Pye weed, 4-9
Lantana, 9-10
Parsley (larval host to Black
Swallowtail), 3-9
Sedum (especially varieties
“Meteor” and “Carmen”), 3-9
Yarrow, 3-9
But there wasn’t much chance of that. New businesses in Pecan Springs are always a big deal, and people come out of curiosity, if nothing else. Hark Hibler had interviewed Ivy and run a long article in Saturday’s Enterprise , complete with photographs of her and her artwork. Helen Jenson, the president of the Chamber of Commerce, had strung a red ribbon across the newly repaired porch steps, and the entire Chamber wore their matching blue blazers for the ribbon-cutting and obligatory photograph. Within a half hour, the room was crowded with people who had come to get a look at Pecan Springs’s first botanical art gallery and to chow down on a selection of Janet’s tasty herbal hors d’oeuvres, courtesy of Thyme for Tea. The mayor was there, of course, and Madeleine Jordan, from the city council, doing their duty to encourage the local economy. Mrs. Love, of Love’s Family Funeral Home and Mortuary, had dropped in, as had Molly McGregor, the owner of the Hobbit House, on the other side of Thyme and Seasons. As people began to wander in off the street, it looked as if we were going to have a full house, which would certainly bode well for Ivy’s success. Something else might bode well, too.
I nudged Ruby.
“China and I were just thinking about that,” Ruby put in quickly. “We were saying that it wouldn’t be very much work to extend China’s herb garden all the way across the front of the Emporium.” She gave me a meaningful look. “Weren’t we, China?”
“Oh, absolutely,” I lied happily, as the gas station began to fade into the realm of remote possibilities. “How about a butterfly garden, with salvia and echinacea and fennel and yarrow and—”
“A butterfly garden!” Constance exclaimed, her brown curls quivering. “I swear, y’all are so full of ideas and energy, you’re getting me excited, too! This is gonna be fun! ”
Constance managed to maintain her excitement long enough to get the porch steps fixed and the sidewalk patched. Ruby and I worked evenings and a weekend, putting in the new butterfly garden. And when Olive moved out, we all pitched in to fix up Ivy’s new gallery, which she was calling Wild, Wonderful Weeds. By the second week of the month, the grass-green carpet was laid and the walls were painted white and printed with fern-frond borders. Ivy hung her prints, arranged tasteful displays of her cards, fabrics, and giftwraps, and was ready for her grand opening.
“I’m so nervous, China!” she whispered as we stood near the door. She was wearing a sweeping green and white dress made of fabric she’d printed herself, and her pale hair was pulled back in a chic bun at the back of her neck. “What if they don’t like my work? What if nobody comes?”
Butterflies are nature’s loveliest pollinators. You can lure them to your yard by offering their favorite plants. Here are some butterfly plants, listed with their hardiness zones. (Visit the USDA hardiness map on the Internet at http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone / ushzmap.html or ask your librarian to help you locate a hardiness map.) Those that attract the greatest variety are starred.
Anise hyssop, Zones 3-9
New England aster, 3-9
Black-eyed Susan, 3-10
*Butterfly bush, 5-10
*Butterfly weed (larval host to
Monarch), 3-10
*Button bush, 5-10
Chaste tree ( Vitex ), 7-10
Purple coneflower ( Echinacea ),
3-9
Coreopsis, 3-9
Fennel (larval host to Black
Swallowtail), 3-9
Gayfeather, 4-9
Globe thistle (larval host to
Painted Lady), 3-8
Hollyhock (larval host to
Painted Lady), 3-9
*Joe-Pye weed, 4-9
Lantana, 9-10
Parsley (larval host to Black
Swallowtail), 3-9
Sedum (especially varieties
“Meteor” and “Carmen”), 3-9
Yarrow, 3-9
But there wasn’t much chance of that. New businesses in Pecan Springs are always a big deal, and people come out of curiosity, if nothing else. Hark Hibler had interviewed Ivy and run a long article in Saturday’s Enterprise , complete with photographs of her and her artwork. Helen Jenson, the president of the Chamber of Commerce, had strung a red ribbon across the newly repaired porch steps, and the entire Chamber wore their matching blue blazers for the ribbon-cutting and obligatory photograph. Within a half hour, the room was crowded with people who had come to get a look at Pecan Springs’s first botanical art gallery and to chow down on a selection of Janet’s tasty herbal hors d’oeuvres, courtesy of Thyme for Tea. The mayor was there, of course, and Madeleine Jordan, from the city council, doing their duty to encourage the local economy. Mrs. Love, of Love’s Family Funeral Home and Mortuary, had dropped in, as had Molly McGregor, the owner of the Hobbit House, on the other side of Thyme and Seasons. As people began to wander in off the street, it looked as if we were going to have a full house, which would certainly bode well for Ivy’s success. Something else might bode well, too.
I nudged Ruby.
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