Extension News: July 2006 Archives

All it takes is one chance planting of a species favored by butterflies to hook you into trying to attract these lovely, ephemeral creatures for a lifetime. According to an old saying, “Butterflies go where they please and please where they go”— the crown jewels of a beautiful garden. And by planting the right flowers in the right place, you can invite a variety of butterfly species to dwell in your garden.

Adult butterflies come for the nectar, which they sip through their tongues. Butterflies tend to favor plants with large petals or strong stems that provide a perch. Plants with large petals include members of the genus Compositae,such as asters, black-eyed Susans, coneflowers, zinnias, marigolds, cosmos and daisies.

Other good nectar plants have a flower head that consists of smaller blossoms on stems, such as butterfly bush (Buddleia), lantana, butterfly weed, borage, lavender, mints and phlox. Butterflies tend to avoid the showy double flowers, since these are often low in nectar supplies. And since a heavy fragrance appeals to butterflies, it’s best to stick to the old-fashioned heirloom varieties more than the faint-scented, modern cultivars of the same flower.

Purple and lavender flowers seem to be the most attractive to butterflies, followed by pinks, whites and yellows. If you decide to make a few plantings to attract butterflies, keep in mind that large masses of a few nectar flowers are most effective. You’ll attract more butterflies with a bed of coneflowers than you will with one or two coneflowers mixed in with other plants.

Butterflies are sun-loving insects, so choose a site in full sun if you can. It’s even better if the site is protected from strong winds by a wall, a hedge or some shrubs.

Adult butterflies generally live for about two weeks and much of that time is devoted to reproduction and egg-laying. To lay eggs, the female butterfly needs a proper host plant that will nourish her larvae. Host plants are often quite different from the plants adult butterflies use as nectar sources.

Since most butterflies travel only a few hundred yards from where they grew up as caterpillars, it behooves you to plant or encourage a few host plants. You may come to welcome caterpillars you once thought ugly, or even frightening, once you understand that attracting the local butterfly population you’ll also increase your chances of hosting the next generation of butterflies in your garden.

Some of them feed on the leaves of common trees and shrubs, such as aspen, poplar, willow, hawthorn, basswood, wild cherry, birch, ash, mountain ash, Amelanchier, dogwood, meadowsweet, viburnums, blueberry and sumac. Others prefer foods we commonly consider weeds—milkweed, nettles and thistles.

If you live in a rural area, these wild plants are probably already in plentiful supply. If you don’t and you want to supply these larval foods, plant some, or let them grow in obscure corners of your garden or hidden behind your specimen plants. Dill, parsley, fennel, caraway and anise provide larval food for a variety of beautiful swallowtail butterflies.

Occasionally, you’ll find caterpillars, some of them impressive in size and coloring, munching the foliage of prized ornamentals, herbs, or vegetable plants. In some cases, you can gently move the larvae (wearing gloves) to a less visible part of the plant or to another less–visible plant of the same species in your garden.

Butterflies are extremely sensitive to pesticides, even “organic” pesticides (for example, the bacterial insecticide Bt, Bacillus thuringienseis, targets butterfly larvae), so limit or avoid their use if you want to attract butterflies into your garden. Never spray between 10 and 3 p.m., when butterflies (and honeybees) are most active.

Here are a few suggestions for flowering plants that will attract butterflies to your garden:

• Annuals: Alyssum (blooms summer to mid-fall), Cosmos (mid-summer to fall), Heliotrope (summer), Marigold (summer into fall), Nasturtium (late summer), Salvia (summer through fall) and Zinnia (midsummer to fall).

• Biennials: Red clover (summer), Queen Anne’s lace (late spring through fall), Sweet William (spring through early summer).

• Perennials: Asters (late summer to fall), Bergamot (bee balm - summer through fall), Butterfly bush (midsummer to fall), Butterfly weed (summer through fall), White clover (summer), Coreopsis (all summer), Purple cornflower (late summer into fall), Hollyhock (summer), Lavender (summer), Lupine (late spring to early summer), Phlox (all summer), Black- eyed Susan (mid summer to early fall), Salvia (summer into fall), Shasta daisy (summer), Thistle (late spring through fall), Violet (spring), Yarrow (mid to late summer). 

By Margaret Hagen, UNH Cooperative Extension Educator, Agricultural Resources

07/14/06

For more information call the UNH Cooperative Extension's Family, Home & Garden Center's Info-line (toll free) at 1-877-398-4769 or send us an email. Volunteers are available to answer your questions Monday through Friday 9:00am to 2:00 p.m.

