Butterfly Kisses

It’s time to recognize another pollinator, the Butterfly.

Bees are the pollinators in chief. Read it to BeeLieve it.

Like Bees, Butterflies pollinate flowers while feeding on nectar and just like the bees, they fly from flower to flower with pollen stuck to their legs.
They love brightly coloured flowers, the longer the stamen the better as it allows easier access to the pollen.  Butterflies can fly longer distances between flowers , so a little pollen goes a long way.

To attract butterflies to your garden, you need two types of plants. One to host the cocoons and the other to feed the adult butterflies.

The host plant, e.g. Butterfly Bush and Milkweed, provides food for caterpillars after they emerge from their cocoon.  Milkweed sap is toxic to predators but not to caterpillars. This toxin remains with them throughout their life cycle.

 

The second type of plants provides food for the mature butterflies.

Start with  Butterfly friendly plants

Here’s a few options to start with:

• Butterfly Bush
• Butterfly Weed
• Milkweed
• Cone flower
• Aster
• Echinacea
• Sunflower
• Salvia
• Black-eyed Susan
• Plox
• Yarrow
• Verbena

The Butterfly Bush and Butterfly Weed serves two purposes, one as a host plant and the other as food for mature butterflies. So they are definite must have for anyone wanting to host Butterfly babies in their butterfly garden.

The host plants provides food for the  caterpillars, so if you are a bit sensitive about the ascetics of you garden , you may want to plant the in a less visible spot. This spot should be in full sun as most butterfly plants prefer full sun. You can get away with partial sun, the plants will be a smaller but they will still provide food and shelter.

Why not dedicate a part of your yard to growing wildflowers. Wild flowers are havens for Bees and Butterflies. Wild flower gardens are also self seeding, so you just have to plant them once and they will keep coming back.

Who doesn’t want some butterfly kisses?

Have you planted a butterfly garden? If not why not? 

Say thank you to our pollinators by proving then a supply of food that will keep them going and by extension keep out food supply going. 

 

So tell me, Who’s Your Dahlia? 
It’s About Bloomin’ Time!