Butterfly gardens: Color on the wing

The best way to attract butterflies to your garden is to give them plenty of bloom.

Butterflies don't care whether your gardening style is formal or informal, and they're not that picky about color schemes, so you can suit yourself in that regard. The only things butterflies are looking for as they flutter about are flowers -- nectar sources -- and any colorful garden will make them feel right at home.

Summer and early fall are the peak seasons for butterflies. This is the time to make your garden more attractive to monarchs, sulphurs, swallowtails and all the other butterflies that float so lightly through life.

You don't have to chase around with nets. Butterflies will come to you.

"The key is native plants," says Jeffrey Glassberg, president of the North American Butterfly Association, www.naba.org. Butterflies are very attracted to many non-native species -- such as butterfly bush, zinnias and lantanas -- but they prefer native plants, Glassberg says.

When meadows and fields of native plants are converted to shopping centers and residential developments, butterfly habitat is destroyed, and by planting natives, you are restoring their habitat.

"You can make a difference," he says.

"Butterflies are very exciting, but they are also profoundly relaxing," Glassberg says. "When you're enjoying butterflies, it takes you out of yourself into a beautiful, magical world."

Butterflies don't sting or bite. They also don't nibble on your hostas or eat holes in the roses. They are entertaining and undemanding visitors that appreciate sunshine and flowers, some protection from harsh winds, and perhaps a light-colored rock for basking quietly in the sun.

Glassberg has been chasing butterflies since he was a child, and he travels around the world to see them, but a butterfly garden in a suburban backyard might attract 75 or more species of butterflies, he says. Even in a small plot in the heart of a city, you can see dozens of different butterflies. If you don't have much of a garden, you can still attract butterflies with a windowbox or a single flowerpot full of blooms.

The North American Butterfly Association's regional garden guides online, www.nababutterfly.com, list an astonishing selection of native and non-native plants for butterfly gardeners. Trees, shrubs, annual and perennial flowers, and vines can all be part of a butterfly garden.

Many of the carefully tailored regional lists include yarrow, phlox, hummingbird mint (Agastache), sedum, Joe-pye weed (Eupatorium) and other popular perennial plants. If your space is limited, you could stick with just a few particularly good butterfly plants, such as butterfly milkweed, to attract monarchs, or plants in the parsley family (parsley, carrots, dill, fennel) to attract swallowtails.

When you plant butterfly milkweed or parsley, you're practically growing your own butterflies. These plants are among the most important caterpillar food sources. Dandelions, violets, clover and even crabgrass are also excellent caterpillar food plants.

Children are fascinated by the process of watching caterpillars grow, form their chrysalises and emerge as butterflies, but no one ever really outgrows the thrill of metamorphosis. It's like rainbows.

"Many gardeners have an aversion to caterpillars, but if you focus on them, after a little bit you'll see that the caterpillars are as wonderful as butterflies are," Glassberg says.

Don't worry about caterpillar damage to your plants. A few clumps of parsley will support a healthy population of swallowtail caterpillars and still provide plenty of garnish for the family's dinner.

Butterfly milkweed plants light up flower beds with their colorful blooms, attract many transient butterflies and produce a delightful homegrown crop of monarchs. Milkweeds are perennial and very tough.

They'll bounce back and bloom again even after the handsome striped monarch caterpillars have chowed down on them. Parsley is biennial, and it's best if you set out new plants every year.

Once you start gardening for butterflies, you'll want to have flowers in bloom from spring through frost, and butterflies will flutter lightly around your garden all season long. As you get to know butterflies, you'll discover that birds (natural predators of both caterpillars and butterflies) are more numerous in your garden, too.

You can cluster flowers quite close together for a colorful bed that looks good from any vantage point. Grow both tall and short plants so you can watch the butterflies from above and at eye level.

Don't forget to snip the spent blooms of annual flowers as they fade, to encourage more flowers. And don't use pesticides -- the population of good bugs and bad bugs balances out in a healthy garden, and indiscriminate use of pesticides will undermine your efforts to attract butterflies.

"Butterfly gardening is a good way to learn about and enjoy the relationships of nature and biodiversity," Glassberg says.

When butterflies are flitting about, they also carry a little bit of your heart along for the ride, he says.

"They take you to a beautiful part of life -- even if it's in your own back yard," Glassberg says.

North American Butterfly Association, www.naba.org.

Monarch Watch, www.monarchwatch.org.

CAPTION AND CREDIT (NOTE: These photos are for ONE-TIME use ONLY. Primary Color Home photos, with the proper credits, are to be run ONLY with Primary Color stories. Conversion to black and white is OK.) WDG: Grow the flowers butterflies love, and your garden suddenly has wings. Butterfly gardening also restores habitats lost to development and increases the pollinator population. This pretty Baltimore checkerspot, and many other butterflies, especially monarchs, are attracted to colorful native butterfly milkweeds. CREDIT: c.

Jeffrey Glassberg/North American Butterfly Association (Editors: For editorial questions, contact Clint Hooker, chooker(at)amuniversal.com) COPYRIGHT 2008 UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE PRIMARY COLOR CREATED BY HARRIET CHOICE 4520 Main St., Kansas City, MO 64111; (816) 932-6600 NYT-07-11-08 1719EDT