Cuckoo flower (ladies smock)

[Susie]

If anyone is interested in propagating cuckoo flower this is a really good time of year to do it. If you look on the stems where the flowers were you will see they have produced little leaflets with some tiny embrionic roots attached. You can either snip these off and pot them up or, which is even easier, lay the stems on the ground while still attached to the mother plant and pin them to the ground. The leaflets will then root up themselves and next year you can dig them up and move them to where ever you wish.

BTW, check the plants for orange tip caterpillars first.

[Trev Sawyer]

Thanks Sooz,
I was wondering what to do with those few have left...
I have been growing Cuckoo Flowers up for a couple of years and most were in a long trough, set in shallow water around the edge my pond. Just after the flowers appeared and the Orange Tips had started leaving their little orange prezzies on them, one of the (many) local cats decided to scrap the whole lot up
I managed to replant some of them and now have some larvae but a few of the stems were slashed and the seed pots dried up. I even had one where a caterpillar was almost garotted when the seed pod exploded - I wasn't aware that they did that when they dried up. The outside of the pod curled back on itself and wrapped around the caterpillar's head - I think I got it out safely, but now all the pods are maturing and drying up, the larvae will soon run out of food. As I had saved some of my caterpillars from a field in Cambridge which was being mown at the time - a process that the "powers that be" are intent on doing every year for some unknown reason - I was hoping they would be OK this year. For each of the last few years I have watched the eggs laid on these plants, enjoyed the baby caterpillars as they get feeding and then gone over one lunchtime to find the field razed to the ground. With all the possible dangers which can afflict a caterpillar's foodplant and all the little predators which can pick them off, it seems surprising that any of the little dears get to adulthood. I can't even keep them safe in my own garden!

PS: Glad your Emperor moth catties are doing well

Trev

[Susie]

Glad you have some orange tip catties, Trev. I'm posting some pics of the emperor moth catties in my diary shortly, they are growing fast!

Here's a pic of what to look for on the cuckoo flower stems. You can see the little white roots in the photograph.

[Susie]

One of my orange tip catties. I saw the egg being laid too.

[A_T]

When's it safe now to mow over lady's smock? There's a fair bit I leave growing in my lawn - don't want to destroy any eggs/larvae.

[Susie]

I would leave it for a while. I still have some catties that haven't pupated yet.

[Lynn]

This a plant well worth having in the garden to help to encourage Orange-tips to breed. For anyone anxious to get some planted this Spring I have just spotted these are sold as a perennial by http://www.shiptonbulbs.co.uk There are lots of other plants for butterflies on sale there too.

Now is such a good time to do internet searches to track down seeds of different plant species to try for butterflies. I am going to try a different nicotiana N. langsdorffii hopefully for moths tho' it is recommended in an article in The Daily Telegraph for butterflies and bees too. See Chiltern Seeds on line catologue. Their catologue also includes Tithonia rotundifolia 'Torch' Mexican Sunflower. Has anyone tried this for butterflies I wonder?

Whilst whizzing around the internet I also came across http://www.sarahraven.com which has a list of seeds on sale for pollinators.It includes N. alata grandiflora allegedly the best scented tobacco plant. Knautia macedonica is another plant recommended for butterflies and bees and is one I have not grown. It is a sort of perennial scabious which flowers profusely.

[Matsukaze]

One plant I find that attracts butterflies and moths, but that I never see mentioned as an attractant, is Soapwort. This is the nectar source of choice here for Small Tortoiseshell and Hummingbird Hawk-moth. It smells good too!

I also find Devil's bit a good plant too. In the wild the Commas can be found feasting upon it in early autumn.

[Susie]

I've grown Knautia macedonica for years and it is a very attractive garden plant, unfortunately I've not seen a butterfly go near it.

[NickMorgan]

Susie,
You have inspired me to get some cockoo flower for my garden. However, the plant you show in your picture is what I consider as cockoo flower, but the one on the Shiptons web site looks like a smaller plant. Does it look like the same plant to you?

[Susie]

I am not sure if this is the site you meant Nick, http://shiptonbulbs.co.uk/CuckooFlowerC ... epratensis but if so then yep, that's the plant.

Personally I think everyone should have a little patch of it, it's no trouble and very pretty when it flowers.

[NickMorgan]

Thanks Susie. It looks like a little weed in the picture!!! We only have a wee garden, but I will order five plants and see if I can attract an orange tip to lay an egg or two. Three years ago we had large whites breed, two years ago small whites and this winter I found a green-veined white chrysalis, so I must be doing something right!

[Susie]

Well done, Nick, sounds very good to me!

[essexbuzzard]

Hi folks,
If growing cuckoo flowers for Orange tips, plant a couple of clumps in different places,to give them a choice. I have found in my sheltered south facing garden that it flowers in April,before the OT females emerge,but in dappled shade they last longer. Must not dry out in early summer. Even without OT,it is very pretty. Good luck.