Butterflies Net Vision Of Freedom

Butterflies are magical creatures of the summer garden. Lured by bouquets of fragrant flowers and the warmth of the sun, they create a world of enchantment. They busy themselves collecting pollen and drinking sweet nectar, while moving about on exquisite patterned wings.

Enticing a few butterflies into the garden can be as easy as planting a few fragrant posies. But to bring in a cast of thousands, a garden designed just for them is the trick.

Butterflies like a sunny, protected location, plenty of food for themselves and for their caterpillar offspring, water and no pesticides.

Location: A sunny location is essential. Butterflies love the warmth of the sun - not just for pleasure, but because they are cold-blooded. They must bask in the sun to energize their muscles for flight. Provide rocks, stepping stones or bricks for basking during the early morning hours, before they take off on their daily excursions. You’ll note that even while they are busily working during the day, they’re working in a sunny location.

The garden area also needs to be protected from wind. A wind break can be a collection of leafy trees and shrubs planted against the prevailing winds. We do not have to surround the entire area, but the more protection we offer, the more butterflies we will invite.

If the area is small, consider deciduous trees that are columnar - red spire flowering pear, columnar maple or hornbeam. Arbors shrouded in flowering vines, such as honeysuckle, will also create needed protection. Shrubs should be chosen for their nectar - butterfly bush, lilac, mock orange, honeysuckle or viburnum, to name a few.

Food: Butterflies are attracted to flowers by their size, shape, color and fragrance. The size and shape play a definite role as to which flower the butterfly will choose. Butterflies have proboscises or tongues that remove nectar from tubes inside the flower. Some proboscises are long and some are short. A butterfly will select flower tubes that suit its own size, namely those that are about half the size of its proboscis.

Butterflies also choose flowers that give them a platform to rest on while they are dining. Rarely do they go inside a flower, as it may damage their wings. They also tend to avoid hanging flowers.

Color preference is not as simple as red or yellow. Some butterflies can see certain colors better than others. Yet, all butterflies can see ultraviolet light, making it easy to spot flowers from a distance and distinguish one blossom from another.

We don’t have to be a butterfly to know that fragrance is a powerful and pleasureful enticement.

When the air is filled with sweet aroma, don’t we try to locate its origin? And once we find it, don’t we nuzzle our noses into the blossom, coming away with pleasant satisfaction and perhaps also a little clinging pollen? Fragrance entices the butterfly in the same manner.

Here are a few excellent flowers for your butterfly garden:

Perennials: Daisies, phlox, coreopsis, scabiosa, Joe-Pye-weed, goldenrod, dandelions, bee balm and coneflowers.

Annuals: Asters, sweet alyssum, verbena, lobelia, marigolds, heliotrope and zinnias.

It’s important to mix annuals with perennials, since most perennials have a short blooming season. We need to keep the dinner plate full for our guests.

Begin your collection by procuring only a few varieties, but at least three to five plants of each variety. A mass show of one flower is better than a few spindly selections of a number of different flowers. A few spindly flowers would be like offering only one peanut butter cookie.

Until the garden becomes established, lure the butterflies into the area with a bit of rotting fruit. In fact, some butterflies, like the mourning cloak, prefer rotting fruit or tree sap to flowers.

Trays of fruit can be suspended from tree branches. Rotting fruit can also bring in undesirables, like wasps etc., so it’s best to remove the fruit once the flowers begin to bloom.

Next week we will explore the diet for the butterfly offspring - caterpillars - as well as water requirements and the use of pesticides.