Butterfly Gardening for Texas

2. Creating a Butterfly Garden

As the natural habitat of butterflies is being drastically altered and in many instances destroyed entirely, there is much that the home gardener can do to take up the slack by providing these creatures with new areas where they can breed, find food, and lay eggs for future generations. In providing for the needs of butterflies, the gardener has not only the satisfaction of contributing to the continuation of the butterfly population but also the truly phenomenal pleasure of having these beautiful insects around. Watching the butterflies around us and trying to give them what they want sharpen our own senses of observation and awareness, so we cannot help learning something new. In such gardening, there is a constant seeking of new ideas, of new ways of doing things, and of offering new plants for the butterflies to try. Butterfly gardening can be as simple or as complex as you want to make it. For the first time, you will be compelled to look at your garden through the eyes of others—the butterflies—and to consider their needs along with your own. In many instances, you will let their choices be first. To truly garden for butterflies, you must ask what they would prefer and, to the best of your ability, try to provide it. Usually the butterflies’ preferences can be blended in quite nicely with your own garden plans so that the final effect is satisfactory to both. As with any other type of gardening, planting to attract butterflies is simply understanding and working with the land. Plants selected for your garden should depend upon the interpretation of the land as well as other environmental factors of your locale. These 2 Creating a Butterfly Garden l 24 l chapter 2 plants should not only do well in your area but also be useful to the butterflies. The purpose of butterfly gardening is to attract the most species in the greatest numbers in a given space. This concept has been referred to as “butterfly production management” and is surely descriptive of what you will be trying to accomplish. Such a management program, if carried out with care and thoughtful planning , should be most gratifying. To accomplish such intensive site management , you must know which species of butter- flies can be attracted to your garden, which larval food plants they prefer, and which nectar plants grow best in your area. From a good field guide, learn everything possible concerning the local species of butterflies, their habits, and their microhabitats. No matter how intensely you want to garden for butter flies, start with the most common species that use the most easily provided food plants; then gradually work toward attracting the rarer and more exotic insects. And no matter how hard you try, you cannot consistently attract breeding butterflies that do not already exist in your part of the state. It will do no good to introduce their food plant—they most likely will not come. It is far better to concentrate on attracting the species already existing in your region. All areas of Texas have several species of big, beautiful butterflies easily enticed to the garden with numerous smaller species just as interesting and intriguing in their own special ways. Understanding Plant Terminology As with almost all forms of wildlife, food is by far the most significant influence in a butterfly’s life. Two stages in its life require two different types of food: the caterpillar stage when it eats only vegetative growth, and the adult stage when nectar is the primary food source. To provide these needs, consider three types of plants for the garden: “native,” nonnative, and cultivated plants. There is A thoughtful plan can satisfy both gardeners and butterflies. 25 l creating a butterfly garden surely nothing wrong in having plants from anywhere in the world, but it is important to understand a plant’s natural range and the correct terminology to describe it. In searching for the proper plants for a butterfly garden, you are frequently going to find plants and seeds advertised and sold as “wild, native plants and/or seeds.” These terms are often misleading, for there is a definite difference between a plant being wild and being native, and even more so in being indigenous, which is rarely mentioned...