Butterfly Gardening Florida, Butterfly Host Plants

Butterbloom's Garden..................Page 5


Location, Location, Location

As any realtor will tell you location is everything,
so is where you plant that great butterfly plant. Plant it in the sun!
As a butterfly enthusiast I've come up with a similar saying,
"Lantana, Lantana, Lantana,...I can't tell you how many butterflies prefer this one plant over all the rest.
So, put the two together ( Location and Lantana ) and you should have butterflies!

Butterfly Bait

INGREDIENTS
1 pound sugar
1 or 2 cans stale beer
3 mashed overripe banana
1 cup of molasses or syrup
1 cup of fruit juice
1 shot of rum

Mix all ingredients well and paint on trees, fence posts, rocks, or stumps--or simply soak a sponge in the mixture and hang from a tree-limb.



A beautiful Skipper looks to be posing for this picture.



Spicebush Swallowtail These swallowtails seem to stay up high most of the time. They use the camphor tree for their larval host. This one has found that delectable Lantana bush too.



These are called "Milkweed Bugs". I don't know anything about them and am not sure if they harm the milkweed or not.



Nicknamed the Pagoda Flower - Clerodendrum paniculatum , these tall plants with huge muti-flowerd red flowers attract many butterflies. These plants reproduce through sending runners underground. The leaves are also loved by iguanas, if you happen to have one.

This is "Butterfly Pea". The Longwings Zebras are somewhat attracted to it but not much else.

A Hairstreak finds these Impatiens irresistible.

A Monarch rests or feeds on the Pagoda flower Clerodendrum paniculatum .

A Swallowtail caterpillar munches on Bronze Fennel. Each type of swallowtail caterpillar and chrysalis look different.

Looking much like a part of the plant, this is a swallowtail chrysalis.

All rights reserved. Copyright: 2002 - All pictures are the property of: Debbie K. Rhodes. Please do not use these pictures without written permission. Thank you.


Children Love Butterflies Too...Don't Forget To Include Them In The Fun!