</MYMAILSTATIONERY> Bee and Butterfly
Gardening
by AmberSkyfire
 Bees are a gardener's best friend. Bees do much more than just pollinate. Some bees eat harmful insects and hives of bees create honey. It is not very hard to get your own beehive started. If you are not up to the task of keeping bees, however, there are some simple things that you can do to help these little pollinators. You could keep a small dish of water such as a ceramic plate for potted plants out for the bees so that they will have water available, especially in the summer months when it is hot and dry. You could also make a bee house for those bees which choose to live alone such as bumble bees and carpenter bees. You will need: block of wood 6x6x6 inches, a drilll with a 3/16 inch bit, an eye screw, some heavy string.
Drill about 12 holes in random places on one side of the block 5 inches deep. These will be the individual bee houses. Be sure that the holes are drilled at just a slight upward angle to prevent the rain from coming in. Screw the eye screw into the very center of the top of the bee house and tie a piece of short heavy string to it. Hang your bee house in a tree where you think the bees would be safe from the elements. As the wood ages it will turn a nice gray color and blend in with the surroundings. Your bees will return again and again to visit your house and stay around to pollinate your gardens. 
| Butterflies, like fairies, are easily attracted to gardens. They are like living flowers and add beauty to both herb and flower gardens. Butterflies are attracted by both certain types of flowers and by water. Most all species are attracted by certain plants which they choose to lay their eggs on. These eggs will hatch and later become more butterflies, thus adding to the beauty of your garden. Here is a list of specific plants to plant in your garden that will attract butterflies |
Attracting Specific Butterflies:  | Buckeye Butterfly - Larval food plant: snapdragon
- Nectar: aster, milkweed, chickory, and coreopsis.
|  | Comma Butterfly - Larval food plant: nettle, elm
- Nectar: rotting fruit & sap, butterfly bush, and dandelion.
|  | Great Swallowtail - Larval food plant: citrus trees, prickly ash
- Nectar: lantana, Japanese honeysuckle, milkweed, lilac, goldenrod, and azalea.
|  | Great Spangled Fritillary - Larval food plant: violet
- Nectar: ironweed, milkweed, black-eyed susan, and verbena.
|  | Monarch Butterfly - Larval food plant: milkweed
- Nectar: milkweed, butterfly bush, goldenrod, thistle, ironweed, and mints.
|  | Mourning Cloak - Larval food plant: willow, elm, poplar, aspen, birch, hackberry
- Nectar: rotting fuit & sap, butterfly bush, milkweed, and shasta daisy.
|  | Painted Lady - Larval food plant: daisy, hollyhock
- Nectar: goldenrod, aster, zinnia, butterfly bush, and milkweed.
|  | Red Admiral - Larval food plant: nettle
- Nectar: rotting fruit and sap, daisy, aster, goldenrod, butterfly bush, and milkweed.
|  | Tiger Swallowtail - Larval food plant: cherry, ash, birch, tulip tree, lilac
- Nectar: butterfly bush, milkweed, Japanese honeysuckle, phlox, lilac, ironweed
|  | Viceroy - Larval food plant: willow, poplar, apple
- Nectar: rotting fruit, sap, aster, goldenrod, milkweed
|
Butterfly Garden Flowers:
Aster
Black-Eyed Susan
Butterfly weed
Coreopsis
Daylillies
Goldenrod
Hibiscus
Lavender
Lilac
Marigold
Orange-eye Butterfly bush
Oxeye Daisies
Phlox
Pink Azalea
Purple Cornflower
Rosebud
Rosemary
Verbena
| You can also attract butterflies, as well as hummingbirds, by hanging butterfly and hummingbird feeders. Butterflies can easily feed on the food provided from hummingbird feeders. You can purchase hummingbird and butterflies at garden stores for just a little money. These feeders will also attract them to garden windows where they can easily be viewed from inside. If you choose to make your own butterfly/hummingbird food you will not need to add food coloring. It is not helpful in attracting the birds and butterflies to the feeders. Never add honey, brown sugar, jell-o or fruit as they will kill birds, Here is a recipe that you can use to make your own butterfly food: Use one part ordinary white cane sugar to four parts water.
