My Butterfly Gardens
My interest in butterfly gardening began when I was a kid...I was the sort of little girl who spent more time chasing butterflies, catching crayfish and turtles, and keeping snakes than most other kids. These interests have carried through to adulthood. As a fifth grade teacher my class developed a butterfly garden on the school grounds. The Illinois Math and Science Academy in Aurora, Illinois gave us an Impact II grant to help cover the expenses and support this activity. I am a University of Illinois Master Gardener and have helped several other teachers, 4H leaders, and Girl Scout leaders work with their children in making and caring for a butterfly garden.
Now that I am retired I enjoy butterflies in my backyard...here are some pictures and links....
This is my new garden near the front drive. We removed a tree two years ago and it was a perfect spot in full sun to design a garden with plants attractive to butterflies.
Included in this planting are Ageratum 'Leilani', Zinnia Profusion 'Cherry', yellow coneflower, purple coneflower, verbena bonariensis, and asclepsias tuberosa.
Asclepsias is commonly known as butterfly weed...a milkweed. Monarch butterflies lay their eggs only on milkweed. The caterpillars feed on this plant, ingesting the toxins in the milkweed and causing the adult butterfly to be very distasteful to any predator.
As the young caterpillar grows it sheds its skin. Each shedding or molting is known as an instar. When the caterpillar reaches full size it leaves the milkweed it is currently feeding on and finds a safe place to complete its last instar....the chrysalis. When this safe place has been found it spins a button, grasps it with its last pair of legs, hangs upside down in a "J" shape, and the last skin gradually splits, revealing a lovely emerald green chrysalis complete with golden flecks and spots.
Other common butterflies are the swallowtails. Their food plants include carrots, parsley, fennel, and dill....and in the case of the Tiger Swallowtail...food choices are broadleaf trees and shrubs. Favorites include willows and cottonwoods, birches, ashes, many cherries, and tulip-poplars The Tiger Swallowtail can frequently be seen nectaring on mock orange, zinnias, and verbena and is seen in two color forms...the common yellow and also an almost completely black form. The caterpillars of Tiger Swallowtails are brown and white and resemble bird droppings complete with big, false, orange and black eyespots. Some Swallowtails have an interesting way of fending off predators. Just behind each caterpillar's head is a concealed organ...a bright orange hornlike structure (ozmeterium) with an evil smell very similar to crushed parsley. When a predator approaches, the caterpillar extends this organ and throws its head back in an attempt to strike the predator.
The Black Swallowtail is smaller than the Tiger and lays its eggs on plants of the parsley family. When the caterpillar is ready to form a chrysalis it finds a suitable location...often on a fencepost, a twig or small branch. The caterpillar anchors its back pair of legs on a woven pad, leans back and spins a "safety belt" around its middle and then begins the process of splitting its skin from its head to the last pair of legs. The old skin fall away leaving a brownish chrysalis that resembles a thorn or twig. If the chrysalis forms in late summer the chrysalis often winters over...the first few Black Swallowtails seen in the spring are last year's last generation caterpillars.
Another visitor is the American Painted Lady. This is one of the most common butterflies in North America. These caterpillars are often raised by kids in classrooms. They will readily feed on hollyhocks and other plant choices. The caterpillars are approximately an inch and a half long, very spiky, and decorated with yellow lines on their sides. The chrysalis is formed on a branch and hangs, looking very much like a dried, dead leaf. When touched the chrysalis often wiggles...this might serve to frighten off a predator.
Other common visitors are....
...the Giant Swallowtail.....
...the Clouded Sulphur.....
...the Red Spotted Purple.....
...the Eastern Tailed Blue.....
...the Buckeye.....
...the Mourning Cloak.....
...not all visitors are butterflies..this is a Polyphemus moth.
These last three pictures are of my older garden. It is a "dogbone" shape....approximately fifty feet by thirty feet...and narrower in the center. There are woodchip walkways to allow access for weeding, planting, and adding mulch. In this garden I grow purple coneflowers, yellow coneflowers, agastache, achillia, zinnias, lycnis, ageratum, buddleia, shasta daisies, asclepsias curassavica, asclepsias tuberosa, other asclepsias species and hybrids, goldenrod, asters, phlox, lilies, marigolds, diascias, flax, many salvias, tithonia, and other interesting perennials and annuals.
Red flowers attract hummingbirds...another added delight to a butterfly garden. I also add hummingbird feeders to attract additional birds. On a warm summer evening it is not unusual to see a dozen hummers working flowers and feeders.
This fall I removed overgrown prairie plants in a wildflower garden, added 2 tons of good, rich, topsoil, and tilled it with ammendments...leaf mold, manure, and compost. It will be the site of a new wildflower/butterfly garden. It is approximately 30 feet X 40 feet and is at the end of the vegetable garden. Some new plants have been ordered from High Country Gardens...a wonderful nursery for drought tolerant plants.
This past summer I experimented with container plantings. Included were fushias, calibrachoas, coleus, lantana, impatiens, nasturtiums, diascias, geraniums, salvias, and a few other annuals. The backsteps cascaded with color and texture...and hummingbirds and butterflies visited often.
photos and page by Marcia Whitmore
Monarch Watch North American Butterfly Association Bill Oehlke's page for moths...wonderful! High Country Gardens The Goteborg Horticultural Gardens
(I've been there!...do you speak Swedish?)The Butterfly Website Calloway Gardens Victoria Butterfly Gardens Missouri Botanical Center Quad City Botanical Center Chicago Botanic Garden Iowa Arboretum Butterfly World The Butterfly House
