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Old 05-07-20, 07:54 AM  
Karla25
 
Join Date: Jul 2017
Location: Florida
Butterfly Garden

If you’re looking for a way to reduce stress, get fresh air and exercise, please consider planting a butterfly garden :-) You will not only benefit yourself, you’ll be helping the environment and creating a spot of beauty.

I’m going out today to buy food for caterpillars called host plants. In my area, they like parsley, dill, and fennel so will be stocking up on them. I will also be getting nectar plants for butterflies. I haven’t decided on all of the flowers because I want to talk to the nursery staff, but zinnias are hopefully coming home with me today.

There’s lots of information available on the internet and I’m sharing a link if you’re interested in learning more.https://nababutterfly.com/start-butterfly-garden/

If you have a butterfly garden, I would love to hear about it!
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Old 05-07-20, 08:39 AM  
Pat58
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What a great post. I had to stop vegetable gardening because of my bad back and put in butterfly perennials instead.

I also incorporated hummingbird magnets like lonicera japonica vine (Japanese honeysuckle), spigela Indian Pink, bee balm and pineapple sage.

I have a bronze fennel that comes back every year from seeding itself. Another advantage to that plant is that praying mantises love it! It's like an apartment building for them, and they are a very beneficial insect.

It is such a joy to go out in the morning with a cup of tea, or sit outside after a stressful day at the office, and observe all my little visitors.
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Old 05-07-20, 07:08 PM  
Karla25
 
Join Date: Jul 2017
Location: Florida
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Originally Posted by Pat58 View Post
What a great post. I had to stop vegetable gardening because of my bad back and put in butterfly perennials instead.

I also incorporated hummingbird magnets like lonicera japonica vine (Japanese honeysuckle), spigela Indian Pink, bee balm and pineapple sage.

I have a bronze fennel that comes back every year from seeding itself. Another advantage to that plant is that praying mantises love it! It's like an apartment building for them, and they are a very beneficial insect.

It is such a joy to go out in the morning with a cup of tea, or sit outside after a stressful day at the office, and observe all my little visitors.
I’m looking forward to enjoying my garden too! As of today, I only have a huge blister and a sore back from planting these last few hours. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any fennel and didn’t get any Zinnias. I did find some other beautiful flowers. Still have lots more planting!
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Old 05-07-20, 08:13 PM  
cyana
 
Join Date: Dec 2001
I saw my first hummingbird of the season today!!! I almost stood up from my desk and screamed, but fortunately remembered that I was on a conference call just in the nick of time. I've been seeing butterflies for several weeks.

I have numerous echinacea/coneflower plants. Not only do the butterflies love them, they reseed themselves and you'll end up with little volunteer plants that you can transplant to other areas - or make your butterfly garden even larger. And one unexpected bonus with the echinacea/coneflower plants - goldfinches love to eat the seeds and I hadn't previously seen goldfinches in my yard. I've also had good luck with perennial salvia, sedum (I have autumn joy) and garlic chives (which currently have beautiful pink flowers). I need to plant more host plants, but have plenty of clover in my yard and leave some of the weedy host plants on the back side of the beds where they aren't visible from the street.

This year I'd like to work on making a puddle and adding some rocks for sunning.

I love finding praying mantis on my plants.

I think I love zinnias as much as the butterflies. They remind me of my maternal grandmother, who had the most amazing flower gardens and she planted almost everything from seeds.

Hoping for good gardening weather this week-end!
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Old 05-08-20, 09:18 AM  
Pat58
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How exciting that your hummingbirds are back Cyana. I'm not putting my feeder out just yet. They don't start arriving until my neighbor's lilacs are in full bloom - just a few more days.

I ordered from nativewildflowers.net yesterday - a three pack each of Indian pink and cardinal flower.

Another great butterfly plant is sedum. Autumn Joy is the most popular type, but Matrona is grander. They blossom late in the season and the flowers are covered in bees and butterflies.

