Hi everyone . . .
I have recently been appointed director for developing an undergraduate major in sustainability for the college that I work for. For the intro course in sustainability, I would like to introduce students to sustainable gardening. I am thinking that a butterfly garden would be a great idea.
I have a location in mind that will have full sun. I will introduce the students to winter-sowing (and the concept of delayed gratification!)
Anyway - any advice, etc. you can offer will be greatly appreciated.
The college is located in Springfield Ma (technically I am not allowed to discuss the major until it is approved by the Faculty Senate which won't happen until Nov. )
Anyway, we are zone 6 with reasonable amount of rain throughout the summer - though it often comes down in torrential downpours, a result of thunderstorms.
I am thinking of butterfly weed, butterfly bush (technically not a native plant, I know), echinacea. What other plants should I be considering - or avoiding? Obviously, we want flowers and plants that are reasonably disease resistant because we don't want to use any pesticides.
Thanks for all your help. ^_^
Michaela in Springfield
Butterfly garden using native plants project
Here's a list of recommended native wildflowers for Massachusetts http://www.wildflower.org/collections/collection.php?start=0&collection=MA&pagecount=10&pagecount=100 The list isn't specifically for butterflies, it's just general native wildflowers but I'm sure there are a number of butterfly plants in there. Also if MA has a native plant society I bet they would love to help you get this program jumpstarted.
Thank you so very much, ecrane3 ^_^
You might try contacting the New England Wildflower Society at Garden in the Woods. They are in Framingham, Massachusetts and "sustainable gardening" would make a pretty good two word summary of their mission statement.
Thanks, KSBaptisia, I am googling them now ^_^
I'd nominate the New England Aster as a primary fall butterfly magnet. I grow them and the butterfly draw in Sept. is fantastic. The asters draw multitudes of Monarchs, Painted Lady, Pearl Crescent, Buckeye,, several Sulphurs, Cabbage Whites, Red Admiral, Several Skippers, and an occasional American Snout.
5 Painted Ladies
echinacea works well in June
Wow! this is great, jmorth 'cause I have New England asters and echinacea galore (mine usually bloom in July and August.) Thanks ^_^
Eupatorium purpureum (and I assume other members of the genus) is also an excellent nectar plant.
I winter sowed these (Eupatorium purpureum ) this past winter! I have 12 of them. ^_^
Seandor, congratulations!! You've chosen the perfect project and it will be wonderful to see all the butterflies you end up supporting. Does it have to be native plantings? Zinnias and plain violet and red-violet garden phlox are great draws too. I love Joe Pye Weed!
I suppose this discussion will come up (many times) in your classes, but I wouldn't have identified a butterfly garden as a sustainable garden, necessarily. Maybe that would be an interesting ongoing project - each new class plants a new garden, but old gardens get left to "sustain" (or not). So suceeding classes might choose to modify the plant selection, cultivation technique, etc based on what they observe.
(I was raised by a botanist and a statistician, so this sort of thing is pretty much how I spent my childhood.)
Sounds like a cool opportunity! Keep us posted...
Just came across this thread......
Seandor - You are off to a good start with butterfly weed, coneflowers, and asters. The butterflies love these in my garden. Some other natives that attract butterflies here in Missouri are liatris, lanceleaf coreopsis, ninebark, and rose verbena (Glandularia canadensis). I'm not sure if ninebark and rose verbena are native in your area, but liatris and lanceleaf coreopsis are listed on the MA natives website mentioned earlier in this thread. I have read that butterfly bush is becoming invasive in some parts of the U.S., so you might want to check into that before planting it.
I am still working on my Butterfly gardens - plural. Not all your Butterfly plants will like the same soil/water/sun conditions. Since you have some time to plan this, try http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/ - you can do a map search and see what butterflies are found in your county. I cross-referenced against the surrounding counties to get the commonest ones and eliminate the odd-balls. Then see what their favorite plants are, listed under the detail descriptions. You will want caterpillar host plants in addition to nectar plants, native versions of: an aster, a violet, a mallow, a herbaceous & a woody legume, a carrot/dill/parsley, a milkweed, a buckwheat/wallflower, etc. In the spring, wild plum Prunus americana is a great nectar plant, in the fall Rabbitbrush (see photo) attracts them even better than Butterfly Bush. Rabbitbush is native here, where you are it wouldn't be any more non-Native than Butterfly bush. Another low-tech tip: go to the nursery/garden center on a day over 60 degrees with no wind and see what the butterflies are landing on!
I was going to refer you to your State's extension service - but when I went there and did a search for Butterfly gardening, it refered me back to Colorado. So here is my State's pamplet: http://www.ext.colostate.edu/PUBS/INSECT/05504.html
One more thought: You will probably need to plant windbreak style. Butterflies like open & sunny, but they don't like open and windy.
I've been converting my yard over to primarily native, specifically to attract butterflies and birds, and it works! I highly, highly, recommend the book "Native Plants of the Northeast" by Donald J. Leopold. Photos and useful info ie: soil type, light, moisture, zone, natural range, propagation, what it may attract. Just briefly looking at the perennials native to Western MA that attract butterflies and/or hummingbirds he lists: Wild Columbine, Swamp Milkweed, Butterflyweed, Asters: White wood, Heath, New England, New York, & Flat Topped; Black Cohosh, Pink Coreopsis, Spotted Joe-Pye Weed, White Snakeroot, Sneezeweed, Oxeye, New England Blazing Star,Canada Lily, Wood Lily, Turk's Cap, Cardinal Flower, Great Blue Lobelia, Blue Lupine, Oswego Tea, Wild Bergamot, Wild Blue Flox, Wild Sweet William, False Dragonhead, Black Eye Susan, Cutleaf Coneflower, Goldenrods: Blue-stemmed, Zig-zag, Rough-stemmed, Showy, & Canada; Indian Pink. My NE asters are still blooming! It all depends on how pure native you want plant FYI Purple Coneflower is native to the Ozarks.
Pollengarden, thanks for the great link!!
Sarahn, sounds like a great book! I have most of the plants you list, so I am at least attracting them.
I have both native and nonnative butterfly plants. There are some native versions of the nonnative garden parsley, although they might have limited time during which the butterflies will use them. In my area,
Daucosma laciniatum is the only common parsley, starts blooming in summer. There's also a native version of dill, although I can't remember what it's called. .
LindaTX8, I find the more I read my invasives book, the more nonnatives I have. I'm not going to get rid of them tho. They still have food value.
What a great idea. Good luck with it, it should be fascinating.
Thanks! right now I am sorting through my seeds trying to determine what to keep . . . .