Plant Gardens 101

If you are contemplating the construction of a butterfly garden, take a few moments to assess your resources. How much time are you willing (and able) to invest in planting and maintaining your garden? How much money do you want to spend? Is the garden intended to be a formal or informal one? Are you going to provide butterfly nectar plants, caterpillar food plants, or both? How are you going to deal with pest problems without pesticides? Are you willing to discourage insect-feeding birds (no nest boxes or berry bushes)?The answers to these questions will help you determine the size and scope of your butterfly garden.

Another step should be to find out which butterflies are in your area. You can do this by spending some time outdoors with your field guide and a pair of binoculars to see which species are around you. Plan to spend around 4-5 hours between mid-morning and early afternoon trying to spot butterflies over a three day period. If you’re serious abou` t this, it’ll be well worth it!

Check the Internet as well to find out which butterflies are naturally abundant in your area. We’ll have a whole separate section on plants that attract butterflies. Most butterflies prefer some shelter from high winds. At the same time, they like open, sunny areas. Windbreak plantings or other means of sheltering the butterfly garden can help provide a suitable physical environment.

Certain kinds of butterflies (mostly males) often can be seen on moist sand or mud collecting around puddles of water where they feed. The function of these “mud-puddle clubs” is not fully understood, but it is thought that the water contains dissolved minerals needed by the insects. Maintaining a damp, slightly salty area in the yard may attract groups of these butterflies.

When planning a garden, create a large patch of a flower species to attract and retain butterflies. Consider flowers that bloom in sequence. This is particularly important during summer when flower visiting by butterflies is most frequent. Map your yard and choose the spot that receive the least amount of wind and maximum sunshine. You’ll also want to take into consideration the growing requirements of the plants you will be putting in along with their growing needs.

Once the caterpillar has transformed into a pupa a remarkable process occurs transforming the contents of the pupa into an adult butterfly. This can take as little as two weeks, but some species over-winter (hibernate) in this stage, only hatching in the warmth of spring. As the pupa is unable to avoid any potential predators they tend to be quite well camouflaged, indeed some are form under the ground.

The pupa hangs onto the silken pad using its cremaster, rather than the anal claspers of the caterpillar. Just before the adult butterfly hatches the pupal skin becomes transparent and the wing pattern is visible inside. The chrysalis splits to allow the adult butterfly to emerge. Much like the birthing process, the butterfly pushes itself out of its cocoon to re-enter the world as a butterfly. Its body is filled with fluid which will be pumped into the wings.

Shortly after the wings have been pumped full of fluid and dried, all the leftover products of the metamorphosis are excreted. This is normally a reddish fluid, the meconium, and has given rise to fables of showers of blood when many butterflies hatch together. With that, the metamorphosis is complete and butterfly flies off in search of food and host plant for laying its own eggs. It’s an amazing process that says a lot about the power of life and nature.

I know you want to be able to see this process for yourself! This is probably one of the reasons why you want a butterfly garden. It’s an amazing teaching tool for children and adults alike!

So now, where do you start with your butterfly garden? With a well-thought out plan!

Read about what do butterflies eat and life cycle of a butterfly at the Butterfly Facts website.

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