Host plants for the promethea moth
The garden plants whose leaves promethea moth caterpillars eat, and a bed the planner designed around them.
The promethea moth (Callosamia promethea) 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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Common lilac
11½ ft · early May to late May
The lilac of old farmyards: large, heavily scented flower trusses in lilac, purple, white or pink in mid-spring, on a tall, suckering shrub that can live for a century.
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Lilac 'Sensation'
10 ft · mid May to late May
Every small floret is deep purple with a crisp white edge, a bicolour unique among lilacs, in large, scented heads in late spring.
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Lilac 'Beauty of Moscow'
11½ ft · mid May to late May
Pearl-pink buds open to double white flowers, so that each great cluster shows both at once.
A bed for the promethea moth
The planner designed this 16 × 8 ft (4.9 × 2.4 m) bed for zone 6 and full sun when this page was made, keeping common lilac, lilac 'Beauty of Moscow' and lilac 'Sensation' on it.
The plants
- 1 Common lilac × 1, lavender
- 2 Lilac 'Beauty of Moscow' × 1, white
- 3 Lilac 'Sensation' × 1, purple
- 4 Lamb's ear 'Big Ears' × 11, silver leaves
- 5 Sedum 'Lidakense' × 11, pink
- 6 False sunflower 'Summer Sun' × 3, yellow
- 7 Easter lily × 3, white
- 8 Ornamental onion 'Purple Sensation' × 4, purple
- 9 Greigii tulip × 8, red
Planned as a naturalistic planting, but it does not yet read as one: low grasses and groundcovers, the matrix, make up 16% of the planted ground. The flowering is at its height from late May, with 4 kinds out together. Not everything here depends on flower: lamb's ear 'Big Ears' earns its place with leaves. This plan is weakest on room to grow, a Fail in the Design check, which also says the style, heights and the front edge needs revision.
The planner's own design check: 7 Excellent, 6 Good, 3 Needs revision, 1 Fail. Its weakest point is room to grow: The plants cover 121% of the bed at their mature width, which is more plant than there is bed. 18 plants have too little room to reach full width, and one is planted right on top of another.
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
- Common lilac 11½ ft · early May to late May
- Lilac 'Beauty of Moscow' 11½ ft · mid May to late May
- Lilac 'Sensation' 10 ft · mid May to late May