Some of the most attractive visitors to our gardens are the butterflies. While many of them will drop in as they discover our patch of green, there are ways to encourage them to spend more time with us by growing plants that attract these insects. I found this short article by Margaret Roach on her A Way to Garden website in which she describes her enjoyment of her butterfly visitors.
I?M SELFISH; it?s true?oh, and lazy, too. I sit back and let a giant stand of tall verbena, Verbena bonariensis, sow itself each year just beyond the window I face as I work indoors. Starting sometime in July and lasting into September, as if they?d been sent hand-engraved invites, the butterflies (and skippers, and moths) start floating in, nectaring on the purple flowers while putting on a show for me each afternoon?and even allowing for photo ops while they fuel up.
Spurred onward by my friend Andy Brand, founder of the nearby Connecticut state butterfly association and manager of Broken Arrow Nursery, I?m trying to get more confident with the names of at least the most usual suspects here: Cabbage white, mourning cloak, spring azure, Eastern tiger swallowtail, spicebush swallowtail (top photo), giant swallowtail (above), monarch, great spangled fritillary (below), and so on.
See more at A Way to Garden