Boiling the water for several minutes before measuring can retard spoilage in the feeder by a day or two; if you measure first, some will boil away and mess up the proportions. Stir in the sugar while the water's still hot. Let cool before filling the feeder.
Store unused syrup in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. |
From the National Wildlife Federation Guide: The first step to attracting adult butterflies, lively and colorful additions to any garden, is planting flowers with nutritious nectar. Butterflies and native plants have coevolved and are now dependant upon each other. The plants provide enticing nectar and in return are pollinated by visiting butterflies. Therefore, native plants are the best choice for guaranteed butterfly presence. Adults searching for nectar are attracted to red, yellow, orange, pink or purple blossoms that are flat-topped or clustered and have short flower tubes which allow the butterflies to reach the nectar with their proboscis. It is important to avoid using herbicides and pesticides as these will kill butterflies in both their adult and larval phases. Nectar producing plants should be grown in sunny areas that are protected from strong winds. Butterflies need sun for orientation an to warm their wings for flight. Calm breezes allow them to fly freely. Flat stones in your garden are places for butterflies to rest and bask in the sun. Male butterflies will congregate near damp areas and shallow puddles to drink water and extract salts. The adult life span averages 6 to 20 days, with the range from a few days to over six months. In temperate regions of the country various species are active from early spring until late fall while in the southern parts of the U.S. some butterfly species are active year-round. Butterflies need nectar throughout the adult phase of their life span, so plant for continuous bloom.
Nectar Plants:
Aster spp.
Ironweed (vernonia spp.)
Azaleas (Rhodonderon spp.)
Joe-pye-weeds (Eupatorium spp.)
Bergemots (Monarda spp.)
Milkweeds (Asclepias spp.)
Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)
Phlox spp.
Blazing Stars (Llatris spp.)
Pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata)
Butterfly-weed (Asclepias tuberosa)
Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occindentalis)
Sumacs (Rhus spp.)
Cardinal-flower (Lobelia cardinalis)
Sunflowers (Helianthus spp.)
Ceanothus spp.
Sweet Pepperbush (Clethra alnifolia)
Coreopsis spp.
Verbena spp.
Goldenrods (Solidago spp.)
Butterfly Facts:
- over 700 species of butterflies are found in North America, but very few are garden pests
- Adult butterflies range in size from the half inch pygmy blue found in southern California to the giant female Queen Alexandra's birdwing of New Guinea, which measures about 10 inches from wing tip to wing tip.
- Butterfly larsi or "feet" possess a sense similar to taste; contact with sweet liquids such as nectar causes the proboscis to uncoil.
- Millions of shinglelike overlapping scales give butterfly wings their colors and patterns. metallic, iridescent hues come from faceted scales that refract light; solid colors are from pigmented scales.
- During the time from hatching to pupating (forming a pupa or chrsalis), the caterpillar may increase its body size more than 30,000 times.
- The chrysalises or pupae of many common gossamer wings - a group of butterflies which includes the blues, hairstreaks and elfins - are capable of producing weak sounds. By flexing and rubbing together body segment membranes, sounds are generated which may frighten off small predators and parasites.
