`Pueblo Open Days: Sage Queen Garden welcomes monarchs

Sage Queen Garden refers to the meadow sage growing in abundance in this waterwise, pollinator-friendly garden.… Read More

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June 22, 2026

Sage Queen Garden — this evocative name intrigued me during the Pueblo Open Days Tour a couple weeks ago. Don’t you love when someone gives their garden a good name? It’s a reference to the meadow sage (Salvia nemorosa) the homeowners grow in abundance in their waterwise, pollinator-friendly garden.

Penstemon, another dry-garden fave, adds flower spikes of lipstick pink.

Milkweed caters to monarch butterflies, offering them the only food their caterpillars can eat. While Colorado isn’t on the monarch’s main migration path, the way Texas is, some do pass through. Milkweed gives them a place to lay their eggs and fuels the next generation of butterflies.

I noticed one milkweed covered in yellow aphids, a garden pest that sucks juices from the leaves. But several ladybugs were already coming to the rescue by making a meal of them. Go, ladybugs, go!

Other dry-garden beauties included a wine-red hollyhock…

…yellow yarrow…

…and feathery prince’s plume (Stanleya pinnata).

There’s also a front-yard orchard and backyard chickens. What a productive home landscape!

Up next: Midway Xeric Garden, a Pueblo artist’s garden. For a look back at the xeriscape-meets-wetland Conrad Family Garden, click here.

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The post Pueblo Open Days: Sage Queen Garden welcomes monarchs appeared first on Digging.