Gardening
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Butterfly Gardening
By Dawn Sutherland
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Gardeners are always in pursuit of adding something
new. We may try interesting foliage, seek out new texture
combinations, knock-out color, or flowers with scents that
remind us of childhood. Why not try adding yet another dimension
to the garden…butterflies!
Just following a few simple principles will almost certainly
assure you of having these lovely, fragile, and often endangered
visitors in your gardens.
If
you don't already have a good butterfly reference book, peruse
the short bibliography at the end of this article. Use one
of these reference books to find out just what kind of butterflies
are already visiting your gardens and others that are native
to your area.
Two
of the most effective things you can do will be to provide
"host" plants for butterfly larvae and food sources
for the adult butterflies. Your reference book should help
you with finding out what plants each butterfly prefers to
lay eggs on. Monarchs are so selective, they will only place
eggs on plants in the milkweed/asclepia family, whereas black
swallowtails will use just about any plant in the umbelliferae
family (carrots, dill, fennel, parsley, etc.)
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If
you plant it, they will come. Learn to identify butterfly
larvae. Those green and black "worms" on your parsley
are not harmful, but rather the larvae of black swallowtails.
That strange bristly worm that appears to be eating your helichrysum
is the larva of the painted lady. The peculiar brown and white
striped fellow with blue dots on your violas is likely the
larva of the variegated fritillary. Butterfly larvae never
eat themselves out of house and home; in other words, they
never completely consume the host plant. In a few weeks, they
move off and reappear later as adults. The host plant will
survive nicely.
Most
adult butterflies prefer to feed on the nectar of flowers
that provide a nice flat landing surface and have numerous
tubular flowers; phlox, monarda, milkweed, buddleia, heliotrope
are just a few examples. However, some butterflies, such as
mourning cloaks, and red admirals enjoy feeding on rotting
fruit as well. You can try putting out a bowl of very ripe
watermelon and bananas and see if you can attract some butterfly
visitors. You may find this "meal" also attracts
wasps, so a bit of caution is advisable.
"Puddling"
is an activity enjoyed by most butterflies. When you see butterflies
gathered at the edges of puddles, you are observing them sipping
nutrients which become concentrated at the margins. Puddles
which collect near your compost bin may provide an enjoyable
puddling experience for your winged visitors.
"Basking"
is an activity all butterflies must do before they can fly
about your gardens. Most butterflies are not able to fly until
the sun warms their bodies to at least 80 degrees. Butterflies
perched on a sunny wall, tree trunk, or pavement with their
wings spread wide, are taking in as much of the sun's warmth
as possible so they can venture out and enjoy your gardens.
If you wish, you can add a nice flat rock on which your winged
visitors may warm themselves.
Plantings
which concentrate color may attract more butterflies to your
gardens. Butterflies tend to follow a linear path as they
cruise through. Massing color makes your gardens just a bit
more tempting and inviting.
The
bane of every butterfly is the presence of chemical pesticides
in the garden. That which kills aphids will also kill butterflies
in any stage of the life cycle. It is a challenge to every
butterfly gardener to find alternate methods of pest control.
A
healthy garden is one in which spiders, lady beetles, and
lacewings, all natural predators, will find a home. Hand-picking
some larger pests, such as hornworms and Japanese beetles
is preferable. Judicious and careful use of soapy water may
take care of some pest populations.
Host
plants for the eggs and larvae, plus food sources for the
adults will almost certainly equal an increase in butterfly
visitors to your gardens. Sit back with a good butterfly reference
book and a pair of binoculars and enjoy!
Copyright
2005 by Dawn Sutherland
Books:
The
Butterfly Book, by Donald and Lillian Stokes
The
Butterfly Gardener, by Matt Tekulsky
The Audubon Guide to North American Butterflies
Butterflies
Through Binoculars, Jeffrey Glassberg
Find
the book using our Barne's and Noble link!
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