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How to Start a Butterfly Garden
- Phonics is a method for teaching the reading and writing of an alphabetic language (such as English, Arabic and Russian).It is done by demonstrating the relationship between the sounds of the spoken language, and the letters , groups of letters, or syllables of the written language.This is also known as the Alphabetic principle or the Alphabetic code.
- Now while I do appreciate (and have even mildly enjoyed) reading in Elly Mackay's Butterfly Park how a young girl who has recently moved to a new town makes new friends and begins to feel increasingly content and settled by restoring a decrepit and devoid of flowers and plants butterfly park to its (former) blooming glory, and of course, also thereby attracting the butterflies for which she.
- Future home of Pearson Butterfly Park and Monarch Lodge (an educational facility). This 36 acre farm was donated to the Wapello County Conservation Board with the intention of providing a natural park for the surrounding communities. 6 acres of prairie has been planted in a former agricultural field, and work has begun on a lodge to be used for educational groups and other community activities.
ARTIST: Nam June Paik DATE: 1992 LOCATION: Originally commissioned and installed at the new America West Arena, 201 E. Jefferson (subsequently renamed US West Arena), the work was removed in 2002, when a renovation significantly altered the arena atrium. Paik’s sculpture since has been exhibited temporarily at the Phoenix Ar. The Butterfly Highway began with several communities in Charlotte, NC, that wanted to beautify their environment through planting gardens. Through the Butterfly Highway, these communities are transforming community gardens, backyard gardens, public spaces and park fragments into new pollinator and wildlife habitats.
Beginning a butterfly garden can be as simple as choosing flowering plants that will invite adult butterflies to your garden to feed. But if you want to create a butterfly garden that will act as a sanctuary, attracting a wide variety of butterflies while also providing a place where butterflies can grow and multiply, you will first need some simple planning. By considering which plants to grow and evaluating your garden site, you can plant a butterfly garden that will help with the creation of more butterflies.
Plant Selection
Many flowering plants will attract butterflies to your location, but not all flowers are created equally in the compound eyes of a butterfly. Selecting plants that will feed butterflies while also encouraging them to stick around for a while, laying eggs and creating a new generation of butterflies, is your goal. To do this, you will need to choose plants that fall into two groups: nectar plants that will provide adult butterflies with energy and caterpillar food plants that will feed caterpillars. With careful selection from these two groups, your garden will provide for the entire life cycle of butterflies.
Choosing Nectar Plants
Eastern Purple Coneflower
While shopping for garden plants, you will encounter many plants labeled “butterfly friendly.” These labels are most likely telling the truth and if you choose plants labeled for butterfly gardens, they will attract butterflies. Most likely, though, these plants are nectar plants, marketed for their bright blooms, and will not provide for the caterpillar stage of a butterfly’s life. Although many flowering plants provide nectar to butterflies, it is worth doing a little research to find you what plants attract the most butterflies in your area. Just as growing conditions vary by location, so do the popularity of butterfly nectar plants. Some plants will serve as both nectar and caterpillar food plants and it may be worth searching out some of these double duty offerings.
Choosing Caterpillar Food Plants
The relationship between butterflies, caterpillars and the plants they use for food is not a casual one. It is a relationship created over thousands of years as flowering plants developed along side insects. As a result of this long development, caterpillars will use only certain plants for food. At the same time, butterflies are equally picky about what plants they will select to lay their eggs on. In order to encourage caterpillars in the garden, butterfly gardeners need only select the plants that are preferred by caterpillars in their location. Nature and chemistry will take care of the rest.
Choosing Plants for Butterflies Common to Your Region
To determine which butterflies and caterpillars may arrive in your garden, visit local butterfly gardens in your region or talk to other butterfly gardeners. If such opportunities do not exist, many butterfly field guides also provide information about which butterflies are likely to visit gardens and what food sources they prefer. Once you have identified butterflies that are most likely to visit your garden, select their preferred caterpillar food plants along with nectar plants that are recommended for your growing area.
Garden Site Selection
Planting a wide range of nectar and host plants is the best strategy for attracting the largest number of butterfly species. Butterflies may be attracted to the garden by a large patch of bright flowers, but they will linger longer if there are also areas that provide shelter, water, sun and a diverse group of plants that imitate the way plants grow in the wild.
