The Ladybug Garden

04/22/2024

Due to health issues, our nursery is now closed. When we sell any extra plants from our private pollinator gardens, we'll post them on Facebook Marketplace. Happy gardening, everyone!

Send a message to learn more

06/18/2023

Happy National Pollinator Week!

National Pollinator Week is an annual celebration in support of pollinator health that was initiated and is managed by Pollinator Partnership.

This year, it is being celebrated this week, June 19-25th. It is a time to raise awareness for pollinators and spread the word about what we can do to protect them. The great thing about Pollinator Week is that you can celebrate and get involved any way you like! Popular events include planting for pollinators, hosting garden tours, participating in online bee and butterfly ID workshops, and so much more.

However, you choose to celebrate this year, be sure to register your event on the map in their website and share your story with them by tagging them on social media using the hashtag .

This Pollinator Week we will be emphasizing the connections between climate and pollinators. Pollinators are dying because their food and homes are disappearing, diseases have increased, and rising temperatures and natural disasters are affecting their ability to survive - all of which are related to climate change.

At the same time, the conservation of pollinators and their habitats can help combat climate change by supporting healthy ecosystems, air, soil, water, and plants. Combined, these results make planet earth a safer place for us to live.

These are big problems and the efforts that are made around North America and globally during Pollinator Week can help provide real solutions for the pollinators we all love.

Additional information including their official pollinator week toolkit and their regional guides for selecting plants in the US and Canada can be found at https://www.pollinator.org/pollinator-week or by contacting Pollinator Partnership at [email protected]

The Pollinator Partnership is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization and the largest in the world dedicated exclusively to the protection and promotion of ...

06/09/2023

The New River chapter of the Virginia Native Plant Society is holding a native plant sale this Saturday, June 10th, from 9:30 am to 1:30 pm at 107 Wharton Street in Blacksburg. All plants will be straight species native to Virginia (no cultivars).

Be sure to ARRIVE EARLY, as there are limited numbers of the available plants, and many gardeners are already waiting in line at opening time.

The Ladybug Garden will have a small sales table at this event, with several varieties of plants - including Canadian anemone, purple coneflower, threadleaf coreopsis, Culver's root, stout goldenrod, jewelw**d, great blue lobelia, partridge pea, wild petunia, and thin-leafed sunflower (a native perennial).

The chapter will have over 50 species of other native plants for sale, including shrubs and trees. See their list and quantities of plants at: tinyurl.com/plantsnrchapter

Hope to see you there! This is the Ladybug Garden's last public sale of the year. Have a wonderful gardening season!

05/25/2023

CLOSED EARLY - SOLD OUT!!!

$3.99 Native and Pollinator Plant Sale! This is a ONE DAY end of season CLEARANCE SALE, ONLY on this Saturday, May 27th, from 10 am - 2 pm (note new hours!), in the parking lot of the Uptown Christiansburg Mall (old NRV Mall), facing Pepper's Ferry Road and Walmart. All plants are 50% OFF! (originally $7.97 each)

We have a limited supply available, including 14 varieties of native and pollinator plants. Early birds get the best choices! Grab 'em fast, as they won't last long.

Most of our plants are in generous 1½ quart size pots, for just $3.99 each, ONLY for this ONE DAY end of season clearance sale!

'Judith's Fancy Fuchsia' monarda (bee balm) – an awesome pollinator plant attracting hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees; very resistant to mildew

Cardinal flowers (2 varieties) – a hummingbird favorite, with bright red blossoms; tolerates some shade and wet soil

'Jeana' phlox – attracts several times more butterflies that other varieties of phlox; also highly disease resistant

Red crocosmia – non-native, but hummingbirds fight over the intense red flowers!

'Homestead Purple' Verbena – a native cultivar that supports a wide variety of pollinators, and is a short, spreading plant with bright purple blossoms

'Bluebird' aster (native cultivar) – a beautiful blue fall-blooming pollinator plant highly recommended by the Mt Cuba pollinator research center

'Summer Sunshine' coreopsis – a bright yellow fall-blooming plant that supports tons of pollinators for several weeks; highly recommended by the Mt Cuba pollinator research center

'Claire Grace' monarda – attracts large numbers of pollinators, and tolerates drier soils than the bee balm; also recommended by the Mt Cuba center

Ironw**d – a tall, purple blooming pollinator plant that tolerates wet soil

'Fireworks' goldenrod – a short 2-3' fall blooming plant that attracts tons of pollinators (this is NOT invasive like some goldenrods)

Penstemons (2 purple-leafed varieties) – these lovely plants bloom in late spring to early summer, supporting hummingbirds and bees

Tithonia – (Mexican sunflower, not native) – a very large flowering annual, with bright orange blossoms that are often covered with bees, butterflies (including Monarchs), and hummingbirds; song birds feed on its seeds; easy to save seeds to plant the following year

We have a limited supply of many of these varieties, so BE SURE TO COME EARLY so you won’t miss out on these awesome plants for the amazing price of JUST $3.99!

