About Butterflies

Turn about is fair play, they say. Last Thursday, I spoke to the Master Gardeners about how to photograph flowers, and today a Master Gardener spoke to our Extension Homemakers group about attracting butterflies to gardens.

My photos above show a butterfly feeding at sweet William flowers in our yard. Other flowers, shrubs and bushes that my Master Gardener Hubbie has planted, and that our speaker recommended, are coreopsis, bee balm, butterfly bush, black-eyed Susan, hibiscus, yarrow, impatiens, zinnias, thistle, rose of Sharon, cone flowers, coral bells, and a plum tree.

Our speaker noted that treating flowering plants with herbicides and pesticides, however, will kill butterflies. She also pointed out that butterflies are cold-blooded and need lots of sunshine, which means that flower gardens meant to attract them should be in the sun at least half of the day. A source of water, such as flat containers of wet sand, should be provided, too.

She noted that a few plants and trees that make good caterpillar food are curly and flat parsley, fennel, Queen Anne's lace, and apple and cherry trees.

Some interesting facts that the speaker related about butterflies are:

*they taste with their feet and smell with their antennas;

*their wings are made up of scales;

*most butterflies prefer pink, red, purple, or yellow flowers. Our speaker said that purple is a real favorite;

*they don't have mouths that allow them to bite or chew...they feed through a long, straw-like tongue, called a proboscis;

*North American Monarch butterflies migrate up to 3,000 miles to warm weather climates in the winter.