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Archive Articles

How to Create a Butterfly Garden

  • Locate in a sunny area, to provide food, shelter and water
  • Plant Host plants such as fennel, parsley, red basil, Queen Anne's Lace milkweed and dill
  • Plant Nectar producing flowers in colors of red-orange and yellow,
  • Select single flower rather than double
  • Diversity is the key in the selection of plant material - the more diverse the plant selection the more butterflies will be attracted.
  • Make a statement with color - lots of color
  • Plant for continuous bloom
  • Include damp area for 'puddling'
  • Provide flat stones for basking ( butterflies need 75-110 degrees for flight )
  • Do not use pesticides
  • Plant Natives
  • Shelter form strong winds
  • Provide some artificial feeders ( rotting bananas or cut citrus).
  • Provide a butterfly house, although the Butterfly Society claims they really do not "work"!
  • Provide a puddling saucer of damp sand

Interesting facts about Butterflies ' Jewels of the Sky'

  • There are 20,000 kinds of butterflies, in the world twice that of birds
  • The greatest diversity occurs in Central and South America
  • There are 700 species in the USA
  • The lifespan of a butterfly is about 2-4 weeks, except that of the Monarch which is 6 months.
  • The butterfly life cycle consists of 4 stages: egg, larva (caterpillar), Pupa (chrysalis) and the adult butterfly
  • Certain species require certain flowers for a good attraction match up
  • Butterflies get their moisture not so much from 'puddling' in damp sandy soils but from the nectar and dew. Puddling will give them salts and minerals needed.
  • Butterflies warm up their bodies by 'basking '
  • Hilltopping' is a social activity that butterflies do to mate. The males fly to the highest hilltop in the area in search of a mate
  • Territories are also important to the males of the butterflies and they do stake out areas.
  • Butterflies like flat flowers and different species. The greater the variety of species, the greater will be the variety of butterflies.

 

Plant Materials that attract Butterflies

Herbs: bee balm, butterfly weed, dill, fennel, milkweed, parsley, meadow rue, rosemary, mints

Vines: honeysuckle, Jasmine, Wisteria, passion vine, Dutchman's pipe

Annuals:: Verbena, flat (French) marigolds, pentas, Mexican sunflower (tithonia), Zinnia (narrowleaf), Cosmos, asters, coreopsis, stokesia, impatiens ,clover, nasturtiums, coneflower rudbeckia, verbena

Perennials: Butterfly weed, Joe Pye Weed, Swamp sunflower, garden phlox, Autumn sun redbeckia, New England Aster. pentas, purple cone, black eyed Susan, coreopsis, Moss verbena (tenvisecta)

Shrubs: Abelia, Buddelia, Lantana. Firebush, Bottlebush, lantana virbrunum, plumbago, Azalea, Hibiscus


www.butterflywebsite.com - Wow. What a beautiful site. With over 600 images this site will keep you busy. If you love those jewels in the sky, you'll love this one.

www.monarchwatch.org - The University of Kansas Entomology Program

www.learner.org/jnorth - A global study of wildlife management brought to you by Annenberg and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting

www.concord.org/~dick/mon.html - The Monarch Monitoring Project: A research project of the New Jersey Audubon Society's Cape May Bird Observatory

www.ent.iastate.edu - Department of Entomology at Iowa State University

www.monarchlab.umn.edu - Explore Monarch Butterfly Biology with the University of Minnesota

www.naba.org - The North American Butterfly Association

www.xerces.org - The Xerces Society: Protecting biological diversity through invertebrate conservation.

 

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