So, get in the car!! Go grab your Mom, too!! She would love to relax on her patio and watch all the butterflies and hummingbirds. What about Sis, your neighbor, or your BFF?

This is a ONE DAY ONLY SALE, on Saturday, May 27th, 10 am to 2 pm (note new hours), located in the parking lot of the Uptown Christiansburg Mall (the old NRV Mall), facing the entrance to Pepper's Ferry Road and Walmart. Both cash and credit cards are accepted. See you there!

(Due to the limited amount of plants remaining, our Sunday afternoon sale has been canceled.)

05/18/2023

$7.97 Native and Pollinator Plant Sale! Hundreds of plants must be sold this weekend, Saturday, May 20th, 9 - 12 noon, and Sunday, May 21st, from 1 - 4 pm in the parking lot of the Uptown Christiansburg Mall (old NRV Mall), facing Pepper's Ferry Road

We have a limited supply of some of our most popular plants. Early birds get the best choices! Grab 'em fast, as they won't last long.

This weekend we will have 27 varieties of native and pollinator plants available, totaling over 500 plants. Most of our plants are in generous 1½ quart size pots, for only $7.97 each!

The top pollinator plant is Mountain Mint – Hundreds of pollinators congregate on this native plant for many weeks during the summer. Give it some elbow room, and one plant of this mint will quickly spread to form a large flowering patch.

If you want to attract hummingbirds to your garden, choose:

'Major Wheeler' trumpet honeysuckle vine (native cultivar) – covered with hundreds of red blossoms all season long; a hummingbird favorite!
'Judith's Fancy Fuchsia' monarda (bee balm) – very resistant to mildew
Cardinal flowers (3 varieties) – a hummingbird favorite, with bright red blossoms; tolerates some shade and wet soil
'Jeana' phlox - also highly disease resistant!
Red crocosmia
'Lord Baltimore' red hibiscus (very limited supply)
Penstemons
'Homestead Purple' Verbena
Great blue lobelia
Yellow trumpet vine
and more...

To support butterflies in your garden, choose:

'Jeana' phlox – often has multiple butterflies on these plants!
Butterflyw**d – an essential host for the endangered Monarch caterpillars
'Blue Fortune' agastache
'Bluebird' aster (native cultivar) – a beautiful blue fall-blooming pollinator plant highly recommended by the Mt Cuba Center
'Clara Curtis' hardy chrysanthemum – the very latest blooming pollinator plant in our garden; also supports fall migrating Monarchs
Purple coneflower
'Summer Sunshine' coreopsis – a yellow fall-blooming plant that supports tons of pollinators for several weeks; highly recommended by the Mt Cuba Center
'Claire Grace' monarda – tolerates drier soils than the bee balm
Tithonia – (Mexican sunflower, not native) – a very large flowering annual, with bright orange blossoms that are often covered with bees, butterflies (including Monarchs), and hummingbirds; song birds feed on its seeds; easy to save seeds to plant the following year;
and more...

If you have a soggy patch or a rain garden, choose:

'Judith's Fancy Fuchsia' monarda (bee balm)
Ironw**d
Cardinal flowers
Great blue lobelia
..typing up all the plants that we offer is wearing my fingers out! We won't list every single thing here. Just come and have fun browsing through all our plants, and see what you can find.

We have a limited supply of some of our most popular varieties, so BE SURE TO COME EARLY so you won’t miss out on these awesome plants for only $7.97!

If you don't like hummingbirds, bees, butterflies, and beneficial insects, then please don't buy our plants! But if you'd LOVE to have your garden come alive with wings, plant a BIG patch of pollinator blossoms for them. We'll help with that – buy 9 of our $7.97 plants, and we'll give you a 10th same price plant for FREE!

So, get in the car!! Go grab your Mom, too!! She would love to relax on her patio and watch all the butterflies and hummingbirds. What about Sis, your neighbor, or your BFF?

