Sunday, April 20

Flutter Bys

Caring for butterflies in the spring garden

A Swallowtail butterfly enjoys nectar from the flowers of an early-blooming apple tree.

When you think of butterflies, you likely think of fluttering jewels sipping nectar from cosmos, bee balm or zinnias on a warm summer's day. But the fact of the matter is, there are all kinds of butterflies waiting to take advantage of early springtime flowers, too. Here are some tips for helping these early lepidopterae get a strong start.

Feed me
Butterflies have many different survival strategies. Some go into a cold-induced stasis in their adult form. Others overwinter as caterpillars or even remain unhatched in eggs laid in the fall on host plants. But regardless of how they make it through the winter, when they start to warm up in the spring, they are hungry. For most of their lives, butterflies are really just eating machines. You'll see Sulphurs, Red Admirals and Commas taking nectar from grape hyacinths, lilacs and even clover and dandelions. Painted Ladies and Swallowtails will be hard at work on peonies, chives and dame's rocket.

But not all the nutrition a butterfly needs comes from nectar. One of the most well known, the Mourning Cloak, shows up before flowers are blooming and makes a meal of sap dripping from cuts and nicks on trees and shrubs. You can place some over-ripe or even rotting bananas, grapes or other fruit on a sunny, sheltered rock or right on the ground for these earlybirds to enjoy while they wait for the buffet to open.

Sports drink
You remember your mother telling you not to fill up on sweets? The same holds true for butterflies. Nectar gives them high energy, but not the other nutrients they need for a balanced diet. To get those, butterflies will "puddle."

They congregate around mud puddles, taking up the mineral-rich water. Make a puddler by filling a plastic or terra cotta clay saucer with coarse sand or gravel. Keep it wet with beer, stale soda or even water. These liquids, suspended in the sand, provide the salts, electrolytes and other nutrients sweet nectar just can't supply.

Safe and warm
Butterflies need more than food and water. Sheltering these delicate gems is also vital. There are butterfly houses you can buy or build, but I've had mixed results with them. Butterflies seem to prefer to attach themselves to the undersides of leaves when it gets windy or rains. Have a couple of plants with large leaves, like redbud, for them to shelter under. A butterfly fluttering on the breeze is beautiful. But it's hard for them to get around against anything more than a light wind, and really strong winds can shred their delicate wings. So place nectar plants or feeding and puddling stations where prevailing winds are blocked by trees, shrubs or structures.

All butterflies are exothermic, or cold-blooded. They need to warm up before they can fly. Early, cool-season butterflies especially need a place where they can take in the warm sun after a chilly spring night. Place rocks or chunks of concrete in sunny areas for them to bask. These materials get warm quickly and hold the heat well into the evening.

For a more detailed list of specific butterflies and their host plants, click here.

Active in the horticultural industry since 1994, Glen O. Seibert is a former editor for Garden Gate magazine and now works as a writer, landscape designer and self-professed "gardening media mogul."