Butterfly Gardening..................Page 8

It's An Obsession! You Will be Watching Butterflies Wherever You Go!
And Wildflowers Will Now Be Catching Your Eyes Along Each Road You Take!

My Top 6 Butterfly Plants

Host Plants

  1. Milkweed (Asclepias curassavica) - For Monarchs and Queens
  2. Passionvine (Passiflora incarnata) - For Zebra Longwings and Gulf Frittilaries
  3. Dill (Anethum graveolens) - For Black Swallowtails


Nectar Plants

  1. Red Pentas (Pentas lanceolata)
  2. Lantana (Lantana camara)
  3. Purple Porterweed (Stachytarpheta urticifolia)
' longtailed skipper

longtailed skipper

A Long Tailed Skipper ( Above ) Enjoys Lantana Above.

longtailed skipper

Another Beautiful Long-Tailed Skipper.

Below a glorious Giant Swallowtail engaging in it's favorite activity.

giant swallowtail

giant swallowtail

giant swallowtail

A Giant Swallowtail nectaring on Red Penta.
A beautiful sight in the garden!

Notice the difference between the Giant Swallowtail above
and the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail below which is mostly yellow.

eastern tiger swallowtail

eastern tiger swallowtail


Another variety of Swallowtail,
This is a Spicebush Swallowtail

Tall Ironweed

This is a native wildflower known as "Tall Ironweed".
It can get to 10 feet tall!

This particular red Penta came highly recommended
by a Giant Swallowtail at a garden center I was at.
Of all the flowers, he loved this one the best.
So I bought three of them!

My first attempt at "puddling".
This is my Puddle Pot. I think I have the wrong formula
because it hasn't been visited yet.
I have added gravel to it since this picture.

gift basket

Share living plants with others.
This gift basket contains four potted plants
ready for the garden. It was inexpensively
made too! Use your imagination
to personalize yours!

ladder with passionvine

This discarded ladder is my new
obelisk/trellis for my passionvine!

cassius blue

Eastern Pygmy Blue on Tall Verbena

gulf frittilary

A Gulf Frittilary From the Underside View
Nectaring on Porter Weed.

gulf frittilary

Topside View of the Gulf Fritilary

Zebra Swallowtail

My first Zebra Swallowtail. I was so exctited to find this beautiful butterfly visiting my garden. I caught it, took some pictures and then released it.

Summary of What You Need To Begin Your Butterfly Gardening:

  1. Find out what the native butterflies are in your area.
  2. Figure out what native nectar sources and other nectar sources you can supply for their needs.
  3. Determine if you can supply any of the larval food sources for them
  4. Evaluate your garden areas for plant needs.
  5. Buy a few plants to start your garden, choosing the best nectar and host plants that you can for your native butterflies.
  6. Plant your flowers and tend to them according to their needs!

Easy, huh? You can get into other butterfly gardening techniques later, if you wish to try your hand, but these simple steps will bring butterflies to your garden. Don't expect to have a flurry of butterflies buzzing about. That is not going to happen. You will find that as your garden matures and you add plants here and there, season after season, you will see new butterflies coming and more frequently. Don't forget to provide plants for each season, unless you live in the north where you would not expect to have butterflies in the winter.

Enjoy Pictures? I just happen to have some more!
Click Here!



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The cartoon/gif images used in this site have been found on the internet and are known to me to be "free" for use and not copyrighted. Should you be the copyright owner of any image found here, be let me know and send proof, and I will quickly remove it. Other pictures are owned by me, Debbie K. Rhodes and are not to be used without written consent.