BUTTERFLY GARDENING

Over the past few years butterfly gardening has become more and more popular. Everyone seems to want to attract butterflies to their yards, and to be honest, I can't blame them! Gardening is a wonderful and stress-relieving hobby and by butterfly gardening you take it a step further by attracting these flying beauties to your yard. Most people don't realize though that butterfly gardening is more than just putting a butterfly bush (Buddleia species) in your yard. Though the addition of a butterfly bush will almost certainly attract butterflies the key to successful butterfly gardening is the ability to keep the butterflies in your yard. This is a two step process...first you need plenty of butterfly-attracting flowers but then you also need host plants for the butterflies' larvae, or caterpillars. The flowers will initially attract the butterflies to your yard and the foodplants will keep them there much longer.

Butterfly gardens do not need alot of space to be effective (though they do need as much sunlight as possible since butterflies love the sun). I am fortunate to have parents that own alot of property and have allowed me to use this property to create a butterfly haven. At this time I have more than 50 butterfly bushes of varying colors planted on the property (in addition I have dozens of potted butterfly bushes to put on decks and around my tents that I use to raise butterflies and moths). I also have dozens of other species of butterfly-attracting flowers throughout the property. Also included are many of the foodplants for the local butterfly populations. Keep in mind that I live in Rhode Island so much of the information in this section is directed at people living on the east coast of the United States. Though most of the flowers will attract worldwide, actual necessary foodplants will vary from area to area. You may have to do additional research to find out what specific foodplants you will need.

This is one of the most popular species of butterfly bush, also known as "Pink Delight" (Buddleia davidii).

I am going to be dividing this part of my website into three distinct sections: Butterfly-Attracting Flowers, Butterfly Host-Plants and Greenhouse Gardening. In each section I will show a picture of the plant and provide information as to scientific names and care of that particular species. With the host-plants I will also list which butterfly caterpillars eat these plants. Whenever possible I will list suppliers for these plants - I am a firm believer in buying cost effective and healthy plants - you'd be amazed at what you can find at both Wal-Mart and on eBay! For those of you fortunate enough to own a greenhouse I will be getting into transforming a greenhouse into a tropical rainforest environment for butterflies. I will also include suppliers of cost-effective greenhouse kits for the beginner. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions I openly invite you to e-mail me at bugguy01@cox.net.

Another great addition to any butterfly garden, known as butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa), a member of the milkweed family. This plant serves two purposes...the flowers attract butterflies and the leaves are the favorite foodplant of the Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) and the Queen (Danaus gilippus).

SECTIONS

BUTTERFLY-ATTRACTING FLOWERS

BUTTERFLY HOST-PLANTS

GREENHOUSE GARDENING

RAISING SATURNIIDAE

HOME

DISCLAIMER Though the saying "if you build it, they will come" applies to butterfly gardening your results may vary, not only from garden to garden but season to season. Always keep in mind that what I present here has worked for me here in Rhode Island and is presented only as a guideline for you. Just because I have plenty of both butterfly-attracting flowers and butterfly host-plants does not guarantee me hundreds of butterflies everyday. In the summer of 2001 butterflies were plentiful here in Rhode Island and it was common to have literally dozens of butterflies on a single butterfly bush. This all changed in the summer of 2002...butterflies overall were scarce and though I did attract them to my yard their numbers were greatly reduced from the previous year. My gardens were the same (in fact they had been greatly added to in the 2002 season) but local butterfly populations had been greatly depleted. I think many factors caused this, some of which were heavy spraying for mosquitos, an early spring followed by unseasonably cold weather and as always, habitat destruction. Butterflies are very sensitive animals and as a result their numbers will vary from year to year. Just be patient, they will come eventually and you will not be disappointed!

USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map