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PLANNING FOR BUTTERFLIES
BY
March is not
too early!!! In an early spring Butterflies will also be early. They are
cold blooded which means they are the same temperature as their
surroundings. They cannot
fly in a cold morning so spread their wings in a warm spot.
Therefore, you can help by having a rock or block in a sunny
area. If it’s raining they
will be under a leaf to keep dry so plan your planting to have leaves
large enough to hide under by the time they hatch.
Virginia Blue Bells are up early and on them you will find the
little Skippers or Sulphurs.
Swallow Tails love big Peony leaves.
Each spring I notice
When a
Butterfly hatches it is hungry! It has not had a thing to eat since last
fall when it was a Caterpillar. Those same Peonies have nectar they can
stretch that long tongue into to get nectar.
You will see those little yellow Sulphurs out very early on
Peonies. When we were kids
in
Double flowers
make it harder for their tongues to get in.
Chives and the Alliums are liked by Swallow Tails, Common
Hairstreaks, and Admirals. Clover will have Sulphurs, Blues, and
Buckeyes as well. I plant
Clover in my back lawn as those little Blues (1 inch) are so much fun to
watch. You will need to plan the spring and summer of the year before to
have many of the early ones.
Butterflies
need water so you can fill a shallow bowl with gravel and small rocks
for landings and keep it wet with sugar water. If you have visited the
Butterfly pavilion at the Lincoln Children’s Zoo you have noticed they
spray fingers with the athletic water drinks that contain sugar and
salt. If the kids hold their hands still the newly hatched Butterflies
will land and drink! They also like to land on spoiling fruit so slice
that over ripe banana and put it on a rock.
If you look up into a tree with a dripping wound, you might see
Mourning Cloaks drinking the dripping sap.
You apply the same thing when you use Maple syrup on you
pancakes.
Shelter is
important as those wings are delicate! The wind blows the Butterflies
around and tears wings, so a number of plants, such as shrubs, for them
to hide in are important. Among early bloomers or plants with big leaves
for food are Spice Bush, Privet, Moss Phlox, Grape Hyacinth, Clover,
Chives, and Dandelions.
Baby birds are
hatching about the same time that the Butterfly larvae (baby
Butterflies) is coming out. Both are hungry.
Some of my magazines have dried worms for sale. If you put them
out the birds will find them easier than the hiding ones and leave the
Butterfly larvae alone. The larvae grows in a series of stages called
“Instars”. Each time as it grows it pops off its old skin for a new one
that makes room for its bigger self.
Many of us have watched our Cabbage plants develop holes, and
then bigger ones, from the little white Butterflies growing up.
Some larvae are even meat eaters. For example, the Blues eat “Ant
larvae. When the baby Butterflies are hatching out of the larvae, they
also need a place to hide.
When you plan
your Butterfly garden, try to plant in groups so they will be easier to
find and provide some density for protection from the wind, and rain.
Butterfly Weed (Asclepsis sp.) and Butterfly Bush (Buddleia sp.)
are mainstays. Butterfly Bush is 6 to 8 feet tall whereas Butterfly Weed
is shorter at 18-24 inches tall and refuses to be transplanted after
they get any size and are a bright orange. You are not likely to get
many blooms the first year from either plant. I cut the Butterfly Weed
to the ground in either spring or fall. The Butterfly Bush I cut in the
spring just above the lowest sign of growth.
I have blue, lavender, pink, and white bushes.
Another nice tall one is
In Stokes
Butterfly Book they made a list of the top 10 favorite flowers for
Butterflies. They were Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia),
The females
then seek out the plants for the caterpillars that will hatch.
They “stamp” their feet on the leaf to secure the proper smell
and surface to maintain their children and then most lay their eggs
underneath. Some place their
eggs on the ground near the plant, others fly over and release eggs as
they go. One lays each egg by itself at the end of a “rope”. In a future
article I will share my quite long list of larvae food. Many of them are
in our gardens in Copyright 2015 |