We love to help people find just the right plants for their pollinator gardens. If you have any questions, write them down and bring them with you. We're not able to respond to messages during sales hours. Just in case you wonder: No, we don't use ANY chemical pesticides on our plants!

Come early, so you won’t miss out on our exciting pollinator plants for only $7.97!

This is a TWO DAY SALE, on Saturday, May 20th, 9 am to 12 noon, and Sunday, May 21st, from 1-4 pm, located in the parking lot of the Uptown Christiansburg Mall (the old NRV Mall), facing the entrance to Pepper's Ferry Road. Both cash and credit cards are accepted. See you there!

P.S. We happen to have Seascape everbearing strawberry plants that we'll be bringing to this sale, too! They have awesome flavor, are disease resistant, produce fruit from May to September, and make great container plants.

We also have slips of bush sweet potatoes (sweet orange flesh), and young plants of the delicious and highly productive heirloom tomato 'Amish Paste'.

For more information and photos about the pollinator plant varieties that we will have available, along with the dates, times and locations of all of our sales, check out our website: https://theladybuggarden.com Also, on our home page, we have 6 short video clips of pollinators on our plants – including bees, butterflies, and a large hummingbird moth.

05/11/2023

Another Huge Native and Pollinator Plant Sale!
Over 352 plants must be sold this weekend, for only $7.97 each
Saturday, May 13th, from 9 - 12 noon, and Sunday, May 14th, from 1 - 4 pm
Location: 670 Ridge Road in Christiansburg

If you don't like hummingbirds, bees, butterflies, and beneficial insects, then please don't buy our plants! But if you'd LOVE to have your garden come alive with wings, plant a BIG patch of pollinator blossoms for them. We'll help with that – buy 9 of our $7.97 plants, and we'll give you a 10th same price plant for FREE!

This weekend we will have 28 varieties of native and pollinator plants available at our sale, totaling over 350 plants. Most of our plants are in generous 1½ quart size pots, for only $7.97 each!

We have a limited supply of some of our most popular plants. Early birds get the best choices! Grab 'em fast, as they won't last long.

This sale includes 9 new varieties:

'Bluebird' aster (native cultivar) – a beautiful blue fall-blooming pollinator plant highly recommended by the Mt Cuba Center

'Snow Flurry' aster (native cultivar) – a very short white aster that spreads 2 feet across, serving as a ground cover and an autumn pollinator host

Butterflyw**d (native species) – a bright orange flowering member of the milkw**d family, one of the important hosts for the endangered Monarch butterfly caterpillars

Cardinal flower (native species) – a hummingbird favorite, with bright red blossoms; tolerates some shade and wet soil

Cardinal flower, purple-leaf (native cultivar) – similar bright red blossoms, but with deep purple leaves

'Summer Sunshine' coreopsis (native cultivar) – a yellow fall-blooming plant that supports tons of pollinators for several weeks; highly recommended by the Mt Cuba Center

Culver's Root (native species) – a stately, tall accent plant with lovely white blossoms that support bees and butterflies

Tithonia (Mexican sunflower, not native) – a very large flowering annual, with bright orange blossoms that are often covered with bees, butterflies (including Monarchs), and hummingbirds; song birds feed on its seeds; easy to save seeds to plant for the following year

'Homestead Purple' Verbena (native cultivar) – a semi-hardy perennial with bright purple blossoms that are popular with many pollinators

Other varieties that will be at this sale includes:

'Blue Fortune' agastache (covered with bees and butterflies for months)
Brown-eyed Susan
'Clara Curtis' hardy chrysanthemum (our favorite late fall pollinator plant!)

Purple coneflower (a classic wildflower meadow pollinator plant)
Red crocosmia (not native, but hummingbirds fight over it!)

Stout goldenrod
Fireworks goldenrod
'Gateway' Joe-pye-w**d (a shorter 4-6' tall variety)

'Major Wheeler' trumpet honeysuckle (native cultivar) – covered with hundreds of red blossoms all season long; a hummingbird favorite!

New York ironw**d
Great blue lobelia
'Judith's Fancy Fuchsia' monarda (highly disease resistant)

Mountain mint (the #1 top pollinator plant!!)
'Rotkugel' ornamental oregano (very popular with pollinators)
Purple-leafed penstemon, and...

… ...typing up all the plants that we offer is wearing my fingers out! We won't list every single thing here. Just come and have fun browsing through all our plants, and see what you can find. We have a limited supply of some of our most popular varieties, so be sure to come early so you won’t miss out on these awesome plants for only $7.97!

