Thinking of planting Wych Elm in garden

[Yashca]

I have recently moved into a new house with quite a small garden. I managed to dig a pond before it got cold last year, and soon I will be able to plant up round it. That is going to be my main 'wildlife' feature, but I was trying to think of foodplants that I could grow that might stand a chance of attracting butterflies. Foodplants for Large and Small white are quite straightforward (I usually grow nasturtiums) but I'm trying to think of something else I could plant that could support something else.

I heard the other day that wych elm do well in dense clay soils (which I have) so I was considering planting a couple of them - but I'm not sure how large they would have to get before White-Letter Hairstreaks would consider them, or what other requirements the butterflies would need other than just the elm. Of course, I'm not holding out much hope of actually attracting any as I have never found any WLH in my area, indeed, I've never actually seen one (a target for this year) but wondered whether it would be worth a try?

Thanks for any advice.

[Susie]

I imagine wych elm grow to a fair size so maybe not ideal for a small garden, especially if you don't have WLH nearby.

Perhaps plant alder buckthorn instead for brimstone. I find it quite an attractive plant with small flowers which bees like too and quite nice colour for a short while in autumn.

Do you mind if I ask where abouts you live generally.

I have cuckoo flower planted in the clay around my pond and it thrives with wet toes.

[JohnR]

I think that Wych Elm has to be well on its way to maturity before it could attract a WLH, since they live in the tree canopy. I have an English elm that has regrown from a sucker and it took 16 years before it even flowered. How about something like a Buddleja davidii which will flower this year and provide nectar, and can be pruned to suit a small garden.

[essexbuzzard]

Stingers,of course! And thistles if you have room. Must be growing in bright sunshine to be of use. Cut down some of the nettles in late May,to give a new flush of leaves for 2nd generation Small Torts.
And a self fertile Holly for Holly blues. Ilex 'J.C. van Tol is good.

[Reverdin]

All a Wych Elm has to do is be able to flower... approximately 5 years before they do this. If you recognize Wych Elm in the hedgerow.. why not go look for WLH ovae now... by far the easiest stage to find... the base of last year's growth which hold this year's flowers is where they will be... you have to examine as many as you can, 'cos they spread them around.... leave them alone... but at least you then know where to look for the adults later in the year.

[Michaeljf]

Yashca,
as stated, stinging nettles are of course a good idea, but it depends on the space you have to let them grow: I've found that the Nymphalids that use them for their larvae (Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock, Red Admiral) won't necessarily lay on them until you have a good patch of growth. A couple of Alder Buckthorn are a good idea, as Susie stated, because they won't be big and also the flowers (very small) are really attractive to the bees (and wasps!) but the larvae of Brimstones will have a field day on there if the adults are flying over the garden.

For flowers I would suggest Buddleia, Verbena (bonariensis), Marjoram (Oregano, make sure it's a good flowering one) and some of the orme species. Lavender are also good for bees (and attractive) and scabious can be excellent for long-flowering if you chose the right type. Incidentally Cuckoo flower (Orange Tip) Birds-Foot Trefoil (Common Blue) and Holly (Holly Blue) are all nice for the garden and will provide nectar and food-plants. Also consider Water-mint if you've got a small pond: a beautiful wild-flower that the insects will love. Fuchsia will also be a good plant to add colour and a bit of height and provides good nectar and may provide foodplant for the Elephant Hawk-moth.

I see no reason why not to plant a Wynch Elm, as if you want to get birds into the garden as well they will love it as well. We have a small garden and have a Goat Willow which is now the height of our house after about 6 years: so your biggest problem is if it's going to produce too much shade for the rest of what's in the garden. Good luck!

Michael

[Padfield]

Wych elm is also a foodplant for comma - a more likely early visitor to the garden than WLH.

Following the great death of elms due to Dutch Elm Disease, colonies of WLH persisted in Suffolk on sucker growth and hedgerows, and it has been shown in several studies that flowering elm is not an absolute requirement. Nor need the tall master tree necessarily be elm - I have seen both ash and sycamore used for these games in the canopy. However, if there are no established colonies in your neighbourhood a lone wych elm is unlikely to become a WLH magnet (as others have pointed out)!

Guy

[David M]

if there are no established colonies in your neighbourhood a lone wych elm is unlikely to become a WLH magnet (as others have pointed out)!

Indeed so. I've never come across a butterfly more disinclined to flap its wings. It must be the laziest species in Britain.

[Matsukaze]

They must disperse fairly well, as the elms die off not that many years after they become suitable for the butterfly.

A good foodplant for damp clay conditions is Greater Bird's foot Trefoil, Lotus uliginosus, which Common Blue and a number of other butterflies and moths will use. However, is getting Common Blues to colonise a garden realistic? How much foodplant would be needed to support a colony?

[Susie]

I am hoping that it is realistic to get common blue to colonise a garden as I am hoping to do just that. In previous years I have had common blue in the garden and so I have planted some birds food trefoil which is gradually spreading. Unfortunately last year I didn't see any common blue here, although they were nearby, so I am still living in hope that some fat pregnant female will think my garden is the ideal nursery for her nippers.