Plant Diversity
in the garden results from choosing plants of different types, such as shrubs, trees, perennials, and even vines. In choosing plants that grow to different heights, with a variety of flower shapes and colors that have different bloom times, you will be creating a garden that is attractive to a wide range of butterflies. Grouping more than one plant of each type together will help to unify the look of the garden and will lessen the distance that nectaring butterflies have to travel. If your garden is small and has no room for trees or shrubs, consider an arbor covered with vines to create height. There are many vines to choose from that act as nectar or caterpillar food plants.
in the garden results from choosing plants of different types, such as shrubs, trees, perennials, and even vines. In choosing plants that grow to different heights, with a variety of flower shapes and colors that have different bloom times, you will be creating a garden that is attractive to a wide range of butterflies. Grouping more than one plant of each type together will help to unify the look of the garden and will lessen the distance that nectaring butterflies have to travel. If your garden is small and has no room for trees or shrubs, consider an arbor covered with vines to create height. There are many vines to choose from that act as nectar or caterpillar food plants.
Eastern Tailed-Blue
Shelter
While shrubs and trees can create unnecessary shade, they do provide an important feature in the butterfly garden. Properly placed, trees and shrubs will shelter your garden from wind, which makes it easier for butterflies to explore your location. Additionally, trees and shrubs give valuable shelter where butterflies can roost at night or hide from predators. Keep in mind that many shrubs and trees are also caterpillar food plants!
While shrubs and trees can create unnecessary shade, they do provide an important feature in the butterfly garden. Properly placed, trees and shrubs will shelter your garden from wind, which makes it easier for butterflies to explore your location. Additionally, trees and shrubs give valuable shelter where butterflies can roost at night or hide from predators. Keep in mind that many shrubs and trees are also caterpillar food plants!
Water
is needed by butterflies, but not very much. Nectar, dew, and tree sap provide butterflies with moisture but puddles and moist dirt or sand are also popular water sources. Puddling stations can be as simple as a damp area of ground covered with sand. Placed where they are easily viewed and sheltered from the wind, puddling stations are thought to provide dissolved salts in addition to water.
is needed by butterflies, but not very much. Nectar, dew, and tree sap provide butterflies with moisture but puddles and moist dirt or sand are also popular water sources. Puddling stations can be as simple as a damp area of ground covered with sand. Placed where they are easily viewed and sheltered from the wind, puddling stations are thought to provide dissolved salts in addition to water.
Sun
is essential for the butterfly garden. Butterflies are cold-blooded insects that often start their day by warming their bodies in the sun. Be sure to include a spot in the garden where sunlight will reach the ground early in the day. Large rocks, exposed soil, or even pavement are all surfaces that will warm up in morning sunlight. Try to locate your garden where it will receive at least six hours of direct sunlight each day.
is essential for the butterfly garden. Butterflies are cold-blooded insects that often start their day by warming their bodies in the sun. Be sure to include a spot in the garden where sunlight will reach the ground early in the day. Large rocks, exposed soil, or even pavement are all surfaces that will warm up in morning sunlight. Try to locate your garden where it will receive at least six hours of direct sunlight each day.
Once you have combined careful plant selection with the details of site selection, you will have created a butterfly garden that is a microhabitat providing a unique location where a wide variety of butterflies can live and grow.
Quick facts
- Grow nectar-producing plants that will have flowers in bloom throughout the season.
- Flowers with multiple florets that produce abundant nectar are ideal.
- Provide host plants for the caterpillar forms of butterflies.
- Supplement the garden’s flower nectar with a homemade feeder.
- Avoid the use of broad spectrum pesticides sprayed all around the yard.
Butterfly gardening involves planning your garden to attract, retain and encourage butterfly populations. Flowers of similar colors grouped together are more attractive to both butterflies and the gardener.
Choosing host plants
Select a variety of nectar-producing plants with the aim of providing flowers in bloom throughout the season. This will entice a continuous succession of new visitors to a yard. It is especially important to have flowers in mid to late summer, when most butterflies are active.
- Flowers with multiple florets that produce abundant nectar are ideal.
- Annuals are wonderful butterfly plants because they bloom continuously through the season, providing a steady supply of nectar.
- Butterflies regularly visit perennial plants, such as coneflowers, lilac, butterfly weed and asters.
- Most plants in the mint family are good nectar sources for butterflies.
- Avoid double flowers because they are often bred for showiness, not nectar production.
- Plantings of host plants preferred by butterflies do not require any sacrifice of flowers and colors.
- Plants such as yellow sunflower, pink Joe-Pye weed, purple coneflower and purple verbena, yellow Black-eyed Susan, red bee balm/bergamot and purple wild asters provide plentiful color.
For successful butterfly gardening, you need to provide food for more than the adult butterflies. You need to provide for their caterpillar forms as well.
Butterfly caterpillars have a limited host range. Most caterpillars feed on leaves. Some develop on the reproductive parts of flowers or seeds.
Some supposedly good butterfly plants might not attract butterflies in your garden. It may be that a particular plant is not the preferred larval food of local butterflies.