We love to help people find just the right plants for their pollinator gardens. If you have any questions, write them down and bring them with you. We're not able to respond to messages during sales hours. Just in case you wonder: No, we don't use ANY chemical pesticides on our plants!

So, get in the car!! Go grab your Mom, too!! She would love to relax on her patio and watch all the butterflies and hummingbirds. What about Sis, your neighbor, or your BFF?

Come early, so you won’t miss out on our exciting pollinator plants for only $7.97!

This is a TWO DAY SALE, on Saturday, May 13th, 9 am to 12 noon, and Sunday, May 14th, from 1-4 pm, located at 670 Ridge Road in Christiansburg. Both cash and credit cards are accepted. See you there!

P.S. Our sale is just one block from the Saturday Master Gardener plant sale at the Montgomery County government center. Check out both our plant sales on the same day!

P.P.S. We happen to have a bunch of Seascape everbearing strawberry plants that we'll be bringing to this sale, too! They have awesome flavor, are disease resistant, produce fruit from May to September, and make great container plants.

We also have slips of bush sweet potatoes (that store very well), and young plants of the delicious and highly productive heirloom tomato 'Amish Paste'.

For more information and photos about the pollinator plant varieties that we will have available, along with the dates, times and locations of all of our sales, check out our website: https://theladybuggarden.com Also, on our home page, we have 6 short video clips of pollinators on our plants – including bees, butterflies, and a large hummingbird moth.

05/02/2023

Huge Native and Pollinator Plant Sale!
451 plants must be sold this weekend, for only $7.97 each
Saturday, May 6th, 9 - 12 noon and Sunday, May 7th, 1 - 4 pm
In parking lot of Uptown Christiansburg Mall, facing Pepper's Ferry Road

If you don't like hummingbirds, bees, butterflies, and beneficial insects, then please don't buy our plants! But if you'd LOVE to have your garden come alive with wings, plant a BIG patch of pollinator blossoms for them. We'll help with that – buy 9 of our $7.97 plants, and we'll give you a 10th same price plant for FREE!

We have a limited supply of some of our most popular plants. Early birds get the best choices! Grab 'em fast, as they won't last long.

Agastache 'Black Adder' and 'Blue Fortune' – bloom for months from summer to fall; bees and butterflies adore them; heat and drought tolerant.

Monarda (bee balm) 'Judith's Fancy Fuchsia' – a highly disease resistant cultivar that is extremely popular with butterflies, hummingbirds, bees and many other pollinators

New England Aster – native plant with purple fall blossoms for bees and butterflies
New England Aster 'Andenken an Alma Potschke' – a popular pink cultivar

Mountain mint – Research has discovered that this is the very best pollinator plant! Hundreds of pollinators congregate on this native plant for many weeks during the summer. Give it some elbow room, and one plant of this mint will quickly spread to form a large flowering patch.

Brown-eyed Susan – this native species supports pollinators and songbirds love its seeds; it tolerates clay soil and some light shade.

Trumpet honeysuckle 'Major Wheeler' – a fantastic native vine that blooms from spring to fall with hundreds of red blossoms that hummingbirds adore!

Hardy geranium 'Rozanne' – This perennial hybrid produces gorgeous blue blossoms nonstop, from spring to fall. We've seen bees and small butterflies enjoy its blossoms, too! (A limited supply of full-grown plants)

Ornamental oregano – not a native, but extremely popular with pollinators! Blooms for long periods of time, and its leaves turn a lovely purple during winter.

Native penstemon – great spring/early summer plant for bees and hummingbirds (A limited supply of large, full-grown plants.)

Great blue lobelia – a native bumblebee favorite (hummingbirds use it, too)
Spiderwort – another good spring/early summer native pollinator plant
Nodding onion – a cute native pollinator plant with nodding umbels of star-shaped blossoms

Along with Eastern columbine, purple coneflower, threadleaf coreopsis, crocosmia, ironw**d, Joe-pye-w**d, liatris, yellow trumpet vine, stout goldenrod, and...
..typing up all the plants that we offer is wearing my fingers out! Most of our plants are in generous 1½ quart size pots, for only $7.97 each! We also have some larger, full-grown plants in 1 gallon and 3 gallon containers.

