Critters, Garden, Village Life
Butterfly Bonanza
This gorgeous monarch was one of a parade of butterflies that visited our butterfly bushes throughout Tuesday. Every time I looked, the blooms had a new set of butterflies on them!
The monarchs never seem to sit with their wings fanned out the way the swallowtails do. But they are much more apt to hop onto my hands and say ‘howdy,’ which of course I love to bits.
Here’s a view of a butterfly bush bloom taken from a butterfly’s perspective… yummy, no? If you’ve never seen a butterfly bush (scientific name: Buddleja davidii) they’re rather scraggly looking plants - except for the blooms, which remind me of lilacs. They are scented, to my nose, with a delicate honeyed fragrance that is delightful. We’re at the very edge of the zones where they can grow. Our winters are too cold for butterfly bushes to thrive, according to all the plant books. The bushes, however, apparently didn’t get that memo (thank goodness), and are going great guns.
*sigh!*
Gorgeous.
29 Aug 2008 JAS
So in addition to all my bunnies, you also have my butterflies! I’m miffed.
Our Butterfly Bushes did terribly this year; our winter was so severe we lost 2 of the 3 we had. And the one that survived was scraggly all over this year; I plan to gently wrap it for this winter, hoping to keep it going.
Next year our gardens are going to get a huge overhaul. Replanting, clearing out. The deer have made mincemeat out of our lilies so much that I’m going to tear them all out and plant deer-resistant things like Bee Balm.
Oh, I’ll be glad to UPS you a box of bunnies, Kris - but right now they’re hard to catch. A trap baited with a carrot or apple just isn’t inviting to the palate of a gourmet bunny accustomed to noshing on my flowers.
The butterflies though… nope. Now that I’ve got ‘em stopping by the Butterfly Bush Bar and Grill, I’m keeping ‘im here.
BTW, our butterfly bushes made it through an extremely severe winter here. What kept them safe was a constant thick blanket of insulating snow. My sister, a Master Gardener, told me to let them go dormant every fall, mulch them deeply around the roots, and then each year cut the entire plant down to about 8″ above the ground in very early spring. That worked like a champ - the bushes are over 5 feet tall this year and 4 feet wide.
Good luck on the garden overhaul. I have to plant based on what the bunnies won’t eat (so far the deer haven’t ventured into the yard, although they frequent the yards across the street from us daily). Here’s a useful site, if you haven’t already found it, for selecting deer-resistant plants: http://www.gardeningindeercountry.com. Most deer will leave daylilies alone (so will rabbits). Daylilies come in a zillion colors nowadays, and you can select so that you have varieties that bloom in different parts of the season, giving you almost continuous bloom. The bunnies love to hide under them, too!
ACK! I take back my advice about daylilies being deer resistant - the Ohio study (link above) found that the deer loved them! Sorry about that… the deer here don’t seem to snack on them, according to my gardening friends who have to deal with ‘m.
absolutely beautiful….
Thanks, Sarah.
Yeah JAS, I burst out laughing about the daylilies. The deer have stripped mine bare this year - not one single blossom bloomed.
Kris, I laugh every time I read lists of what plants bunnies don’t eat. HAH! Bunnies eat everything!