Every year I like to plant a few things to attract Monarch butterflies to my gardens, and since it's part of my plan again this year, I thought I'd share this with you....
Butterflies need a couple types of plants for their life-stages. The butterfly egg & caterpillar need what's called a 'Host' plant to start off. When the egg hatches, it'll eat it's own eggshell, then it'll eat on the leaves of that plant until it grows larger and creates a caccoon.
For the host plants, I'm going to be planting some Milkweed (the wild kind) and what's called Butterfly weed. Butterfly weed is in the milkweed family, but prettier. I've bought some that have orange flower heads and some that are pink. I just love them! They're a perennial so they come back up every year, but I usually buy more of them each year to add to what I've already got. Milkweed is the chosen plant for the Monarch. If you want to attract other kinds of butterflies, you'll have to do a search on their specific needs.
Once the caterpillar becomes a butterfly, they no longer eat the plants. They drink nectar. I furnish that in a couple of ways...
For one thing, I have a birdbath in my garden that I put butterfly food in. It's just a mixture of mud, water, sometimes a little manure, and sometimes I'll put a piece of old fruit in it. Have you ever noticed how butterflies seem to go crazy over mud puddles after a rain? Just make it like a mud-puddle...not too deep, and not to clean. They love that dirty water! Ü Oh....and they also like a little gravel in it, like sand. And make sure you have little rocks sitting in the butterfly bath so they can keep their feet out of the water while sipping!
Here's another recipe you can mix together & hang here & there:
Butterfly NectarOver-ripe fruit of some kind
1/2 to 1 cup of Molasses
1 can of beer
1/2 cup of fruit juice (any kind)
Brightly colored cloths
Mix all ingredients together until it's gooey and liquified. (use your food processor if you want). Then dip the bright colored cloths into the mixture and let it soak for a few minutes til the cloth is good and soaked all the way through. Hang the cloths onto tree branches to attract the butterflies. That's it!
As for plants to furnish the nectar, they love pretty much any kind of flower, and the more vibrant the color, the better. I have Purple Coneflower, Coreopsis, Black eyed susans, Asters, Blazing Star, Bee Balm, Oregano, Columbine, Astilbe,and Goldenrod to name a few. These flowers should be planted in groups of the same color because the butterfly is near-sighted and you'll want to make sure he sees where your flowers are.
Zinnia's are suppose to be another favorite, but I've never had much luck growing those. They want to get all black-spotty on me. Ick.
How to tell male from female? The adult males have thinner veins in their wings and a large dot on one of their inner veins of the hind wing. Females have thicker veins and no dots. The dot is a scent gland the males use to attract the females.
Every year I have Monarch's in my garden, but I still don't have as many as I'd like. And they don't seem to stick around as long as I'd like. I still have a LOT to learn about this butterfly.
Hopefully this summer I'll see even more!
Have a Great Day!!
~AuntyB~
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