All About Butterflies | Butterfly Garden Plants

flowers and butterflies by bkang22
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When you build your butterfly garden correctly, not only will the beauties come and have a sip of nectar, they will also find a comfortable place to lay eggs. To get the best butterfly attracting garden, it is best to let it remain as natural as possible. Chemicals should not be used and the surroundings should consist of elements found only in nature.

Crazy Butterflies by midnighteskye
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The best way to attract butterflies to your garden - rotted fruit. The liquid of the fruit is like a magnet that bring the fluttering beauties to your garden.

Put your fruit peelings in your garden to bring hummingbirds and butterflies.

Butterfly Glory - Canvas Print by TimothyOrikri
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A butterfly does not start its life as such a beautiful specimen. There are four stages of a butterfly and these are changes that must take place before we are presented with the dainty butterfly that we know and love. Listed below is the butterfly life cycle.

Egg - This is a very small white egg that is the beginning of the beautiful butterfly.

Larva/Caterpillar - The tiny egg will hatch into a tiny larva also called a catepillar. The tiny larva eats a lot of leaves and other green stuff and it grows into the regular sized catepillar that we know and love.

Pupa/Chrysalis - When the time is right, the now fat caterpillar will attach itself to a small twig and there, it forms a hard shell over itself and this is what is called the Pupa. The Pupa is usually camouflaged to keep predators at bay. While the caterpillar is inside the hard shell waiting,until it becomes the...

Adult Butterfly - This is really when the tragedy begins because the adult will only live for a very short time. At this point, they can only drink through their straw-like spiral proboscis. This may be why they eat so much while they are in the caterpillar stage[s]. The adult stage is when they mate and reproduce to keep the life cycle going.

After the caterpillar becomes a beautiful butterfly - this is the beginning of the end. All they do is fly around, look pretty, mate and reproduce. Then they go on to a better place.

On average, they live a few days, weeks or at the most, a few months. The life cycle and life span of the Monarch butterfly is longest. Some of them live for as long as 9 to10 months.

A study done in Costa Rica showed that some butterflies live only a few days - one type lived only two days and the maximum lifespan for that type was a mere nine days.

So... every summer, we see a whole new generation of butterflies flying around us.

Butterfly Composition Canvas Print by TimothyOrikri
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Butterflies like to live in an area that is sheltered from the weather - wind, rain, storms and any other situation that they may deem not safe. When you build your habitat, put it in a corner in your yard that will make the butterflies feel safe and secure because they are - after all - parents trying to raise a family.

When you are making your butterfly garden plan, make sure you choose a place with plenty of leaves, flowers for nectar, trees to keep the elements away and very bright colors so that your garden can be found and enjoyed.

Butterfly Facts and Other Interesting Information

When you add these plants you can be sure that they will come. Expect to see a few butterflies fluttering around in your garden making everything even more beautiful and enchanting.

Royal Red Butterfly Bush - The Butterfly Bush Royal Red, Buddleia Royal Red, is not quite a true red color, but purple-red flowers are borne on this beautiful upright growing shrub. It is a vigorous growing shrub that boasts purple-red flowers from mid-summer and is a butterfly magnet. This bush flowers summer and fall and is easy to grow. Plant it near a path or patio and the shrub will provide a delightful fragrance for you, too. It's generally pest-free. This plant blooms on new growth and should be pruned back to the ground in spring.

The Delphinium Butterfly Blue, Delphinium Grandiflora, has a wonderful true sky blue flower that reaches a height of 10 inches and a plant spread of 15-18 inches. This deep, gentian-blue trumpet shaped flower is a great contrast with is forest-green slender foliage, blooming early to mid summer. A must for any cottage garden, remove spent heads to produce more growth throughout the season. Try Butterfly Blue with Hibiscus µBlue River II or Leucanthemum Becky Daisy.

White Butterfly Bush - The White Butterfly bush, Buddleia davidii 'Alba', is easily grown in average, medium wet, well-drained soil in full sun. Even if plants do not die to the ground in winter, they usually grow more vigorously, produce superior flowers and maintain a better shape if cut to the ground in late winter each year. Removal of spent flower spikes during the growing season will encourage additional bloom, but consider leaving final blooms in place to facilitate reseeding.

Claret Purple Butterfly Bush - The Purple Butterfly Bush, Buddleia davidii 'ile de France', is a butterfly magnet. This bush flowers summer and fall and is easy to grow. With a name like Butterfly Bush you might expect a plant to be attractive to butterflies. In fact, it's more than attractive; it's a magnet for all the butterflies that pass through your garden seeking nectar. Butterflies and bees will flock to the honey-scented blossoms, whose dilute nectar is sweetest in midday sun. Plant it near a path or patio and the shrub will provide a delightful fragrance for you, too. It's generally pest-free.

A lot of people ask "what do butterflies eat?"

The answer is - nothing. Absolutely nothing. Most only drink during this stage of life. While they are a larva/caterpillar, that is when they do all of their eating.

After they have reached the stage of butterfly most of them feast on the nectar from flowers, tree sap, the liquid on rotting fruit and the males drink the dissolved minerals in mud.

Because some butterflies need a large sodium intake, the land on human skin to get a drink of your sweat.

Butterfly Bush - Royal Red

Butterfly Bush - Honeycomb

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