Was it worth the effort?

[Susie]

There are four buddleias in full bloom, a dozen or more lavender bushes, shed loads of fleabane, vebana bonariensis, wallflower bowles mauve, various knapweeds and stands and stands of hemp agrimony coming into bloom but is there a butterfly? Is there heck as like!!

[Michaeljf]

Chuck in tons of rain and wind and it's not surprising. It's all the worse because all my beds of Marjoram are flowering that bit later this year, just in time for the rain Still, at least it hasn't been like the last 3 years summers...

[David M]

Been a terrible day today. Temperature on my way home at 1630 was just 14.5C with thunder, lightning and torrential rain.

Not surprising that butterflies have taken time off.

[Susie]

It is curious. It has been warm here but very dry. Some of my buddleias have finished now and I didn't see a single butterfly on them. Yesterday there was one holly blue (nectaring on purple loosestrife) one gatekeeper and one large white in my garden. Frankly that's rubbish!

I went to Nyman's Gardens today which is a National Trust place and has stunning borders stuffed full of flowers most butterflies would go crazy for. It also has a large wild flower meadow. Again we only saw one meadow brown, one gatekeeper and a couple of whites. Unbelieveable!

[Charles Nicol]

i have been looking at various buddleia bushes at the side of the road & the butterflies have been avoiding them.

charles

[Michaeljf]

We had a Comma, Red Admiral, Small Tortoiseshell, a few Speckled Woods, an unidentified white and a Gatekeeper in the garden yesterday - the Nyphalids were all on the buddleias. Not seen anything today, but at least the temperature climbed yesterday. Went to a local Cardiff wood as well yesterday and there was nothing apart from one white, so the butterflies obviously prefer my garden (when the sun's out)! I'm glad I'm going on holiday soon, as the forecast doesn't look that great for the rest of the week for the UK.

[Lee Hurrell]

Greenford seems to be doing ok for garden species....lots of whites, Red Admirals, Commas, the odd Peacock, Meadow Browns, Gatekeeper on mine and my neighbour's buddleia over the weekend. Mostly my neighbour's as I only have 3 flowers out so far...!

All the above seen in my garden today along with Holly Blue and Speckled Wood.

Cheers

Lee

[Susie]

I wish I had that lot! I am very envious.

I gave the garden a water tonight and had a butterfly turn up and start drinking the droplets from petals and leaves. It just goes to show how thirst she was. She definitely wasn't taken honeydew or nectar, only water.

[Zonda]

Butterfly species just now beginning to appear in the wildlife garden. Not on buddleia, (i have non flowering) but mostly on marjoram and field scabious.

Today:
Red Admiral 1 (3 yesterday)
Large White 3 or 4
Gatekeeper 1
Meadow brown 1
1st Common Blue in garden yesterday
Small Tortoiseshell 4

Notable Absentees:
Green-veined whites
Brimstone
Peacock

Hopefully numbers will increase now. Late season here.

[Dave McCormick]

Well same here, only butterflies I have seen in my garden is small and large white and the odd speckled wood. I have two buddliea, ones just fully flowered now, dark purple, tall thinish heads smells really sweet, other hasn't flowered (it usually attracts more and it was doing so this time last year) and I have lavander in flower, but not much, more moth activity than butterflies. Any butterflies that do come, don't go for those flowers, but the daisies on the lawn!

Major absence of any nymphalidae (Peacock, Small Tortoiseshell, Red Admiral etc...) havn't seen any but a small tortoiseshell in months, last seen a peacock in April or early May and only seen one Red Admiral at all this year and two Painted Lady (given their usually migrants and shouldn't expect many of those).

[David M]

I personally haven't seen any Painted Ladies this year, which is in stark contrast to last year when they were abundant even in the Isle of Man where my mother lives.

The other major Vanessids don't seem to be suffering too much though. Peacocks are starting to become more common whilst Red Admirals, Commas and Small Tortoiseshells crop up in small numbers wherever I go.

[millerd]

In my neck of the woods by far the commonest of the five is the Comma. I've just returned from an early evening walk of a mile or so alongside the River Colne near Heathrow, and they were everywhere. Next in number came Red Admirals, frequently tussling with the Commas, and then Peacocks, who were mostly in the shadier wooded bits. There were no Small Tortoiseshells or Painted Ladies at all, though the former did make a good showing earlier in the year. And not one individual showed the least interest in the various wild buddleia bushes still in full sunshine.

Dave

[David M]

LOL! Gotta hand it to Commas; they hate everything! They're worse than Skippers and Small Coppers for launching themselves at passing insects.

Nice to see them in good numbers this year though. They seem to be doing well.

[millerd]

Yes, it fascinates me that Small Tortoiseshells and Peacocks lay clutches of a hundred eggs or more, yet the Comma lays one, perhaps two in a location. In my patch, which currently seems to have the better strategy? It has to be the Comma.

