They call you without making a sound, waving their bright wings and inviting you to follow. Who can resist a butterfly? As a child, I played in the meadow behind my house with my friends. My dad mowed paths and "rooms" for us and we spent our days there picnicking with our sandwiches and Kool-Aid, hiding from the neighborhood boys, skipping after butterflies. A house replaced the meadow years ago and the new owners kept their yard as neatly mowed as all the others in our suburban neighborhood. We were insulted when "our" field was lost. "It’s not fair. Where will we play?" We never wondered where the butterflies would play. We were 6.
I am a bit older now and I know that the butterflies are running out of places to play. Butterfly ranges can cross continents. Development and environmental pollution in near and distant places have demolished butterfly habitats and poisoned their food supplies. There are efforts to stop the global destruction of butterfly habitats (visit the Butterfly Conservation homepage ) but by planting a few nectar and larval plants and following some simple gardening practices I have been able to attract and harbor butterflies in my little corner of the world.
The perfect butterfly garden has a diverse selection of nectar and larval plants, a water supply, some protection from the wind and a sunny spot to rest in. Butterflies absorb minerals from mud so make sure you have a few puddles during dry spells. A sprinkler on a hot day will gather more butterflies than children. Plant some flowers in a spot sheltered from the wind. Put a flat rock in the sun to give them a place to warm their wings. Most importantly, before you create a butterfly haven, make a commitment to GARDEN ORGANICALLY. Butterflies and their larva are extremely sensitive to pesticides. Earthworms, beneficial insects, birds, fish, pets and humans aren’t too thrilled with them either. It’s not fair to poison the food, water, soil and air and then invite them to your garden.
Nectar producing plants will lure butterflies to your garden. My butterflies find purple coneflower (echinacea) irresistible. On a summer afternoon there are painted ladies, skippers and coppers taking turns at the orange disk flower (the center of a daisy-flowered bloom), perfect for landing and feeding. By letting the flowers go to seed I always have seedlings to give away at the Bushleaguer’s Gardening Club (Bushleaguers are a group of friends from high school – I invite them plus family and gardening friend to a plant exchange at my house every spring) spring plant exchange. A recent favorite of mine is verbena bonariensis. This verbena grows taller throughout the summer reaching close to five feet with dozens of purple flowers regularly visited by butterflies, bees, hummingbirds and hummingbird moths. It takes up little space on the garden floor and its airy structure makes it easy to place in the border. A hardy perennial just one zone south of my Zone 5 home, this flower reseeds reliably. Other garden plants popular with butterflies include liatris, sedum, beebalm, boltonia, coreopsis, cosmos, and zinnia.
Once you have attracted butterflies they will stay and lay their eggs if there is food for their larva. One of my favorite larval plants is meadow rue. This medicinal herb has blue-gray lobed leaves and tiny yellow flowers. In the early summer I can count 10-12 swallowtail caterpillars covering the branches and stems of a plant only 2-3 feet tall. I drag young visitors (and old) to the garden and invite them to admire the bright green and yellow caterpillars. Even the squeamish ones agree that butterfly caterpillars are OK. Meadow rue reseeds sporadically but last year after a particularly deep snow cover (a record breaking 100+ inches overall) I had dozens of tiny blue seedlings. Other good caterpillar hosts are parsley, dill, fennel, willows. Caterpillars eat the foliage of these plants but don’t do much damage and I don’t mind sharing my harvest with them.
Garden plants can attract and feed butterflies and their larva but the most important sources of food continue to be native plants. To counteract the destruction of native habitats let a section of your garden grow a little wild. If you can resist the urge to weed and clean (easier for some than others), eggs and larva can hatch and feed undisturbed and wildflowers will reseed. Beneficial insects and birds will also appreciate the natural surroundings. Violets, asters, milkweed, wild parsley, joepye weed, butterfly weed, queen ann’s lace and clover will feed a variety butterflies and larva.
We are lucky enough to live on almost two acres in Belchertown. The neighbors don’t complain when I leave dead branches along the brook and parts of the yard grow wild. We have been visited by great blue herons, wild turkeys, geese, ducks, hummingbirds, a huge turtle, frogs, snakes, a weasel, an occasional deer, even a few "mad cows" from a neighboring field. My children grumble that if I keep adding gardens there won’t be any room for them. They’re teenagers now and they don’t need a "place to play" anymore. But butterflies still do and when our grandchildren come to visit there will be room for everybody.