the butterfly & the leaf

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By JoAnn Guidry

Butterflies have taken over Pat Burns’ retirement.

“When I retired almost two years ago, I had two main goals,” says Burns, a former registered nurse and health care consultant. “One to become a certified master gardener and two, to find a hobby that I could share with my grandchildren. My 5-year-old grandson, Bo, and I decided on creating a butterfly garden. We began educating ourselves on everything that had to do with butterflies.”

Concurrent with her butterfly education, Burns enrolled in and graduated from the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Services’ master gardener program. Through the Marion County UF/IFAS Extension Service, Burns volunteers her time as a master gardener to educate people on good gardening practices.

Burns, who not only now has a butterfly garden but also raises butterflies, says, “People are always interested in butterflies and how to attract them to their gardens.”

The latter will be the topic of Burns’ lecture as part of Sholom Park’s LEAF Series on Friday, October 20, from 10:30-11:30am. LEAF is an acronym for Learn-Explore-AppreciateFocus. Created in 2004, Sholom Park is a 44-acre botanical garden featuring meadows, woodlands and more than 250 species of plants and trees. For Sholom Park Director Robert Colen, the LEAF Series fi ts right in with Sholom Park’s reason for being.

“Part of Sholom Park’s mission is to provide continuing environmental education and understanding about the intricacies of our ecosystem,” says Colen. “Through the LEAF Series, we wish to provide, free to the public, ongoing seminars and lectures. All LEAF talks will center around aspects of Sholom Park, nature and characteristics found in our environments and the great outdoors.”

Using Sholom Park’s butterfly garden as her podium, Burns will discuss common butterflies in Central Florida, butterfly life cycles, butterfly host and nectar plants, and raising butterflies.

“One of the most important things to know if you want to attract butterflies is to have a good mix of host and nectar plants,” says Burns. “Most people don’t know this and just focus on flowering (nectar) plants, but you have to have both for the butterflies to thrive.”

And Burns’ favorite butterfly?

“I love them all. I raise monarchs, black swallowtails, gulf fritillaries and zebra longwings,” says Burns. “But my favorite is the zebra longwing, which is Florida’s o cial state butterfly.”

› SHOLOM PARK LEAF SERIES › Friday, October 20, 10:30-11:30am › No admission charge › Sholom Park › 7110 SW 80th Avenue, Ocala › (352) 873-0848, ext. 7650 › sholompark.org