Butterfly Gardens
When we made our plans to make our first visit to Texas where our daughter Kate and her family moved last summer we knew that we would get an early taste of spring. We didn’t realize that we would miss the last great hurrah of winter, the great snow and rainfalls, and road washouts. We can’t exactly congratulate ourselves on good planning, but we accept our good fortune.
Kate lives just outside Houston. Although I had no clear picture in my mind I was totally surprised to see that this area is so green and so filled with water. Kate told us that it is almost considered a bayou area, and alligators have been known to make their way to local suburban lawns. She was cavalier about this and said she had a number to call. “They just come and take the alligator away.”
We didn’t see any alligators. We did see turtles and egrets because her new housing development is crisscrossed with wet swales, catch basins, streams and ponds. Some of the ponds are even stocked with fish for the very local fishermen.
The thing that really amazed me was the care that the developers had taken in this totally new subdivision to retain as many of the trees as possible. Kate was very happy with the one tall old tree (which we never did identify) in her backyard, and even the tree in the next yard right by her fence giving her the benefit of extra shade.
In addition to the trees they left, the developers planted hundreds and hundreds of new trees including native pecans, and magnolias that were just coming into bloom. It is clear that they appreciated the value of shade in this climate where summer temperatures and humidity indexes are so high.
Of course the great treat of the visit was seeing our grandsons, in their tai kwan do class, in their own ’data center’ room where each boy has a computer, and out on their bicycles. After school one day we joined 8 year old Drew in his school’s butterfly garden. This was started two years ago and each year students work to freshen it up and add new plantings.
Drew is working on his World Conservation badge which requires the planting of and caring for a garden so this activity did double duty for him. Service for the school and Cub Scout achievement.
I thought the school’s butterfly garden was a wonderful idea because we often think that wild life is something we have to travel to see. And yet, wild life is all around us, and the more beautiful and benign aspects of wild life are willing to be invited in.
The butterfly garden is also a useful part of the science curriculum, learning about the interdependence of natural systems and life cycles. As a person who loves words I also know how delicious it is when children learn words like chrysalis and metamorphosis.
Butterfly gardens in Texas will be a bit different from butterfly gardens in Massachusetts. There are different butterflies and different plants in different climates. But the principles are the same.
The important thing to remember about planting flowers to attract butterflies to your garden, is that you also have to plant food for caterpillars. You’ll have more butterflies if you accommodate caterpillars (larvae) as well. Trees like willow, elm, apple, poplar, cherry, birch and aspen provide larval food as do weeds like nettles and milkweed.
In addition to planting nectar plants, and plants that will provide places for butterfly eggs and larval food, it is important to plant in fairly large groups. Butterflies will find it more difficult to find a single attractive plant than a whole bed of attractive plants. Planting a variety of flowers will attract a greater variety of butterflies.
Also think about choosing plants that will flower at different times of the season. For example, verbena is often set out as a bedding plant early in the season, daylilies, butterfly weed and lavender bloom in the summer while asters bloom well into the fall.
You may also find some surprises in your garden. We all know that Monarch butterflies lay their eggs on milkweed, and they drink the nectar of milkweed, thistles and goldenrod. I had never heard anyone say that mint attracts Monarch butterflies and yet in mid to late August we always have clouds of monarch butterflies in our field gorging on mint blossoms from a bed that got totally out of hand. The monarchs stay around for a few days and it is a sight to behold! It is only this year that I ran into a mention of mints as butterfly plants.
Butterflies, like all insects, are cold blooded creatures and they will need open spaces where they can sun themselves, but also shady spots where they can keep cool on a hot summer day.
Like all living creatures they need water. But not deep water. They like puddles. You can make a puddle in your garden by nearly filling a container like a deep wide plastic tray with clean sand and then adding water until it just covers the sand. You could place this puddle near some butterfly attracting flowers. Actually, I have heard that some people use stale beer or fruit juice in their puddle.
We all want beautiful gardens. By choosing plants that attract butterflies we get a double benefit. Beautiful flowers and butterflies.
April 2007