Host plants for the wavy-lined emerald
The garden plants whose leaves wavy-lined emerald caterpillars eat, and a bed the planner designed around them.
The wavy-lined emerald (Synchlora aerata) 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 21 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.
21 plants: 21 perennials.
The host plants
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Black-eyed Susan
24 in · mid July to mid September
Masses of golden, dark-centred flowers from midsummer into fall.
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Purple coneflower
3 ft · late June to early September
A tough native with purple-pink petals around a bronze cone, blooming for weeks in midsummer.
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Coneflower 'White Swan'
2½ ft · early July to early September
White, slightly drooping petals around a large orange-bronze cone, on a plant a little shorter than the purple kinds.
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Coneflower 'PowWow Wild Berry'
22 in · late June to mid September
A compact, well-branched coneflower with flowers of a deep, saturated rose-purple that does not fade in the sun.
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Coneflower 'Magnus'
3 ft · early July to early September
Large, rose-purple daisies whose petals are held flat, not drooping, around a coppery-orange cone.
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Brown-eyed Susan
4 ft · late July to early October
A bushy plant smothered in hundreds of small, golden, dark-eyed daisies from late summer to frost.
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Tennessee coneflower
24 in · mid June to late August
Rose-pink petals that turn upwards, like a saucer, around a greenish-pink cone.
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Slender mountain mint
2½ ft · early July to late August
Needle-fine leaves and flat clusters of small white flowers make a soft, airy, rounded plant in midsummer.
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Blue-stemmed goldenrod
2½ ft · early September to mid October
A goldenrod for shade: slender, arching, purple-blue stems with small tufts of yellow flowers all along their length in early autumn.
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Cutleaf coneflower
6½ ft · late July to mid September
Drooping, lemon-yellow petals around a green cone, on branching stems far above head height, over large, deeply cut leaves.
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Showy goldenrod
4 ft · late August to mid October
Dense, upright, club-shaped plumes of bright gold on stiff, reddish stems in early autumn.
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Mountain mint
3 ft · early July to early September
The leaves around each small flower head look as if they have been dusted with silver, so the whole plant shimmers in summer.
A bed for the wavy-lined emerald
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 black-eyed Susan, brown-eyed Susan and coneflower 'Green Jewel' on it.
The plants
- 1 Black-eyed Susan × 5, yellow
- 2 Brown-eyed Susan × 3, yellow
- 3 Coneflower 'Green Jewel' × 3, green
- 4 Bearberry × 9, pink
- 5 Plantain-leaved pussytoes × 14, silver leaves
- 6 Big bluestem 'Blackhawks' × 3, purple
- 7 Goldenrod 'Fireworks' × 1, yellow
- 8 Schubert's allium × 4, pink
- 9 Easter lily × 5, white
- 10 Hyacinth × 12, blue
Planned as a naturalistic planting: low grasses and groundcovers, the matrix, make up 55% of the planted ground. The scheme leans cool (pink, purple and blue) and uses yellow for warmth, with green and white to calm things between them. Big bluestem 'Blackhawks' and goldenrod 'Fireworks', recognised partners, are side by side.
The planner's own design check: 12 Excellent, 4 Good, 1 Satisfactory.
Open this bed in the planner Change its size, the sun or the style, move plants about, or swap one for another.
All 21 plants
Front of a bed 1
- Goldenrod 'Golden Fleece' 18 in · late August to early October
Middle of a bed 14
- Black-eyed Susan 24 in · mid July to mid September
- Blue-stemmed goldenrod 2½ ft · early September to mid October
- Coneflower 'Green Jewel' 24 in · early July to early September
- Coneflower 'Kim's Knee High' 20 in · early July to late August
- Coneflower 'Magnus' 3 ft · early July to early September
- Coneflower 'PowWow Wild Berry' 22 in · late June to mid September
- Coneflower 'White Swan' 2½ ft · early July to early September
- Gloriosa daisy 2½ ft · late June to mid September
- Gloriosa daisy 'Indian Summer' 3 ft · early July to early October
- Mountain mint 3 ft · early July to early September
- Purple coneflower 3 ft · late June to early September
- Slender mountain mint 2½ ft · early July to late August
- Tennessee coneflower 24 in · mid June to late August
- Yellow coneflower 3 ft · mid June to mid July
Back of a bed 6
- Brown-eyed Susan 4 ft · late July to early October
- Cutleaf coneflower 6½ ft · late July to mid September
- Giant coneflower 6 ft · late June to early August
- Goldenrod 'Fireworks' 3½ ft · late August to mid October
- Showy goldenrod 4 ft · late August to mid October
- Sweet coneflower 'Henry Eilers' 4½ ft · late July to mid September