I am still wondering why Yashca would want to plant elm, I would imagine you would have a greater chance of attracting purple hairstreak on oak in most of the country....

Going by what Padfield has said though I may get a few elm whips and pop them into my small native mixed hedge. There are WLH nearby so you never know!

[David M]

However, is getting Common Blues to colonise a garden realistic?

I see no reason why not (though it would help if your garden backed onto wild-growing fields).

I've seen a handful of Common Blues in my mother's garden in the Isle of Man over the years - they must stray into it from the duneland 400m away near the coast. I daresay if my mum had a ragged bed of Bird's Foot Trefoil they'd be laying on it.

[Matsukaze]

...I am still wondering why Yashca would want to plant elm, I would imagine you would have a greater chance of attracting purple hairstreak on oak in most of the country....

Not so sure about that, although I don't doubt that there are more purple than white-letter hairstreaks in the country. I find WLH surprisingly widespread though next to impossible to find. It would surprise me if most members here are more than half a mile from a WLH colony.

I'd rather have a couple of wych elms in the garden than an oak. The blossom and seeds give a nice display earlier in the year and they have some chance of growing to a reasonable size in my lifetime.

WLH will make use of quite small elms - I have found a few colonies based on small clumps of flowering wych elm about 15' to 20' tall.

[Cotswold Cockney]

Beautiful trees. One of my favourites. As a schoolboy in the 1950s I searched the lower branches of these fine trees and located several pupae of the Hairstreak. Those branches were the only ones I could reach. My friend and I located a good few pupae. There must have been many more out of reach higher up on these huge trees, all long gone of course. The tree was at least two hundred years old and the lower branches had been 'trained' by cattle in the field who I suspect grazed the lower branches they could reach.

As a pre-school small boy of three or four just after WWII in my East London ( E17 ) back garden, much more rural back then, there was a huge Elm at the bottom. So old and huge it had become hollowed out at the bottom. I found some attractive caterpillars on the lower leaves and suspected they were some moth. I now know they were the larvae of the Comma Butterfly. Some moths do use Elms as their larval foodplant including the beautiful Lime Hawks. I have found their pupae behind loose Elm bark ... a long time ago now.

Thirty plus years ago I dug up several Wych Elm Suckers and potted them up. I used them in my breeding cages to rear some of the beautiful far eastern Apaturinae which are Elm feeders. Ten years later, after I wound down my butterfly breeding operations, I had about a dozen now "Bonzai" potted Wych Elms which looked quite attractive. What to do with them. I planted them out in my field which for the past twenty years I've been managing as a small nature reserve.

Those Elms survive in stunted Bonzai form for nearly twenty years and only in the past few years have they started to lose that potted bonzai habit and send out an upright main trunk which the highest is now say four or five metres. These small trees are well over thirty years old now and only now are they starting to grow like a Wych Elm should. Tall and straight but their original shape is still present for the first metre above the ground.

I would not hesitate to plant one in a smallish garden and keep it's size in check. When it started to get too big, I'd plant another smaller one closeby and remove the first.

I have seen a White Letter Hairstreak Female settle on the hot tar in the middle of the cross roads of Gloucester Cross in the very centre of the city. Being right in the very centre of the crossroads, passing traffic in all four east, west, south and north directions missed squashing it. It flew off. The area is now pedestrianised. That was a decade or two ago and is evidence that females move about. The nearest mature Wych Elm then was in the nearby park about half a mile away, since gone of course although that tree lasted long after most of those in the nearby countryside had been killed off.

There is a magnificent Elm still today at the main entrance to A&E at Gloucester Royal Hospital close to the City Centre. I saw it recently when watching the Peregrine Falcons which nest each year on the main Hospital Tower Building. The tree looks still in good health. Its leaves are narrower and thinner than English and Wych Elms. I took a picture of this fine tree a few years ago. I wonder if it supports the butterfly like those in the nearby Park once did :~



I have often found the ova in early March when they start to hatch. Easy date for me to remember because of my birthday... I have also found their Ova on Blackthorn when searching for ova of the Black and Brown Hairstreaks. One egg I found on the Blackthorn I raised on flowers and leaves of this plant which produced a fine female specimen. I know that a single Wych Elm in a field far removed from any other trees can support a strong colony of this butterfly.

I have Zelkova, Elms and Celtis in my mini nature reserve. All being members of the Elm family ( Ulmacae ? ) plants grown from seeds and used as Butterfly larval foodplants years ago. I also have a species of Elm I have not identified given to me to breed the Hairstreak about thirty years ago as an experiment. This Elm species is believed resistant to the Dutch Elm Disease. I have also successfully grown a number of cuttings from it which are now young trees say five-six metres tall and all those including the original are in good health to this day. The leaves look similar to those on that fine large tree in the Hospital grounds pictured above.

The superb weather the past few days has brought several species of butterfly into the garden. A fine Peacock spent most of today sunning itself on the south facing wall of my house or on the patio slabs. Those Bee-Like hovering flies with the long proboscis were also present in the garden today. I believe they are parasitic on solitary bees which build their small nests in the ground and walls on my property. Attractive flighty things with bad breeding habits....