What other flowers did you find Karla?
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Old 05-08-20, 06:00 PM  
Mickey12
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: NE Pennsylvania
My neighbor has a structure in her back yard for the chrysalis to grow and hatch. She collects milkweed from the field across the road for them. It’s a great teaching experience for her two young boys too and we get the benefit of seeing butterflies.

We have a garden center near us that has a butterfly house where you can visit with several kinds of butterflies and feed them. In the late summer they have a butterfly release that is magnificent.

Good luck to all of you planting your butterfly gardens. Cyana Zinnias remind me of my grandmother too. My grandparents had an amazing vegetable garden that was lined in zinnias. I always think of her when I see them.

Kim
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Old 05-08-20, 06:30 PM  
Karla25
 
Join Date: Jul 2017
Location: Florida
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Originally Posted by Pat58 View Post
How exciting that your hummingbirds are back Cyana. I'm not putting my feeder out just yet. They don't start arriving until my neighbor's lilacs are in full bloom - just a few more days.

I ordered from nativewildflowers.net yesterday - a three pack each of Indian pink and cardinal flower.

Another great butterfly plant is sedum. Autumn Joy is the most popular type, but Matrona is grander. They blossom late in the season and the flowers are covered in bees and butterflies.

What other flowers did you find Karla?
A lot! I want to get a few more if I survive this first planting :-) However, I’m not sure where I will plant them.

I brought home 2 magnificent, dark purple butterfly bushes and one dwarf lilac colored bush. Several salvia, Shasta daisies, gaillardia, pin cushion, milk weed, parsley, dill, tick seed, black eyed Susan, guara and scaevola also found a new home here. Not on the homecoming list was a flowering plant that’s pretty, but nameless :-)

Sometimes I am too impulsive for my own good! However, if they survive and thrive, it will be worth it...
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Old 05-08-20, 06:34 PM  
Karla25
 
Join Date: Jul 2017
Location: Florida
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Originally Posted by Mickey12 View Post
My neighbor has a structure in her back yard for the chrysalis to grow and hatch. She collects milkweed from the field across the road for them. It’s a great teaching experience for her two young boys too and we get the benefit of seeing butterflies.

We have a garden center near us that has a butterfly house where you can visit with several kinds of butterflies and feed them. In the late summer they have a butterfly release that is magnificent.

Good luck to all of you planting your butterfly gardens. Cyana Zinnias remind me of my grandmother too. My grandparents had an amazing vegetable garden that was lined in zinnias. I always think of her when I see them.

Kim
That sounds wonderful! How great is that for her children. They’re making some good memories. I love zinnias, but didn’t see any at the nurseries that I visited. I’m happy with the flowers that I found. I might try Home Depot next week and see if they have any.
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Old 05-09-20, 07:37 AM  
Pat58
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A co-worker left a purple sage seedling on my desk for my birthday yesterday. I am excited to research about it and find it is a butterfly and hummingbird magnet!

I'm quickly running out of room and haven't planted the newbies yet.
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Old 05-09-20, 11:05 AM  
cyana
 
Join Date: Dec 2001
I came across this link as I was looking up butterfly-friendly plants: https://www.thespruce.com/herbs-to-i...garden-1762022

My lilac has already bloomed (didn't realize this was a butterfly plant) and the lavender is currently in full bloom (although it will look pretty scruffy later in the season when it's so hot and humid).

Karla - I also have that syndrome of bringing too much home from the nursery at one time. I love daisies - I've always said if you don't smile when you see daisy flowers you might ought to check your pulse to make sure you're still alive! I don't have a butterfly bush at my current house - would like to find one of the smaller growing varieties.

Kim - That butterfly house sounds amazing - would love to see that. Two thumbs up to the neighbor for getting her boys interesting in taking care of the butterflies early in life.

Pat - What a thoughtful gift from your co-worker. Sounds like you need to dig some new flower beds or add some containers. Not that I'm enabling or anything, but we do tend to do that around VF.

The sun is shining, so I shall be getting in some functional fitness in the great outdoors this week-end - hooray! In addition to weeding, I'm hoping to find some baby echinacea plants to transplant and start making room for some soon to be acquired additions.

Happy gardening, all!
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