I would love to know what works for the ones here in their gardens that attract Butterfly's?
I have
Butterfly Bushes
Butterfly weed
Cone flowers
Salvia
I plant these every year
Zinnia
Cosmos
Mexican sunflower
Agastache's
I have Bronze Fennel for the Caterpillar's
What do you have in your garden for the Butterflys?
Harmony,
I have even less variety than you do, just Butterfly bushes and salvia mainly. I planted 2 coneflowers last year. I got a lot of action from hairstreak butterflies on the perilla last year when it bloomed. 2 volunteer plants in front of my honeycomb bb. I saved seeds, but not sure where I'll plant them. I have parsley for caterpillars.
Annuals I plant are Zinnia and marigolds.
What kind of butterflies do you get?
Becky
I didn't know the Caterpillars liked parsley i will have to plant some of that this year "Thanks"
Different butterfly caterpillars use different host plants. I think its one of the swallowtails that use parsley. I know the tiger swallowtail uses poplar trees as one of its host plants. I have lots of those here and I'm sure that's why I see a lot of tigers every year. Check out the sticky thread at the top of the Hummingbird and Butterfly forum. DonnaB put a host plant list link there.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=2886922
Edited to add link
This message was edited Mar 20, 2009 10:00 AM
Thank You for the link ^_^
I have the salvias and the fennel but I also grow Passion Flower vines and Ductchman's pipe vine.
I forgot about Passion flower. I got some from MaypopLaurel last year and the Gulf Frits loved them.
Here is a link to a post I made last summer
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/876075/
Pussytoes is not exciting, but a tough native groundcover for shade. We just happen to have it here and I was very excited to find it being 'used' as a larval food for butterflies.
For me, the best butterfly draws were Tithonia (mex. sunflower), Zinnias and the big blue salvias.
Has anyone else noticed that curly parsley seems more desirable as larval food than the flat leaf Italian parsley? Or is just me?
I find that the fennel works better.
My big bronze fennel last year never had a chance to be larval food: I kept checking, but a large praying mantis 'adopted' the fennel and hunted there relentlessly. I tried relocating him/her to the squash plants which really needed some help, but he kept reappearing on his pet fennel.
A little OT here, but my fennel did not reseed but has put out foliage. Any chance of moving it? It got so big (6') and shaded out other plants.
I get lots of Caterpillars on my big Bronze Fennel
Wren i didn't start my passion vine seed the lady i ordered some from said it could take up to 2 years for it to come up :(
I would have done forgot it about it by the time it came up LOL
If you soak them in orange juice they will come up faster. Plus there are some types that do come up quicker. I just buy plants it is easier.
Cedar, I had curly parsley in a hanging deck basket last year and the swallowtail mama placed many babies on it,
bugme, I never thought about parsley in a hanging basket. Nice idea. I generally grow the flat leaf parsley cause I prefer it for recipes, but as I mentioned, I discovered I need to grow the curly too since mama b'fly prefers it (here anyway). Your little guys look happy!
I had both curly and flat. The swallowtails chose the flat. Maybe it was better looking than my curly which was in it 2nd year and yellowing.
there went my scientific experiment on which type of parsley is best for b'flies. I'll just grow both; make everyone happy! :)
Im with you! Some of everything. I get dill and I get some parsley and I just started changing a bed over to flowers for the butterflies. My poor aching back. And My dog is going to get his head buried in a hole if he does not stop sticking it into each hole. do you know how hard it is to dig a hole and plant a plant with a large dog head in it???
here is a web site that y'all might be interested in http://www.butterfliesetc.com/
WOW Wren thanks for that link it's so cool ! I never knew you could actually order butterfly's that is just amazing.
Oh and all the plants they like my goodness thats a wonderful site
Thanks ^_^
You are welcome. I have visited there twice. There is 2 more places in the same area but I have not checked them out yet. There is also a Butterfly garden room at the Florida museum of National History in Gainesville, florida really nice place. http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/
I found a place where you can get Wild Flower seeds and they mark the ones good for Butterflies and Hummingbirds. http://everwilde.com/index.html The only problem is that most of the packages are 2,000 seeds. LOL
I just get off the phone with the really nice people at Everwilde Farms - wildflower seeds. I do not know if any of you have the problem that I do. But a seed pack of 2,000 seeds is a FEW oh alright WAY to many seeds. They do have a good price on their seeds. And they will package up less seeds if we want or we could do what I was talking to Harmony about and do a seed package pass around. I only need a few seeds and once I get what I need I can send the package own to another and they can get a few seeds out and send the package own. I have already get a large list of their seeds that I want. Let me know.
Sandy
Sandy, why don't you start a thread on that? I'd be interested in sharing some passalong seeds/cost etc.
Edited to say: include your list please on the thread! :) thanks
This message was edited Mar 23, 2009 7:19 PM
Well here is what I have so far but I am hoping I can make my self cut out half of it before the next payday with is the middle of next month There is no way I can put all of that in my small yard. http://www.everwilde.com/cgi-bin/sc/order.cgi
Well I guess that will not work so I will have to copy the list down and print it. I will be gone tomorrow so I will try to get the list Wed.
This message was edited Mar 23, 2009 8:59 PM
Ok here is the list that I have so far I hope I can talk my self out of part of it LOL
Agastache foeniculum (Ani $2.50
1 Agastache scrophulariaefo $2.50
1 Asclepias incarnata (Swam $2.50
1 Asclepias purpurascens (P $2.50
1 Asclepias sullivantii (Pr $2.50
1 Aster dumosus (Rice Butto $2.50
1 Eryngium yuccifolium (Rat $2.50
1 Gaillardia aristata (Blan $2.50
1 Lobelia cardinalis (Cardi $2.50
1 Salvia azurea (Azure Blue $2.50
1 Salvia coccinea (Scarlet $2.50
1 Silene regia (Royal Catch $2.50
1 Verbena hastata (Blue Ver $2.50
1 Salvia farinacea (Blue Sa $2.50
1 Aster novae-angliae (New $2.50
1 Aster oblongifolius (Arom $2.50
1 Trifolium incarnatum (Cri $2.50
1 Verbena hastata rosea (Pi $2.50
1 Verbena stricta (Hoary Ve $2.50
1 Silene regia (Royal Catch $2.50
1 Penstemon strictus (Rocky $2.50
1 Monarda citriodora (Lemon $2.50
1 Liatris ligulistylis (Mea $2.50
1 Ipomopsis rubra (Standing $2.50
1 Buchloe dactyloides (Buff
I have salvia, coneflower, butterfly bush, Mexican sunflowers and zinnias. That's all I can think of right now. But I also have fennel and parsley for the caterpillars. The swallowtails seem to like both equally.