Creating the right spot for your butterfly garden
Any place where flowers grow can be a butterfly garden. Whether you're rethinking an existing garden, putting in a new flower bed or planting in containers for the deck of your condo, you can create a welcoming environment for nature's winged jewels. All butterflies, from the exotic morphos you'll see at Foremost's Butterflies Are Blooming exhibit to the common cabbage butterflies that flit along the roadsides all summer, have four simple requirements: sun, shelter, food, and moisture.
Sun
Beautiful as they are, butterflies are cold-blooded insects that depend on the sun for warmth. Ideally, a butterfly garden should have large, open sunny spaces full of sun-loving, blossoming plants that are good nectar sources. But if you can't offer butterflies a big, sunny location, make the most of what you have. If your garden tends to be shady, plant a few nectar-source plants in the sunniest spot. On decks or balconies, place flower pots and window boxes where they'll get plenty of sunlight, and fill them with flowers that are butterfly favorites.
Butterflies fly best when their body temperature is between 85 and 100 degrees Fahrenheit. To reach this temperature they will often pause on rocks or paved areas to sun themselves. To help them out, place a few large rocks in a part of the garden that gets early-morning sun. Butterflies will quickly discover that this is a great spot for warming themselves.
Shelter
Butterflies need shelter from the wind, rain and predators. While you can't keep bad weather or birds out of your garden, you can offer butterflies some help.
Shrubby nectar and larval food plants such as buddleia, spicebush, lilac and wild cherry can help shelter a butterfly garden from the wind while offering butterflies a source of sustenance. A small fence, a row of evergreens or a large rock can also provide shelter from the wind. You can also locate your butterfly plants where your house will block prevailing breezes.
In rainstorms and to escape hungry birds butterflies will typically take shelter by perching on the underside of a leaf or the branch of a shrub.
Food
Adult butterflies have simple lives: they mate, the females lay eggs, and they spend the rest of their time drinking nectar. Consequently the rule about nectar-bearing plants and butterflies is equally simple: if you plant them, they will come.
Butterflies come to a wide range of flowers, from towering old lilacs to dainty carpets of freshly-planted alyssum. Check out the list of nectar plants to get some ideas for your garden. It may also be worthwhile to visit your favorite nursery or public garden and spend some time taking note of the plants that are visited by butterflies. Make sure you invest in a variety of plants with a broad range of blooming periods. For example, you could lure butterflies with rock cress in the spring, verbena at midsummer, sedum in the fall and impatiens all through the growing season.
Nectar attracts not only butterflies, but bees. When you're out enjoying your garden, negotiate your way carefully among the fluttering and buzzing.
Don't forget the youngsters -- the caterpillars that will eventually become butterflies. By making room for larval food plants in your garden you'll not only be able to watch females laying their eggs in your garden, you'll also be supporting the next generation of butterflies.
Each species of butterfly feeds on specific plants during the larval stage. The popular Monarch butterfly, for example, lays its eggs on milkweed, because milkweed leaves are the only food the Monarch caterpillar will eat. Similarly the Black Swallowtail larvae have an exclusive relationship with plants from the Parsley family, and the larvae of the Painted Lady turn up their snouts to anything that isn't thistle. Take a look at the list of larval plants for ideas about how to feed caterpillars in your garden.
Remember: larval plants get eaten. If you have a successful butterfly garden, the larval food plants in it are going to show the effects of having been nibbled. You may wish to locate these plants in a fairly inconspicuous spot.
Moisture
Butterflies cannot drink directly from open water, so while they have no use for your birdbath or pool, they love sandy or muddy puddles. Replenish puddles frequently during hot weather, or consider putting out a container of damp sand. Add sugar water to the sand if you wish. Some butterflies also enjoy drinking nutrient-rich moisture from rotting fruit or manure, so if you find yourself with some over-ripened bananas or pears, put them outside in a sunny spot and see what happens. Give cow dung the same treatment.
Pesticides: definitely not
Pesticides have no place in a butterfly garden. If you're serious about encouraging butterflies to visit, avoid using pesticides. Manually remove and destroy any pests that threaten your plants, or discourage them by dousing them with soapy water. But first, identify them with the help of a field guide or your local Cooperative Extension Service. The ugly creatures eating your flowers may just be butterfly larvae!
With knowledge about growing plants and effective garden design, you'll soon be luring beautiful butterflies to your home.
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