Lesson 2: Perennials
What to plant? It makes a difference.
Go with a proven favourite. There are some plants that well help you make your butterfly garden a success.
Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
Among the best perennials for attracting butterflies, purple coneflower bears large daisy-like flowers of lavender-pink. Grows 30"-36" high and blooms from mid July through frost. I selected purple coneflower to begin examining the roles that plants play in the butterfly’s life cycle. Proper plant selection, the right plant in the right place, will not only draw butterflies and caterpillars to your garden, they will also help you keep you garden thriving.
Nectar and host plants; You have to have both.
Nectar Plants and Host Plants are the two kinds of Butterfly Plants. Nectar plants produce nectar, or food for adult butterflies. Host Plants, or Caterpillar Plants, serve as food for the caterpillars. When you choose both nectar and host plants for your butterfly garden, you go beyond creating a restaurant for butterflies to feed, you are building a home, a place for them to live and raise their families.
Butterflies lay their eggs on Host Plants, the caterpillars eat them down, and they grow back up. Each species has very specific plants that they can use and their caterpillars will starve to death if they are on the wrong plants.
Different species of female butterflies have their own preferences for places to lay their eggs and to provide food for the caterpillars. They search for what is called a host plant (a plant to lay their eggs on). Providing a variety of host plants will attract a wider range of butterflies.
Do a little research to find which species are in your area and the host plants they prefer. It offers you possibilities for your plants list and consequently for your site design plan.
What do you know about the plants that you choose? Can you tell which plants will grow best on your site? If not, then do a quick site analysis. First, where are you placing the butterfly garden? How much sun does it get? What else is nearby? Have you done a soil test?
The good gardener builds soil because healthy soil will enable you to grow healthy plants. Soil is one of the essentials of gardening success. If you build soil, vibrant full of Life soil, your garden will grow and be strong. Healthy plants help you to attract butterflies. Healthy soil is the single most important element of a garden. Growing healthy soil and a healthy garden is as easy as adding compost and other organic amendments to your soil.
By improving your soil, you can:
* beautify your garden * cut your water bill * improve water quality in our streams * and even reduce your work!
Butterfly habitat
Creating habitat. Down to basics.
Why it works.
If we are going to significantly increase the butterfly populations, we have to provide food for the baby butterflies, the caterpillars. For each species of butterfly, its larva (caterpillar) can only digest a specific type of plant foliage. Some caterpillars are able to thrive on a number of closely related plants while others are able to digest just one specific plant species. This specific plant material is referred to as the 'larval host plant', the 'caterpillar host plant', or the 'butterfly host plant'. Isolate a caterpillar with an unsuitable host plant and it will starve; or it will eat, sicken, and die. One larva's staple is another one's poison.
What makes a butterfly species abundant in one area and unseen in another often has something to do with the availability of caterpillar host plants. In order for a butterfly species to survive in any location, ample food must be available for its caterpillars. Without caterpillars, there couldn't be butterflies.
Most butterflies live for just a few weeks or a few months. For the species to survive, therefore, the females in that species must lay fertile eggs before their short lives end. And to ensure the survival of the caterpillars that will emerge from the eggs, eggs must be laid on or near the appropriate larval host plant. When the eggs hatch, the tiny caterpillars usually eat their egg casings and then begin to feed on the host plant. After reaching their full size (often just a few weeks after hatching from the egg), the caterpillars stop eating and typically crawl away from the host plant. Each finds a sheltered location to pupate. The caterpillar sheds its skin, transforming into a chrysalis (pupa). Later a butterfly emerges from the chrysalis.
What host plants are suited to your region? Which ones are perennials?
The Perennial Butterfly Garden: Introduction
When you plan your perennial garden, think of your garden area as a well-prepared canvas on which you are going to paint a picture rich in colour, texture and variety, one that will last, and come back year after year.
The butterfly garden hovers an array of beautiful possibilites. There are important conditions to remember: butterflies have noticeable preferences. If you want to have them move in and raise future generations you need to know what they like.
When you can, spend time observing gardens where the butterflies are plentiful. How many different butterflies are there, species, variety? Which butteflies visit and stay at which plants?
Some design thoughts:
Can you tie it into existing features of your home and lawn such as paths, a pond, hedges or walls? Is it to be a border viewed from one side, or an island that is to be viewed from several directions? Is it to be formal in design and content, or a more informal mixed border or "cottage" garden? Will it be mostly in the sun or in the shade? These decisions will shape your selection of plants and their arrangement, as well.
