71. OPEN HOUSE FOR BUTTERFLIES

Open House for Butterflies is a classic children’s book by Ruth Krauss. Illustrated by Maurice Sendak, it shows a boy and a girl welcoming butterflies into their home and declares that an “open house for butterflies is a good thing to have.” Just as fun, and much more practical, is a butterfly garden. This is probably the most enticing garden theme of all the ones I suggest. Who can say “no” to a butterfly garden?

Butterflies are mesmerizing as they fly through the landscape and pollinate flowers. They, along with dragonflies and bees, are treasured insects in many cultures. Butterflies seem almost magical as they flutter about. That may be one of the reasons why school butterfly gardens have exploded in popularity over the past decade. Kids love butterflies.

A more significant reason why butterfly gardens are being established in great numbers is that we are losing our butterflies due to habitat loss and pesticides. And we need them to pollinate flowers! So open house for butterflies is a very important thing to have. Here are a few tips to attract these marvelous creatures to your flowers. First, since butterflies are cold-blooded, they come to life as temperatures rise to around 85 degrees. So choose a sunny and warm location for your flower garden. Place a few large flat rocks among the flowers to give the butterflies a place to bask and warm up in the sun. If possible, locate the butterfly garden in a spot visible from your house so you can enjoy it as you look out.

Another helpful tip is to group flowers together in a single variety or color, as butterflies seem to find these groupings first. Butterflies are drawn to bright, vivid colors, including red, yellow, pink, orange, and purple. They love coneflowers, anise hyssop, bee balm, asters, cosmos, zinnias, sedum, and lantana, among others. Deadhead spent flowers often in order to ensure fresh nectar-laden blooms. Lastly, don’t overclean your butterfly garden in autumn. Many beneficial insects and butterflies overwinter in plant debris and log and leaf piles. No leaf blowers here!

You can find some great books and websites that describe how to create a butterfly garden. For detailed information on how to create a certified butterfly garden, go to the website of the North American Butterfly Association (www.naba.org).

An eastern tiger swallowtail is large with bright yellow and black stripes. It is native to the eastern United States. Here, a tiger swallowtail feeds on a pink zinnia flower, one of its favorites. Zinnias and their nectar are also preferred by painted lady and monarch butterflies. These flowers are an important late-season nectar source for North American monarchs on their migration journey south to Mexico. Zinnias are one of the easiest annual flowers to grow from seed, and planting them is an excellent way to get children involved in butterfly gardening.

If you have limited space and want a hardy perennial flower that attracts butterflies, such as this monarch butterfly, plant a group of purple coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea). They bear large, daisy-like flowers of lavender-pink. Grows 30 to 36 inches high and blooms from mid-July through frost. Highly drought tolerant. It grows in light shade to full sun in a variety of soil types. Zones 3–8.

Butterflies congregate around damp edges of puddles, or where water has evaporated and the ground is still moist. You can attract more butterflies to your garden by re-creating a shallow puddling pool. Fill a shallow dish such as a terracotta plant saucer or pie tin with gravel or pebbles. Bury it to the rim in a sunny, open spot where butterflies can land. Cover with a thin layer of water, leaving the tops of the rocks uncovered so the butterflies can perch on them as they sip. Butterflies crave the minerals and salts left behind as the water evaporates. Refill when needed. Add a small pinch of salt to the water to attract the butterflies. They typically visit puddling sites in the heat of a summer day.

A brilliantly colored monarch butterfly enjoys feeding on the vivid red-orange ‘Torch’ Mexican sunflower (Tithonia rotundifolia ‘Torch’). This annual flower is an excellent butterfly flower and is easy to grow from seed. It features 2- to 3-inch open flowers that bloom prolifically from midsummer through fall. Grows to 5 feet tall and more on strong stems.

Autumn fern (Dryopteris erythrosora) is a real stunner! Although its name indicates a turn of color in the fall, it is the new growth in spring of this evergreen fern that has an autumnal pinkish-copper hue. The fronds then mature to a glossy green in summer. Autumn fern grows to 24 inches tall and will flourish in high, open shade and evenly moist soil. Zones 6–9. Here, I planted autumn fern with the long-blooming and prolific blue-flowered geranium ‘Rozanne.’ This perennial geranium grows in part shade and flowers through the heat of midsummer. Zones 5–8.

Japanese painted fern (Athyrium niponicum var. pictum) is favored by gardeners for its luminescent gray-silver to white fronds. Some varieties also have rich burgundy stems and midribs. The long, triangular fronds tend to arch down to show off its tricolor markings, perfect for edging a shady border. It was named 2004 Perennial Plant of the Year by the Perennial Plant Association (PPA). Here, in part sun, it adds a silvery accent to the annual vinca ‘Pacifica XP Magenta Halo’ (Catharanthus roseus ‘Pacifica XP Magenta Halo’).

The attractive short-lived perennial Arkwright’s Campion ‘Scarlet O’Hara’ (Lychnis × arkwrightii ‘Scarlet O’Hara’) has gorgeous orange-red blooms with five deeply notched petals. The showy flowers are held above the foliage, and hummingbirds love them! It grows 18 inches tall, likes sun, and blooms from early to midsummer. Deer resistant and self-seeds. Hardy in zones 3–9. Arkwright’s Campion makes a striking contrast to the upright and finely dissected fronds of the native ostrich fern (Matteuccia struthiopteris). It, too, is deer resistant and is at its full size of 3 to 6 feet in mid–late summer, after the campion flowers have passed. A great combination. Hardy in zones 3–7.