www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

I would absolutely love to see any photographs you may have of your gardens and plants you have to encourage butterflies in. Any chance you could post some and say what you have planted and why.

I like this thread Susie, I planted Honesty plants last year convinced that it would bring Orange Tips in from afar, this is it in full flower and up to date had 2 Small tortoishells which were not overkeen. In May I'll sow lots of Wall flower seed and try lots of them instead, was a bit disappointed with the Honesty. Shirley

It looks beautiful, Shirley. It is a shame that it hasn't attracted more. Have you checked the flower heads for eggs yet?

Another good thing about honesty from a gardening point of view is the seeds pods look so good in winter.

Hi Susie.
I am hoping for a butterfly bonanza this year, i have planted lots of butterfly attracting plants in the garden. I already have 9 buddleias and many lavendar but early this year i have been busy building a butterfly bed and in that bed i have planted verbena bonareinsis, agastache, hyssop, salvia, sedum and lots of marjoram, i have also planted birds foot trefoil and scabious in two smaller beds, and i have just finished building a raised decking platform where i can relax and view the butterflies. In 2006 i had 24 species but nothing like that in the last couple of years, i hope this year is as good as that year, looks promising so far.

Colin.

Well it sounds just about perfect. Let's hope this is a good year.

Kidney vetch in a bank of limestone dust. Just possible (though very unlikely) that the odd wandering Small Blue female may stop by and lay eggs, and have a colony for a little while. The plant is also a fine nectar source for bumblebees.

I've also seeded the bank up with lots of other lime-loving plants. Bird's foot trefoil, sorrel and small/field scabious seem to have taken quite well, and might attract butterflies. I did a bit of planting with plugs too, and have had pasque-flower out in the past couple of weeks.
One way of creating Grizzled Skipper habitat - arrived at with no attempt at deliberate planning - the bricks will heat up in the sun and create a warm microclimate for any eggs laid on the leaves. A shame this particular site is too shady and too far away from existing colonies for the butterfly.

(see http://www.conservationevidence.com/Att ... PDF713.pdf for an example of where this actually works)

My garden, not really for butterflies, more for fish. This is Mia, a 25" Kohaku, ££££'s We do however get a few butterflies. All the usual garden stuff, 13 species to date, even had a Hummingbird Hawk-moth in 2007.

Gruditch

Where abouts is the Ragwort, Gary , very nice garden.
Shirley

Koi forever!!!


This is my chicken wire protected patch of selected wildflowers... weedproof membrane on raised ground, covered by 2-3 inches of sieved sandy soil, very limey here anyway. This patch has been established 2 years now... you can't actually see the sanfoin Jack, but it's coming on a treat thanks!!


Lastly some other areas as they are this afternoon..

Super gardens!

Here's one of my borders. The garden isn't big but I cram quite a lot in. Everything in there should attract some kind of insect or other.

Looks good to me.. when I walked round mine I realised my best butterfly attractors were the weeds!! - Garlic Mustard and dandelions are favorites just now. I find the spring peirids like pale foliage to roost in, I have a variagated dogwood which has a very pale bud-burst, and great for roosting whites in the evening. An early start next morning means they will climb onto fingers and pose wherever you like to put them!!! I have also introduced a lot of Lady's Smock round the wild pond... rabbits decimated last year but this year they were left to flower profusely. I have buddleias all over the place, and they certainly work! My wildflower bit is quite labour intensive to create, inspired by Alpine/ Pyrenean meadows. It is made up of trefoils, kidney & horseshoe vetches from seed, thrift, small fine grasses, thyme, scabious, vipers bugloss, marjoram, sanfoin + a few Garden centre alpines such as rock jasmine and dianthus... but it is working really well... I'd reccomend the technique, even for a small space.

Your garden looks lovely Susie, loads of flowers and plants, a buddlia at the back and very tidy as well.
Shirley

Your wildflower garden looks very impressive Paul and thank you for your kind comments Shirley.

There are four buddleias along that border alone; golden globe, white profusion, pink delight and royal red. There are also plenty of wildflowers (both native and naturalised alien) in amongst the other plants along there; garlic mustard, honesty, sweet rocket, red valerian, ox eyed daisy, dark mullien, greater knapweed, field scabious, hemp agrimony, red campion, corncockle, white dead nettle, bugle and forgetmenot are just a few of them.


I have quite a lot of cuckoo flower now, although once the flowers have gone and the other plants grown up it is difficult to see it is there. The plants seem to like it by the pond and have multiplied in the couple of years they have been there. I have yet to have an orange tip egg on them though.

Somewhere at the front of this photo is the pond.




BTW Shirley, so far all the butterflies which have visited my garden have avoided the biennial wallflowers and gone for the perennial "bowles mauve" which Jack recommended. I also have perennial wallflowers in orange and yellow and these have been ignored too. So, if you are sowing see then perhaps bowles mauve would be a good choice.

Your right Susie the butterflies don't seen to be interested in the Wallflowers at all yet they have a scent. I have allowed the Dandelions to grow and the White's like that, the Birdsfoot Trevoil spreads like mad and my Alder Buckthorn trees are coming out but very slowly, the wind has nearly bent them over and the Rabbits have a nibble or two at some of them. I'm a bit between flowers at the moment the Honesty is nearly over and its a bit early for bedding plants.
Shirley

You've done well with your birdsfoot trefoil then cos I am having real problems getting mine to spread. The black meddick is doing really well though so hopefully the common blues will use that instead.

Strange about the BFT... just to be safe, I collect the seeds and sow them in a seed tray.. they grow really well and can be teased out & set where you want them... I am hoping when there are enough, nature will take over!
This is how mine look today...

Gorgeous, Paul!

I agree. We're all coming over to your place at the weekend, Paul, if that's OK

Cheers,

- Pete

Yep.. fine.. but one thing missing.. in the 2 years I've been nuturing it I've only ever seen one butterfly interested in it ( a Wall Brown).. no coppers or blues at all!!! - I'm trying not to think too much about that!!!