National Pollinator Week

Did you know that one out of every third bite of food comes to us
thanks to pollinators? From beautiful butterflies to busy bees, it’s
clear that pollinators are essential to life on our planet.

But, declines in pollinators in North America and around the world
pose what could be a significant threat to biodiversity, global food
webs and human health.

Help pollinators in your neighborhood during National
Pollinator Week (June 22-28) by taking one or more of
these five simple actions:
1. Use Native Plants
2. Hang Hummingbird Feeders
3. Build a Bee House
4. Plant a Butterfly Garden
5. Certify Your Yard with National Wildlife Federation

The Popularity of Butterfly Gardening

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By Wings On June 23, 2009 @ 5:27 am In Guest Authors No Comments

Butterfly gardening has become popular, both to magnetize the scenic travelers and to help domain species of butterflies that were dwindling due to soul encroachment into their innate habitats. Butterflies feeling sunlight! Whether you wish to works a traditional plot or a container plot, make positive that the plants are in sincere sunlight for much of the day. If you’re forecast a butterfly plot, it’s important to keep in psyche that there is no one recipe for a successful plot. Butterflies like to “pond.” Your plot desires a place of watering puncture for the butterflies to juice from. This could be done by basically rich a terra cotta pot or small plastic bucket with small rocks or pebbles about two inches from the edge. Butterfly species that are indigenous to different areas are attracted to different types of plants. To forward butterflies, you’ll poverty to know the butterfly species that are found in your blackhead, and suggest them with plants that are special food sources for adult butterflies as well as those plants that they pretty for laying their eggs and nourishing maggot. Add water to permeate the lingering liberty. Place the puddle in the midpoint of your backyard, some values that relate to all butterfly gardens. Wherever you live and anything butterflies you prospect to magnetize, you’ll attract more of them if you pursue a few unfussy basics, Butterflies dearest to eat nectar. Use some of these nectar-producing plants to attract them: milkweed, azalea, goldenrod, black-eyed susan, zinnia, aster, phlox, Japanese honeysuckle, ironweed. A few nectar-producing shrubs are butterfly plant, many fruit leaves, privet, blue and redbud. Butterflies will flock to large expanses of plants in analogous colors that flourish at the same time rather than to release plants with just a few blooms. A carpet of violets, a sea of buttercups or a thick open pasture detailed of Queen Anne’s Lace is solid to be visited by dozens of butterflies. Butterflies like bags of influence! Group clusters of the same plant together to make them easier for butterflies to see. A group of quaint plants attracts them easier than distinct flora. Butterfly gardens should to provide both sun and shade. Like all insects, butterflies are cold-blooded creatures. They boom on thaw sun, and will relax on fixed rocks or perch for long notes on the twigs of a high plant in the sunlight. At the same time, they require shade and shelter when the sun is too hot, or on cool, imprecise living. A field that gets lively sun for at least 4-6 hours per day is the best spot for a butterfly plot, but don’t forget to embrace landscaping facts that offer shade.

Thoughts From The Belly

Thoughts From The Belly
May 2009
By: Dan Mays – Ironbelly1@aol.com

Every year I am asked, “So what are you going to plant this year, Dan?” This question provides me with a perfect segue to launch into my personal campaign to improve the sorry state of Butterfly Gardens. I am certainly not discouraging folks from planting gardens with butterflies in mind. My hope is that I can encourage others to expand their focus to include the untapped possibilities of “what could be”. Establishing a few plants originally imported from China and watching a few monarch butterflies sipping nectar is setting a low bar indeed. In warmer climates (particularly in Great Britain), Butterfly Bush (Buddleia davidii) has proven to be an invasive thug. Planting something just because the horticultural mass-market industry dubbed this thing “Butterfly Bush” is not my idea of a sane approach. Following this magazine-promoted tack robs well-intentioned gardeners of an easily attainable bounty, simply for the sake of filling the marketing coffers.

It is true that this Chinese exotic draws adult butterflies to sip nectar – and that is largely the problem. The key word here is: “adult” – and only adult. What do the butterflies feed on prior to becoming adults? It certainly is not Buddleia davidii or most any other plant imported from foreign lands. While marketers harp about “clean foliage”, every gardener truly interested in Butterfly Gardens should translate this term to be “something my baby butterflies can’t or won’t eat”. Caterpillars don’t damage foliage – they are foraging.

Monarch butterflies flittering about are truly a delight to see. Instantly recognizable, they have a fascinating migratory habit. However, concentrating solely upon Monarchs is like dining exclusively on Big Mac’s for every meal. The world of butterflies and moths is a superbly rich place if only we will expand our knowledge a bit. Be careful … you might soon learn about skippers, blues, brushfoots, hairstreaks, etc.

The expanded world (egg, larva, pupa and adult) of butterflies includes general feeders and something called “obligates”. Obligates are essentially finicky eaters. In other words, if their favorite plant is not found to lay eggs on, that butterfly or moth species will not multiply. Regal Fritillary butterflies seem to have a distinct preference for Birdfoot Violet (Viola pedata). However, bear in mind that it is the immature stages that require native violets. The adult will sip nectar from a wide variety of plants. I guess this tips my hand as to the answer to the opening question: “So what are you going to plant this year, Dan?” The obvious answer is Birdfoot Violet. I have 100 of those plants on order from the Master Gardener plant sale.

My interest in butterflies was stirred to life last year when I visited the 20 acre Duke Prairie. It lays a few miles north of the Quad Cities, just southeast of Grand Mound in Clinton County. I was meeting up with a group from the Quad Cities Native Plant Society for a field trip and arrived a little early. At first glance, the place was full of interesting plants. However, the thing that seized my attention was the profusion of butterflies. They were everywhere! Curiously, most were species I rarely see. Many (and I emphasize many) were butterfly and moth species I had never seen before. The place shamed the meager butterfly garden “how-to” attempts advocated in popular magazines. Coincidentally, there was not a “required” Buddleia in sight. Why was this? Why was there so much abundance and diversity?

Upon further research and lots of questions, the obvious answer surfaced. There was food – their food. The kind of food the individual butterfly species needed for their young. I liken this phenomenon to people. If you serve jalapeño peppers, the Hispanics show up. Serve pasta and the Italians show up. Serve sauerkraut and the Germans show up. Serve a big, long buffet and everybody (even the “kids”) will show up.

There remains much to be learned in the field of insect/faunal relationships. For further study, I recommend Doug Tallamy’s book, Bringing Nature Home. It is an enlightening, enjoyable read. AND … do check out the new Iowa Butterfly Forecast website. It will help put your butterfly garden efforts on steroids!