Butterfly Gardening
Butterflies are looking for two things when they enter a garden: nectar, the food that adult butterflies need, and host plants, the place where the female will lay her eggs and the food that caterpillars need. Both are necessary to create a successful butterfly garden.
Many of our native butterflies prefer plants that have pink, red, purple, yellow or orange flowers. Most butterflies must land in order to get to the nectar. They prefer plants having either clusters of short tubular flowers, or flowers with large, flat petals.
Both butterflies, and the plants they prefer, like bright sunny areas protected from high winds. On cool mornings, butterflies need to warm their bodies before they can become active. To do this, they often sit on a reflective surface such as a flat stone, spread their wings, and turn their backs to the sun. Their wings work like solar panels, absorbing the sun’s warmth that is then transferred to their bodies.
Butterflies often gather in groups on wet sand or mud, and look like they are eating. This activity is called puddling, and they do it to obtain the minerals that are found in the soil. You can create a puddling place in your garden by placing a shallow pan in the soil, filling it with coarse sand, and keeping it moist.
There are some butterflies that rarely feed
on nectar and will only visit a garden if it has some extra touches,
such as rotten fruit or manure. The best fruits are those that are
either soft (banana) or moist (watermelon).
Butterflies and caterpillars are insects! Use biological controls,
such as ladybugs, lacewings and preying mantids, or horticultural
oils and insecticidal soaps instead of pesticides.
Other Information:
Florida Native Butterfly Gardening