Common butterflies and their caterpillar food plants
Butterfly species | Caterpillar food plant |
---|---|
Swallowtail Family (Papilionidae) | |
Black swallowtail | Parsley family - both wild and cultivated: carrot, dill, parsley, parsnip |
Spicebush swallowtail | Spicebush, sassafras |
Tiger swallowtail | Aspen, cherry, birch |
Snout butterfly (Libytheidae) | |
Common snout butterfly | Hackberry |
Brush-footed family (Nymphalidae) | |
Great spangled and idalia fritillary | Violets |
Buckeye | Plantains, gerardias, toadflax, snapdragons, false loosestrifes |
Painted lady | Thistles |
Red admiral | Nettles, false nettle |
Viceroy and red-spotted purple | Willows, especially black willow, pussy willow, poplars, plums, cherries |
Hackberry butterfly | Hackberry |
Monarch butterfly | Milkweeds, butterfly weed |
Mourning cloak | Willow, birch, aspen, maple, elm |
Sulphur family (Pieridae) | |
Common (clouded) sulphur | Clover, alfalfa |
Dogface butterfly | Lead plant, false indigo, prairie clover |
Coppers, blues, harvesters, metalmarks families (Lycaenidae, Riodinidae) | |
American copper | Sorrel |
Sylvan hairstreak | Willow |
Common hairstreak | Mallow family, rose & marsh mallows, hollyhock |
Gray hairstreak | Hawthorn |
Skipper family (Hesperidae) | |
Blazing star skipper | Grasses |
Shrubs
Azalea, blueberries, butterfly bush, buttonbush, lilac, privets and sumacs
Cultivated flowers: annuals
Coneflowers, flowering tobacco, impatiens, marigolds, phlox, sunflower and verbena
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Cultivated flowers: perennials
Asters, bee balm, butterfly weed, chrysanthemums, daisies, live forever, purple coneflower, sedum and yarrow
Wildflowers
New England aster, bergamots or horsemints, black-eyed Susan, blazing stars, boneset, butterfly flower, coreopsis, ox-eye daisy and purple agertum
Some weedy wildflowers are not appropriate for formal garden settings, but could be used in a wild patch: common milkweeds, dogbane, goldenrods, ironweeds, Joe-Pye weed, nettles and thistles.
Other
Some butterflies, such as the Mourning Cloak (Nymphalidae: Nymphalis antiopa) and Hackberry (Apaturidae: Asterocampa celtis) feed on rotting fruit, sap that oozes from trees, and even dung.
You can supplement the garden’s flower nectar with a homemade feeder that can be attractive to butterflies.
- Find an inverted baby food container or other small jar.
- Drill a small hole in the center of the lid and plug it with cotton.
- Fill the jar with a solution of one part sugar (not honey) to nine parts water.
- Attach brightly-colored fabric petals to the lid to make the feeder more appealing to butterflies.
- Hang your feeder in a tree near your garden.
1. Purple coneflower
2. Dill
3. Hollyhock
4. Joe-Pye weed
5. Globe centaurea
6. Peony
7. Turtlehead
8. Swamp milkweed
9. Yarrow
10. Queen Anne’s lace
11. Tawny daylily
12. ‘Marine’ heliotrope
13. Gayfeather
14. Butterfly weed
15. Petunia
16. Mountain bluet
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17. Annual aster
18. 'Autumn Joy’ sedum
19. Rock cress
20.French marigold
21. ‘Happy Returns’ daylily
22. Blanket flower
23. Nasturtium
24. Goldenrod
Reduced use of pesticides
One of the most important conservation decisions we can make is to avoid the use of broad spectrum pesticides sprayed all around the yard. Instead, use less harmful spot treatments on plants troubled with pest insects.
For pest insects, use alternative control methods such as oils, soaps and microbial insecticides such as Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). Remember that oils and soaps still kill caterpillars if sprayed directly on them. Dragon ball super english dubbed. They also will die if they feed on plants treated with a Bt formulation that is toxic to them.
Most butterfly species, such as the Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus), lay only a few eggs at a time. This low level of insect population will not kill shrubs or trees. Black Swallowtail (Papilionidae: Papilio polyxenes) larvae, however, can completely consume herbaceous plants such as dill. To avoid killing a beautiful guest, you should be sure of your identification of an insect as a pest before using any pesticide.
A good side effect of the decrease in pesticide use is the increase of natural enemies. Insects such as spiders, lacewings, ladybird beetles and ground beetles, help to control unwanted pests.
Caution: Mention of a pesticide or use of a pesticide label is for educational purposes only. Always follow the pesticide label directions attached to the pesticide container you are using. Remember, the label is the law.
Enjoy your garden
With a pair of binoculars and a butterfly field guide, your garden is sure to bring you many rewarding hours of butterfly watching. Their daily activities are interesting to watch. Keep a written or photographic record of these special visitors to your garden. Creating your personal Eden is within your grasp.
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Reviewed in 2018