ceanothus

Planted a bunch of natives, in particular bushes that flowered at different times of the year - ceanothus, manzanita, etc.

To generalize, in the northern Rocky Mountains, it’s a mix of grasses and shrubs of the genus ceanothus — like snowbrush.

There are CA natives that don’t look bedraggled - manzanitas, ceanothus, ribes species, etc.

In northern California, its dense hip to head-high thickets of manzanita and ceanothus.

If you're on the west coast the ceanothus bush is pollinator paradise.

If you are on the west coast, Ceanothus is even more popular among bees of all kinds than is lavender (also bigger, and with better life expectancy).

I'm partial to the Death's-head Hawkmoth and the Ceanothus Silkmoth.

- Borage - Raspberries - Sunflowers - Calendula - Peas And we also planted: - Dark Star Ceanothus Which is basically a bee colony when it is flowering.

While something like 7% of all plants fall into the Fabaceae (legume) family, some other pockets of the Fabales order also have root nodules, in particular, alder, and up into the Rosids clade (buckthorn, ceanothus), and then a few odd stragglers like borage, which makes me wonder if it's a taxonomic problem, parallel evolution, or what.

Ceanothus and the mophead relative Hydrangea serrata can attract Butterflies in summer or spring, but Buddleja is still wonderful in this sense.

There's an eastern one (Ceanothus americanus) that I have no experience with but seems to have a habit more like a hydrangea.