Host plants for the hydrangea sphinx
The garden plants whose leaves hydrangea sphinx caterpillars eat, and a bed the planner designed around them.
The hydrangea sphinx (Darapsa versicolor) is a moth. Like every butterfly and moth, it can lay its eggs only on the plants its caterpillars can eat, its host plants. A garden with nectar flowers feeds the adults as they pass; a garden with host plants is where the next generation is raised.
These three garden plants are recorded by NC State as hosts for its caterpillars. Expect chewed leaves: that is the point. Do not spray, and leave fallen leaves under the plants in winter, where many caterpillars and pupae spend it.
3 plants: 3 shrubs.
The host plants
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Smooth hydrangea 'Annabelle'
4 ft · late June to early September
Enormous white flower globes open lime-green, turn pure white and fade back to green.
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Smooth hydrangea 'Incrediball'
5 ft · late June to early September
An improved 'Annabelle' with thicker stems that hold up the enormous, round, white flower heads after rain, where the original flops.
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Smooth hydrangea 'Invincibelle Spirit II'
3½ ft · late June to mid September
Rounded heads of deep pink, fading to green, on sturdy stems, from early summer to frost: a pink 'Annabelle'.
A bed for the hydrangea sphinx
The planner designed this 16 × 8 ft (4.9 × 2.4 m) bed for zone 6 and part sun when this page was made, keeping smooth hydrangea 'Annabelle', smooth hydrangea 'Incrediball' and smooth hydrangea 'Invincibelle Spirit II' on it.
The plants
- 1 Smooth hydrangea 'Annabelle' × 1, white
- 2 Smooth hydrangea 'Incrediball' × 1, white
- 3 Smooth hydrangea 'Invincibelle Spirit II' × 1, pink
- 4 Stemless gentian × 48, blue
- 5 Green-and-gold × 11, yellow
- 6 White mugwort × 3, cream
- 7 Bowles' golden sedge × 4, chartreuse leaves
- 8 Camassia × 3, blue
- 9 Easter lily × 3, white
- 10 Asiatic lily × 3, yellow
Planned as a naturalistic planting: low grasses and groundcovers, the matrix, make up 50% of the planted ground. The most in flower at one time is 5 kinds, from late June. Cool colours (pink and blue) with yellow as the warm note, and white and cream to calm things between them.
The planner's own design check: 9 Excellent, 8 Good.
Open this bed in the planner Change its size, the sun or the style, move plants about, or swap one for another.
All 3 plants
Back of a bed 3
- Smooth hydrangea 'Annabelle' 4 ft · late June to early September
- Smooth hydrangea 'Incrediball' 5 ft · late June to early September
- Smooth hydrangea 'Invincibelle Spirit II' 3½ ft · late June to mid September