Do you love spending time in your garden but are worried about getting stung by mosquitoes? Do the gnats affect your outdoor experience? If this is the case, then growing flowers that attract dragonflies will definitely be an excellent decision.
Dragonflies create attractive aerial displays with their colorful wings and fast movements, as they’re able to fly and catch their prey in mid-air. Moreover, planting flowers that attract them to your garden will make your garden more hospitable and kids-friendly as they feed on the annoying bugs that might disturb your outdoor quality time.
In this article, we’ll talk about 10 flowers that attract dragonflies in your garden, add a pop of color, and keep your garden mosquitos-free.
10 Attractive Flowers that Attract Dragonflies to Your Garden
Choosing flowers that look bright and vibrant isn’t the only thing you should think about when planning your landscape. Flowers can also be planted to repel or attract several creatures, helping you to improve your outdoor experience.
Luckily, several flowers add a pop of color to your garden and attract dragonflies, too. These helpful creatures feed on mosquitoes, gnats, ants, and midges, so spending time in your garden will be much more fun.
1. Swamp Milkweed
Swamp milkweed or Indian hemp is an attractive plant that grows in USDA zones 3 to 6, thriving in all types of soil, even clay, and loamy soils. This plant can reach a maximum height of 5 feet, growing small nectar-holding cups on petals. The blooms are usually reddish violet or pale mauve, but they can also be white.
This is an easy-to-care-for perennial that quickly forms a beautiful ground cover, attracting dragonflies and butterflies to your garden. It’s especially attractive to Monarch butterflies, so it’s an excellent choice for pollinator gardens and cottage gardens.
You can plant swamp milkweed in spring or fall, but it takes more time to emerge from its dormancy. It thrives in full sun but can tolerate partial shade.
2. Black-Eyed Susan
The black-eyed Susan is a perennial that is sometimes grown as an annual vine. It features slightly coarse green leaves that surround the daisy-like flowers and can reach a maximum height of 3 feet.
The flowers bloom in summer and come in shades of orange, yellow, red, rose, and white. The large flowers attract pollinators and bugs, which provide food for dragonflies. Even when they fade, the seeds offer a tasty meal for the birds in your area.
When grown in a sunny location, the black-eyed Susan will be almost problem-free, so it will be a good choice if you’re a beginner gardener. It thrives in USDA zones 10 and 11 and prefers well-draining soil with less watering once it’s established.
3. Borage
Borage is an excellent addition to your garden, as it grows an annual herb with beautiful blooms and will also keep tomato hornworms away if you’re growing tomatoes. It grows in USDA zones 2 through 11 with star-shaped blooms that point downward.
It can be planted in early spring, and the blue blooms appear in summer. The plant thrives in several soil conditions, as long as the soil has good drainage. However, it needs to receive at least 4 hours of direct sunlight, so you should be careful about planting it near taller plants.
Period feeding using a fertilizer that is made for vegetables and other edible plants will help the borage plant grow. In addition, a high phosphorus fertilizer will improve blooming.
4. Arrowhead
Arrowhead or American arrowhead is an aquatic perennial that attracts dragonflies to water bodies. It has deep green leaves that grow submerged and can reach a maximum height of 12 inches. In addition, the roots can reach a depth of 6 inches, making this plant an ideal choice for water gardens.
In the summer, the arrowhead plant grows white flowers. The male flowers have yellow centers, while the female flowers have green mounds. This low-maintenance plant grows in sandy, loamy, or clay soil and doesn’t require good draining.
The arrowhead plant is attractive to ducks and snapping turtles, and the roots are edible. They may be boiled or baked.
Read more: 11 Flowers that Attract Butterflies, But Not Bees
5. Joe Pye Weed
Also known as the sweet Joe Pye weed, it is a late-blooming plant that grows up to a height of 7 feet. There are several varieties of this plant, but they all have thick stems and dark green leaves. It usually flowers in its first growing season, growing mauve pink and purple pink blooms.