A much underrated butterfly too - all the coverage goes to Fritillaries and other more exotic species, yet the good old Comma is elegant in flight, beautifully variable in colour and patterning both top and bottom - and as you say, will give any other insect a good seeing to, right up to the scariest dragonfly.

Dave

[Lee Hurrell]

Dave - you're not too far from me (I'm near Ealing) and the Comma is usually my most common Nymphalid too. Having said that, this week it's Red Admirals, I've seen around 5 to 1 Red Admirals to Commas! The Comma is one of my favourites too

I've only seen 1 Painted Lady in this country this year, on the south downs a couple of weeks ago.

My neighbour's buddliea tree, which was a good 15 feet high this evening is a stump of about 2 feet high. With no foliage or flowers.

Cheers

Lee

[Eris]

They seem to be avoiding the buddliea here too, I have three in bloom now and not seen a butterfly on them yet, The favoured plant at the moment seems to be a patch of thistles in the chicken runs some bramble flowers, and some evil smelling Tansy.

They are also going for damp ground though, a holly blue today was sitting on some damp ground I had splashed with water.

But of course it was worth it.. You enjoy the flowers as well don't you?

[Jack Harrison]

In my experience, buddleia is not popular until the flowers start to fade. So until quite late in the buddleia season when there are perhaps just a few tatty blooms remaining, butterflies prefer other flowers such as garden Hebe or wild flowers (or their garden derivatives)

On another point, Susie mentioned Purple Loosestrife in her garden. In the wild, Purple Loosestrife is a river bank plant, ie thrives in damp situations. So when this lovely plant is grown in the garden what special treatments are necessary? Does it need a lot of extra watering? I have seen it growing in apparently very dry gardens with a superb example in the village of Stanton St.John (not all that far from Bernwood) where it appears to be growing in a dry location against a wall.

Jack

[Zonda]

On another point, Susie mentioned Purple Loosestrife in her garden. In the wild, Purple Loosestrife is a river bank plant, ie thrives in damp situations. So when this lovely plant is grown in the garden what special treatments are necessary? Does it need a lot of extra watering? I have seen it growing in apparently very dry gardens with a superb example in the village of Stanton St.John (not all that far from Bernwood) where it appears to be growing in a dry location against a wall.

My three large plants are in the mud at the pond edge. Flowering now, and the Large Whites go mad for them.

[Piers]

Susie mentioned Purple Loosestrife in her garden. In the wild, Purple Loosestrife is a river bank plant, ie thrives in damp situations. So when this lovely plant is grown in the garden what special treatments are necessary?

Hi Jack,

Cultivated Lythrum (of which there are many attractive shades from palest pink to deepest purple) seem to be far more drought tollerant than our native purple loosestrife. have half a dozen different varieties all in a very dry south facing border.

On the subject of Buddleia; none of mine (eight) are in flower yet. I pruned heavily and late to try to ensure an August flowering in the hope of attracting the usual late summer nymphalids. Fingers crossed...

Felix.

[Cotswold Cockney]

Despite the lack of suitable nectar plants currently in my small rear garden, had a good turnout of butterflies basking and passing through during the past few weeks... even yesterday between prolonged periods of very heavy rain, Peacocks, Commas, Small Tortoiseshells, Holly Blues, several 'Whites' and the resident breeding Speckled Woods all active between downpours.

Ahah ....Ich habe eine plan Meister ...

Fifty yards away, on a large open area between the houses, there are several huge Buddleias ~ free growing, unchecked for years and largest I've ever seen. Smothered with hundreds of flower spikes for the past few weeks. A well attended focal point for the usual Butterfly suspects in the area. Flowers now quickly dieing off. Several nearby gardens have fine bushes still in good bloom. With this in mind, I have severely pruned the bush in my garden. Removing the developing flower spikes before they mature. More soon start to develope again and I'll continue careful pruning. My plan is to have Buddleia flowers in bloom right into November as I've sometimes done in the past. Even had Hummingbird Hawks over the flower spikes on warmer November days...

Before I destroyed it ( ... ..) to make way for a double garage to be built ( one of my other interests is old cars ) I had a magnificent Strawberry Tree ( Arbutus unedo) growing at the bottom of my garden. Planted as a small £1 pot plant back in 1972, it grew and grew becoming huge and I reared several generations of Europe's largest butterfly The Two-Tailed Pasha ( Charaxes jasius ) on it ~ several hundred over the years as I got captive pairings and it's not difficult to rear if you have growing foodplants. Winter flowering, this magnificent evergreen tree shrub would be smothered in pink-white Lilly of the Valley shaped flower clusters which Red Admirals would spend hours feeding from during mild sunny December days. I still have another in a large pot on my patio but, even though it has many and visually more attractive flowers, I have not observed late Red Admirals on it as regularly as my original bush attracted.

If you have an odd spot in your garden, I can recommend a Strawberry Tree...They are not expensive... I bought a couple of half metre high specimens plants locally for £4 each ... fine value an attractive slow growing shrub and a joy to see in flower during the average UK winter... They do quite well in pots too.
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