Growing A Butterfly Sanctuary

If you just want to get away from the stress and hectic pace of the day

, spending time in a garden can bring a reprieve. Imagine how much more colorful and interesting it would be if you could lure butterflies to your corner of the world. It's not hard, because the decline in the use of pesticides has resulted in an increase in the caterpillar population and caterpillars eventually make the transformation into colorful butterflies.

Whether you have an apartment balcony, a backyard or a patio, if you plant the right blossoms you could have a butterfly paradise in your own corner of the world. If you're willing to plant the seeds necessary to grow the blossoms to attract butterflies, there are more than 700 species of them in North America to draw from.

Whether you live in the city or the country, if you provide butterflies with the habitat they crave, you can help them survive and flourish in your own backyard. To have a successful butterfly garden, you need to first provide food for the caterpillar as well as plants that cater to the butterfly. Butterflies feed on nectar, but caterpillars need plants on which to feed.

Plants that appeal to the taste buds of caterpillars include herbs like dill, parsley and fennel. They are also attracted to most plants in the mint family and passionflowers. Keep in mind, that a growing caterpillar will eat more than 1,000 times its own weight before it matures.

Butterflies are attracted to clumps of flowers. Sweet Williams, Echinacea - a tall cone-shaped flower - and bee balms are plants that could lure butterflies to your patch of earth. Staggering wild and cultivated plans of varying heights and blooming times are necessary to attract the winged beauties. Butterflies also appreciate a windbreak made of tall, flowering shrubs, fencing or evergreens. The taller plants will also provide the butterfly with shade on a hot day or a leafy canopy if it rains. Sometimes, placing a piece of overripe fruit in the vicinity of your garden will draw butterflies.

Man-made butterfly houses are available on the market but are not truly worth the investment. Butterflies do seek shelter at night and in bad weather but will look for that shelter in natural locations and under leaves rather than man-made shelters. While a butterfly is not a demanding visitor, it does have its needs - such as a sunny place to warm itself so that it can take flight. They fly best when the temperatures range between the mid 70s and 90 degrees. Offer your winged visitors a large, flat rock on which to sun themselves and take in the summer sunshine.

When looking for the plants that will grace your butterfly garden and attract the silent visitors be sure to include the bushy clover-like flowers of the globe amaranth; tall, flowering cosmos; shasta daisies, red asters, yellow marigolds, sweet alyssum, heliotrope, cornflowers, and don't forget the butterfly bushes.

by: Alan Greene

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