Recently, I spent a lot of time hanging out at a hospital, not as a patient, but as the spouse of one. My husband had major surgery in June and spent 17 days at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon.

While I drove back and forth to Lebanon, a 50-minute trip over some of New Hampshire’s most demanding highways, I found myself noticing plants that caught my eye. This helped make my many trips back and forth seem shorter and more pleasant. For example, my own private lupine festival was abloom. The majority of the lupines were purple, but the sprinkling of white, pink and pale yellow highlighted the darker colors and made for an excellent display.

During each trip, I took special note of a house in Lyme with an old-fashioned, buttery-yellow rose shrub. It grew beside a hot-pink rhododendron, which faded away and left the yellow rose alone for its 15 minutes of fame. Though I wasn’t able to identify it, I enjoyed its elegance and purity. It gave me a little boost of beauty during a difficult time. It probably blooms only once a season, but it earned its keep by making my day each time I went that route.

Along the side of the road where moisture collects in ditches, I saw what I refer to as “those white plants” that bloom in early summer and could be Wild Parsnip, Water Hemlock or Poison Hemlock, among others. From the distance, I couldn’t always tell which one I had sighted. They always look bridal-like, dainty and white. Later, they’ll be replaced by Queen Anne’s Lace, another look-alike that I love for its delicate, lacey umbels and bird’s nest-shaped seedheads.

Somewhere along my route, I noticed what appeared to be dill growing on the side of the road. Could those be flowering dill heads, so early in the season? As I drove past, it made a little landmark, something to wonder about. Since then, I’ve been able to identify this as Golden Alexander, a wildflower that grows in spring and early summer.

Another house along my route had a pergola that stretched out from the side of the house to cover a patio that overlooked the Connecticut River. I couldn’t help but wonder what would grow and clamber over such a graceful structure. Because of the slightly milder climate of the Valley, my mind’s eye pictured purple wisteria and pink climbing roses; for fall, snowy white clematis paniculata.

As I got closer to the hospital, I saw white lilac trees; they bloom later than the syringa species, and they have no scent, but they appear striking from a distance.

The grounds of Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center are well-manicured and seem to have been planned to provide both seasonal beauty and low maintenance. Earlier, in the spring, there were tulips, daffodils and other signs of mass bulb-planting the previous fall. Now, there are hundreds of daylilies just ticking off the days until they explode and light up the summer with colors I can only imagine, and do.

At the time that I was a daily visitor and occasional overnight guest, rain showers were a daily or at least an every-other-day event. As I approached a glass-enclosed entry on the north side of the hospital, something in my peripheral vision made me turn to look. Drops of water glistened like tiny diamonds on a group of large, seersucker-leaved hostas planted just outside the panes of glass. Not flashy like a neon sign, but subtle like tasteful jewelry, tucked into a niche, visible if you only took the time to look.

And the roses! From the fourth floor, I could see a split-rail fence with four or five pink, single-petaled climbing rose bushes that looked as if they were descendants of a rugosa rose and a more lax-stemmed rose such as a rambling Wichuraiana. If I made cell-phone calls, I went to that window to make them. Not only did I get good phone reception there, but the floral scent was captivatingspicy like cloves and sweet. The hours of worry and tension would melt away as I took a moment to inhale their amazing, instantly refreshing fragrance.

As I looked out our fourth floor windows, the textures and the yellow and blue-greens of all sorts of trees, evergreen and deciduous, seemed to come together to create a treehouse. This effect was amplified by myriads of birds that spent their days flying in and out of the leaves and branches, swooping down to feed on insects and grubs that carelessly left their places of safety in the verdant lawns below. Cedar waxwings fed on the pin cherries, lemon-yellow goldfinches dipped and rose in their curious, undulating flight patterns, fat robins pulled worms from the grass.

We’ve returned to our own valley east of the hospital. My husband continues to improve and get stronger every day. I continue to look out my windows and remember the solace and serenity those connections with nature gave me. Although it’s true there’s no place like home, nature nurtures you wherever you roam.

By Helen Downing, Master Gardener, UNH Cooperative Extension 

07/14/06

For more information call the UNH Cooperative Extension's Family, Home & Garden Center's Info-line (toll free) at 1-877-398-4769 or send us an email. Volunteers are available to answer your questions Monday through Friday 9:00am to 2:00 p.m.