Butterflies have joined the endangered list because roads, housing developments, and mono-crop farming are steadily encroaching on their habitat. Fortunately, helping them out is easy and pleasant. All people have to do is create butterfly gardens with trees, shrubs, vines, ground-covers, and flowers that these beautiful insects need to survive. Many butterfly-nurturing plants are ones gardeners love anyway.
Both butterflies and gardeners like bright colors, and many native and cultivated plants will please both groups. Some plants work as 'hosts', providing a place to lay eggs and food for the emerging caterpillars. Others provide nectar, which feeds the adults. Many plants do both.
A garden doesn't have to provide everything, of course. Even a window-box can give hungry insects a meal. However, it's fun to create a sanctuary, with everything the insects need during their entire life cycle. It all starts with the larvae. Herbs that caterpillars like include fennel, dill, parsley, and rue. Dogwoods, sassafras, pawpaw, and Sweet Bay magnolias are trees that feed larvae and adults. Garden favorites that serve as host plants include sunflowers, hollyhocks, Black-eyed Susan, asters, nasturtiums, and Echinacea. The wild passion flower vine and milkweed are valuable hosts; in fact, Monarch larvae only eat milkweed.
Full sun is best for this kind of garden; the minimum amount of sun is about six hours. Butterflies are cold-blooded and need sun to warm up, so setting large rocks out or leaving areas of bare ground will give them places to bask. This can also lend visual interest to the garden. Think how pretty a kaleidoscope (one term for a group of butterflies) will be, sunning themselves on a bright morning.
For water, the butterfly prefers damp soil or sand. The edges of a mud puddle often attract a kaleidoscope, which is one term for a group of these insects. They are also called a swarm, a rabble, or a flutter. Well-planned gardens have 'puddling stations' of damp sand or soil. Some experts advocate placing rounded stones in shallow dishes of water or nailing sponges to the tops of posts and keeping them wet.
Many valuable nectar plants are the profuse blooms that gardeners love. Sweet alyssum, candytuft, and creeping phlox are colorful ground covers. Lantana, lavender, hyssop, catmint, and peppermint are herbs that attract all pollinators. The brilliant orange butterfly weed and the vigorous butterfly bush are tall perennials that fit well in the back of a bed. Vines can be trained over arbors or along fences and are virtually care-free.
A lot of native plants are low-maintenance, while some are spectacular in the garden. The purple blaze of Ironweed is hard to surpass, for instance. Bee balm is another wildflower that gardeners in zones three to eight have embraced. This wild herb comes in brilliant red or shades of blue and purple and will naturalize widely where it is happy. Coneflowers, which have been hybridized to give more colors than were found in wild varieties, are seldom troubled by deer or slugs. It's fun to find out which butterflies are native to your area and which wild plants will nurture them.
The special gardens can include all the traditional favorites like roses, daffodils, allium, and annuals. Just remember to avoid systemic insecticides, which penetrate the whole plant and kill all pollinators that visit, as well as the caterpillars.
Both butterflies and gardeners like bright colors, and many native and cultivated plants will please both groups. Some plants work as 'hosts', providing a place to lay eggs and food for the emerging caterpillars. Others provide nectar, which feeds the adults. Many plants do both.
A garden doesn't have to provide everything, of course. Even a window-box can give hungry insects a meal. However, it's fun to create a sanctuary, with everything the insects need during their entire life cycle. It all starts with the larvae. Herbs that caterpillars like include fennel, dill, parsley, and rue. Dogwoods, sassafras, pawpaw, and Sweet Bay magnolias are trees that feed larvae and adults. Garden favorites that serve as host plants include sunflowers, hollyhocks, Black-eyed Susan, asters, nasturtiums, and Echinacea. The wild passion flower vine and milkweed are valuable hosts; in fact, Monarch larvae only eat milkweed.
Full sun is best for this kind of garden; the minimum amount of sun is about six hours. Butterflies are cold-blooded and need sun to warm up, so setting large rocks out or leaving areas of bare ground will give them places to bask. This can also lend visual interest to the garden. Think how pretty a kaleidoscope (one term for a group of butterflies) will be, sunning themselves on a bright morning.
For water, the butterfly prefers damp soil or sand. The edges of a mud puddle often attract a kaleidoscope, which is one term for a group of these insects. They are also called a swarm, a rabble, or a flutter. Well-planned gardens have 'puddling stations' of damp sand or soil. Some experts advocate placing rounded stones in shallow dishes of water or nailing sponges to the tops of posts and keeping them wet.
Many valuable nectar plants are the profuse blooms that gardeners love. Sweet alyssum, candytuft, and creeping phlox are colorful ground covers. Lantana, lavender, hyssop, catmint, and peppermint are herbs that attract all pollinators. The brilliant orange butterfly weed and the vigorous butterfly bush are tall perennials that fit well in the back of a bed. Vines can be trained over arbors or along fences and are virtually care-free.
A lot of native plants are low-maintenance, while some are spectacular in the garden. The purple blaze of Ironweed is hard to surpass, for instance. Bee balm is another wildflower that gardeners in zones three to eight have embraced. This wild herb comes in brilliant red or shades of blue and purple and will naturalize widely where it is happy. Coneflowers, which have been hybridized to give more colors than were found in wild varieties, are seldom troubled by deer or slugs. It's fun to find out which butterflies are native to your area and which wild plants will nurture them.
The special gardens can include all the traditional favorites like roses, daffodils, allium, and annuals. Just remember to avoid systemic insecticides, which penetrate the whole plant and kill all pollinators that visit, as well as the caterpillars.
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