Catarpillar Food Sources:
In order to insure that butterflies will reside in your yard, rather than infrequently pass through, your garden should include host plants that serve as larval food. Butterflies almost invariably lay their eggs on the host plant preferred by the caterpillar. Do not panic when you see chewed foliage; usually no permanent damage is done to the plants. Some common butterflies and their food plants are: Acmon Blue - buckwheats, lupines, milkvetch
American Painted Lady - cudweeds, everlasts, antennarias
Anise Swallowtail - anise, fennel, angelica, parsnip, mountain parsley
Baltimore Checkerspot - turtlehead, hairy beardtongue, English plantain
Banded hairstreak - oaks, hickory, walnuts
Baird's Swallowtail - dragon sagebrush
Black Swallowtail - parsley, dill, fennel, Queen Anne's lace, common rue
Buckeye - ruellia, snapdragon, plantain, verbena, toadflax, monkeyflower
Cabbage White - many plants in mustard family and nasturtium
Checkered White - peppergrass, winter cress, bladderpods, tumble mustards
Checkered Skipper - mallows, sida, globe mallows, hollyhock, velvet-leaf
Clouded Sulphur - clovers
Cloudless Sulphur - cassias
Common Sooty-wing - lamb's quarters, amaranth tumbleweed
Common wood-nymph - grasses
Coral Hairstreak - wild black cherry, American and Chickasaw plum, black chokeberry
Dogface - lead plant, indigo bush, prairie clover, false indigo
Dreamy Dusky Wing - willows, poplar, aspen , birch
Dun Skipper - sedges, grasses including purpletop
Eastern Tailed Blue - clover, trefoils, peas, vetches, alfalfa
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail - wild black cherry, ash, tulip tree, willow, sweetbay, basswood
Field Crescent - asters
Fiery Skipper - Bermuda grass, St. Augustine grass, bluegrass
Giant Swallowtail - prickly ash, citrus, common rue, hoptree, gas plant, torchwood
Goatweed Butterfly - goatweed, Texas croton, prairie tea
Gorgone Checkerspot - sunflowers and other sunflower members; lysimachia
Cray Comma - gooseberry, azalea, elm
Gray Hairstreak - many pea and mallow family members, many others
Great Purple Hairstreak - mistletoe, Phoradendron flavescens
Great Spangled Fritillary - violets
Gulf Fritillary - maypops, other passion vines
Hackberry Butterfly - hackberry sugarberry, Celtis sps.
Henry's Elfin - redbud, American, dahoon and yaupon hollies, maple-leaved vibumum, blueberries
Hoardy Edge - thick trefoils, false indigo, lespedezas
Large Marble - rock cress, winter cress, mustards, wall flower
Least Skipperling - grasses including cutgrass, bluegrass
Little Copper - sheep sorrel, curled dock
Little Wood Satyr - grasses including orchard grass, centipede grass and St. Augustine grass
Long-tailed Skipper - wisteria, pole beans, tick trefoil, butterfly pea, hog peanut
Monarch - milkweeds
Mourning Cloak - willows, American elm, quaking aspen, paper birch, hackberry
Painted Lady (Cosmopolite) - thistles, mallows, nievitas, yellow fiddleneck
Pearl Crescent - asters
Pine White - pines, Douglas fir, balsam fir
Pipe-vine Swallowtail - Dutchman's pipe, wooly pipevine, Virginia snakeroot
Pygmy Blue - saltbush, lamb's quarters, pigweed
Question Mark - elm, hackberry, nettles, hops
Reakirt's Blue - plants in the pea and mimosa families including mesquite, milkvetch
Red Admiral/White Admiral - wild cherries, black oaks, aspens, yellow and black birch
Roadside Skipper - bluegrass, oats, Bermuda grass
Sachem - grasses, including Bermuda grass
Silver-spotted Skipper - locusts, wisteria, other legumes
Snout Butterfly - hackberries
Spicebush Swallowtail - sassafras, spicebush
Spring Azure - dogwoods, wild black cherry, viburnums, staghorn, sumac, others
Sulphurs - clover, peas, vetch, alfalfa, asters, Cassia spp.
Sylvan Hairstreak - willows
Tawny Emperor - hackberry, sugarberry
Two-tailed Swallowtail - hoptree, cokecherry, ash
Variegated Fritillary - passion flower, maypop, violets, stonecrop, purslane
Viceroy - willows, cottonwood, aspen
Western Tailed Blue - vetches, milkvetches
Western Tiger Swallowtail - willow, plum, alder, sycamore, hoptree, ash
Western White - rock cress, peppergrass, tumble mustard
Woodland Skipper - grasses
Zebra - passion vines
Zebra Swallowtail - pawpaw The National Wildlife Federation's Backyard Wildlife Habitat program is a national public education and certification program started in 1973 than engages people in making a place for wildlife at home, school, work, an din communities. To find out more, visit www.nwf.org on the internet or call (703)790-4100.
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