The flowers emit a vanilla-like smell that attracts butterflies and dragonflies and usually stay in bloom till fall. This low-maintenance plant needs plenty of space to accommodate its size, and it thrives in USDA zones 4 to 9.
The Joe Pye weed needs exposure to sunlight as too much shade can make it too leggy. However, strong sunlight can scorch the leaves.
If you’re growing it in poor soil, applying a slow-release granular fertilizer will help the plant in the spring when it actively grows and in summer when the blooms appear.
6. Water Lily
Water lilies are fast-growing aquatic plants that can be planted outdoors in ponds and in indoor containers. They thrive in USDA zones 4 to 10, growing beautiful blooms that appear from June to October.
The flowers come in different shades of white, yellow, red, purple, pink, orange, and blue. Some hardy varieties will survive the winter, while the tropical varieties are usually treated as annuals.
Tropical water lilies are usually more fragrant, attracting the insects that dragonflies feed on. Using fertilizer tablets will help the plants grow, but they should be inserted into the soil and not added to the water, as they will change its pH level. Tropical water lilies are heavier feeders than cold hardy ones.
7. Yarrow
Yarrow is a perennial flowering plant that thrives in USDA zones 3 to 9. It has aromatic foliage and fragrant-emitting flowers that attract dragonflies and butterflies.
The plant reaches a maximum height of 3 feet and can survive in sandy, clay, and loamy soil, as long as it has good draining. The flowers appear in summer and can stay in bloom till fall. They come in shades of white, red, orange, yellow, pink, and purple.
Yarrow is an excellent plant if you live in an area that is prone to drought. It can survive in poor soil, and adding compost in the spring will help it grow.
Related: 10 Flowers That Look Like a Ball
8. Yellow Coneflower
Yellow coneflowers belong to the big family of Echinacea or coneflowers. This family includes several varieties that produce flowers in various shades, but this variety is the only one that produces yellow blooms.
This plant grows in USDA zones 3 to 9, reaching a maximum height of 3 feet. Each stem grows one odorless flower at the beginning of the growing season.
The blooms have raised brown centers and yellow petals that start to emit a honey-like fragrance to attract butterflies and other insects. Dragonflies are usually attracted to coneflowers to feed on the other bugs.
The flowers stay in bloom from summer to fall, and you should deadhead the spent ones to encourage new growth and prevent self-seeding. However, you can leave some of the spent flowers, as the seeds attract birds, like the American Goldfinch.
9. Meadow Sage
Meadow sage is an herbaceous perennial that reaches a maximum height of 3 feet. It thrives in USDA zones 4 to 8 and starts blooming from May to September. The flowers come in different shades of purple, lavender, blue, and violet, although they can also be pink and white.
The plant has gray-green foliage and dense upright flowers. The foliage is aromatic, attracting bugs that represent a tasty food source for dragonflies.
You can plant meadow sage as an edging plant, and the blooms make excellent cut flowers. With regular moisture, meadow sage can bloom several times in summer. It’s a low-maintenance plant and can resist drought, so it’s an excellent choice for hot and dry areas.
10. Cattail
Cattail is a perennial aquatic plant that grows in shallow water, so it’s a good choice for your pond or water garden. In the right conditions, the cattail plant will quickly reach a maximum height of 10 feet as the thick root system spreads to establish the plant, digging into the soil and reaching a depth of 10 inches.
You can plant the cattail plant in USDA zones 3 to 10, and in the summer, the brown blooms will start to appear. It protects the soil from erosion and can be used as a screen for privacy. Cattail can grow in partial sun or partial shade, but it won’t survive in full shade.
This plant will thrive in boggy environments where other plants struggle to survive. As long as the soil is rich in organic matter, this plant will be healthy and pest-free. It’s cold hardy but can become invasive if not put under control.
Wrap Up: 10 Flowers that Attract Dragonflies
Dragonflies will help you get rid of mosquitoes and other annoying bugs in your garden. At the same time, they will lift up the mood with their impressive aerial displays once you choose the right flowers to attract them to your garden.