Butterfly Gardening

Butterfly Gardens

Butterfly Gardening

Hurt no living thing:
Ladybird, nor butterfly,
Nor moth with dusty wing...

Christina Georgina Rossetti

The gold-barr'd butterflies to and fro
And over the waterside wander'd and wove
As heedless and idle as clouds that rove
And drift by the peaks of perpetual snow.
- Joaquin Miller, Songs of the Sun-Lands--Isles of the Amazons

Cottage Garden Style| birds

Garden Site Map
Featured Page
Email me
StumbleUpon Toolbar Stumble It!

Try some of these other plants for butterflies:

Plant Material
for Butterfly Gardens:

A LIST:

Annuals:: Dill; Calendula; Candytuft; Cosmos; Heliotrope; Petunias; Nasturtium; Zinnias; Batchelor buttons
Perennials:: Achillea; Milkweeds; Echinops; Dianthus; Coneflowers; Asters; Erigeron; Gaillardias; Daylilies; Mints; Sedums
Shrubs:: BUTTERFLY BUSH; buttonbush; Sweet Pepperbush; Lindera Benzoin; Sweet Mock Orange; Lilacs; Potentillas; Spireas; Weigelas; Viburnums

Of Interest:

Some must-see sites on Butterflies:
Butterflies of Japan
Butterfly Gardening
Butterflies of Ireland
Butterfly Website
Butterfly Garden Plan
Maiden Fair's butterflies

Other sites of interest:
Cottage Garden: a haven for butterflies

art of the joy of gardening is the panoply of nature, as the insect and animal life discover the riches of your plantings. As in all things, too much of a good thing in a garden is more like misery than joy- we don't want too much of any plant, insect, or animal and rack our brains to diminish the over enthusiastic species! This article deals mainly with the ideal of "Balance", inviting those birds and butterflies we so enjoy, and understanding that some of the others will find a place as well.

First, you must make a choice to reduce or eliminate poisons such as pesticides. They do not distinguish between species, so when you kill something you don't like you also harm butterflies, honeybees, and songbirds. (And unlucky pets, sometimes, too). A diverse garden tends to be healthy, and mixed plantings of bird and butterfly friendly choices results in less need for chemical interventions, usually. Within the scope of the hospitable garden is a whole range of garden features, so please take the plant information and ideas from here and have a field day (literally) with your own creative ideas.

Butterflies

In reading lists of butterfly attracting plants, it appears that all will be equally attractive to all species. In actual practice, I have found that specific plants often attract a certain type of butterfly, and suppose it ought to have been obvious. Heliotrope, for instance, is filled all summer with the Painted Ladies. The parsley family and the umbels of dill draw Monarchs. As does the Autumn clematis, which is also a haunt of the Tiger Swallowtails. Cecropia Moths love the white Mulberry tree leaves, and daisies are filled with tiny Blues. An observant eye, particularly partnered with a journal will keep you busy discovering and expanding the possibilities of your habitat.

I planted the butterfly bush, buddleia, last year for the first time. This is a butterfly magnet! Its blossoms seem to attract any and all types of butterflies in a nonstop array.

Butterflies are denizens of the meadow, and they seem to love the gardens that are closest to that environment. Diverse plantings of annuals and perennials, in dooryards and cottage gardens, little meadow patches, borders of flowers, are all ideal. The fountains, little ponds, and sprinklers that delight us are friendly to them, as well. Many of us have butterfly gardens without even trying, but if you have a small space and desire butterflies, why not try some containers with heliotrope, petunia, calendula, and baby zinnias (angustifolia)? Or a wild corner of the yard, with a white buddleia, achillea, blue erigeron, golden daylily, and gaillardia? Fragrant, beautiful, and alive with butterflies.

A selection of books:

The Cottage Gardener's Companion: A Seasonal Guide to Plants & Plantings for Informal Gardens

Flowers in a Cottage Garden are many times old-fashioned types and they are planted in billowing drifting groups. Think of puffy summer clouds, and wafting mists. Often this style of gardening is ideal for attracting and nurturing butterflies in the garden. The gardener can even tuck in plants such as milkweed in the back corners of the garden to provide for Monarch butterflies.

Monarch butterfly facts:

The monarch butterfly is sometimes called the "milkweed butterfly" because its larvae eat the plant.
Some groups of Monarchs migrate for over 2,000 miles during August-October. Those that live in Eastern USA winter in Florida, along the coast of Texas, and in Mexico, and return to the north in spring.
They eat toxins from the milkweed and are poisonous to predators
It takes about a month for the egg to mature into an adult
The caterpillar is banded with white/cream, black, and yellow stripes

More? Birds in your Garden...