We won't list every single thing here. Just come and have fun browsing through all our plants, and see what you can find. You can learn more about our plants and enjoy short videos of pollinators (including a large hummingbird moth) on our website: https://TheLadybugGarden.com

Due to the cold weather in April, we have quite a few more varieties of pollinator plants that aren't quite ready to sell, but will become available at our other sales later this month. We regularly update our website to let you know which plants are currently available. Find our sale dates and locations on our Calendar: https://TheLadybugGarden.com/events/list/

We love to help people find just the right plants for their pollinator gardens. If you have any questions, write them down and bring them with you. We're not able to respond to messages during sales hours. Just in case you wonder: No, we don't use ANY chemical pesticides on our plants!

So, get in the car!! Go grab your Mom, too!! She would love to relax on her patio and watch all the butterflies and hummingbirds. What about Sis, your neighbor, or your BFF?
Come early, so you won’t miss out on our exciting pollinator plants for only $7.97!

This is a TWO DAY SALE, on Saturday, May 6th, 9 am to 12 noon, and Sunday, May 7th, from 1-4 pm, located in the parking lot of the Uptown Christiansburg Mall (formerly New River Valley Mall), facing Pepper's Ferry Road. Both cash and credit cards are accepted. See you there!

P.S. We happen to have a bunch of Seascape everbearing strawberry plants that we'll be bringing to this sale, too! They have awesome flavor, are disease resistant, produce fruit from May to September, and make great container plants.

04/23/2023

One of our beautiful late spring/early summer flowers is our purple-leaved penstemon. Bees and hummingbirds enjoy the pink blossoms. These plants that we are selling were propagated from self-sowed seedlings, most likely from a purple variety of Penstemon digitalis (a native cultivar).

Learn more about the plants that we will have available this spring at our website: https://theladybuggarden.com/shop/
The dates and locations of our spring sales can be found here:
https://theladybuggarden.com/events/list/
See you soon!

04/22/2023

We have absolutely fallen in love with one of our native goldenrods – the Stout Goldenrod. It is a 5-6 feet tall handsome plant that attracts tons of pollinators in September. (See the attached video.) It also is NOT highly invasive, like some goldenrods are. It will self-sow some seedlings each year, and the main plant will slowly expand over time.

In case you weren't aware, goldenrod does NOT cause allergies. It happens to bloom at the same time as the innocuous ragw**d, whose highly allergenic pollen spreads far and wide by wind. Goldenrod pollen is too heavy to blow around in the wind, and needs pollinators to spread the pollen from plant to plant. We'll have a limited number of plants available at our May sales, so arrive early if you would like to add this gorgeous plant to your own pollinator garden!

To learn more about the plants that we carry, and the dates and locations of our pop up sales, check out our website: https://theladybuggarden.com

04/14/2023

We're busy bees this month! Potting up hundreds upon hundreds of plants for our spring sales. If you'd like to find out what kinds we will have available, check out our website:
https://theladybuggarden.com
You can also find out our sale dates and locations on the calendar on our website. See you soon!

04/07/2023

Happy Spring, everyone! We are excited about the new spring season for our nursery. Our nursery focuses on plants that are beneficial for pollinators, with most being native species and native cultivars.

We will have at least 1,475 plants and over 48 varieties for our spring sales. Our nursery opens the weekend of May 6th, in the parking lot of the Uptown Christiansburg mall (formerly New River Valley mall).

For more information about the plant varieties that we will have available, along with the dates, times and locations of our sales, check out our website: https://theladybuggarden.com

Also, on our home page, we have 6 short video clips of pollinators on our plants – including bees, butterflies, and a large hummingbird moth. We will also have an Odds & Ends section at our sales, with a limited number of some varieties not listed on our website.

If you want to attract hummingbirds to your garden, we have some awesome flowers for them – including:

* Major Wheeler honeysuckle vine (a native cultivar with hundreds of bright red blossoms all season long)
* 2 varieties of red cardinal flower (a native species and a purple-leaf cultivar)
* Red crocosmia (non-native) that hummingbirds absolutely fight over
* Eastern columbine (a native species that supports their spring migration)
* native penstemons
* Jeana phlox
* two varieties of monarda, and more...

We also have two types of native milkw**d family plants to support the endangered monarchs (butterfly w**d and swamp milkw**d), three varieties of fall asters that will be covered with huge numbers of bees and butterflies, two varieties of goldenrod that come alive with the buzzing of hundreds of pollinators, and many, many more!

Be sure to add the dates and locations of our sales to your calendar – and plan to come early, as we have limited supplies of some of our popular plants. See you soon!