Butterfly Gardener
Volume 24, Issue 2
Summer 2019
Seeds2Share from Bound by Beauty
Butterfly
Paradise in Florida
Wanted Alive in Your Garden: Great Spangled Fritillary Caterpillar
Book Review: Native Plants of the Midwest
I give away plants. It is not a secret, nor even a problem as far as I can tell, but it is an activity that I seem to become more and more engaged in with each passing growing season. My giveaway plant of Spring 2019 has been Blue Mistfower. It draws in a wide range of nectaring butterfies every August and September and in my garden, at least, it is deer-proof. Nearly everyone I approached with my potted prizes had never grown Blue Mistfower but were interested in trying a new garden plant.
Yes, Blue Mistfower has been known to grow a little too energetically, spreading by root and by seed. But I give full disclosure to my adoptive plant parents about their potentially unruly offspring, and suggest they pay it forward should Blue Mistfower grow as enthusiastically for them as it has for me.
Volunteering in what ever way possible, by both plants and people, can bring increased habitat and awareness to gardening for butterfies and other wildlife. The Seeds2Share program from Bound by Beauty in this issue of Butterfy Gardener shows another way to reach even the youngest possible gardeners and will hopefully inspire you to think of ways large and small to help butterfies become more widely recognized as important creatures by more and more people.
—Jane Hurwitz, Editor
Butterfy Gardener is published quarterly by the North American Butterfy Association, Inc. (NABA). © 2019 by the North American Butterfy Association, Inc. All rights reserved. Views of contributors do not necessarily refect the views of NABA.
Editor: Jane Hurwitz Associate Editor: Mary Anne Borge
We want to hear from you! Please send Butterfy Gardener correspondence and submissions to: Jane Hurwitz, Editor, NABA, 4 Delaware Road, Morristown, NJ 07960; hurwitz@naba.org
Articles, gardening tips and observations, artwork, digital high resolution photographs, poetry and comments will be considered for publication. Please send self-addressed stamped envelope for items to be returned.
Advertising
Butterfy Gardener welcomes advertising. Please write us at: Butterfy Gardener, 4 Delaware Road, Morristown, NJ 07960, or telephone (973) 285-0907 or fax (973) 285-0936 for current rates and closing dates.
Membership Services
For questions concerning membership issues, magazines, or changes of address, please write to NABA Membership Services, 4 Delaware Road, Morristown, NJ 07960. Occasionally, members send membership dues in twice. Our policy in such cases, unless instructed otherwise, is to extend membership for an additional year.
Seeds2Share from Bound by Beauty
Text by Mary Benton
The Seeds2Share kit consists of a mini-greenhouse, two packets of seeds and peat pellets, and butterfy stickers for decorating the base of the kit.
Do you remember the thrill you felt the first time you sowed a seed and watched it sprout and grow, and the connection you felt with “your” plant? Seeds2Share, Bound by Beauty’s latest program, was created to give people in our community a chance to experience that thrill and that bond with nature. Bound by Beauty is a grassroots organization whose mission is to transform how we interact with nature and with neighbors to create a safer, stronger, healthier, more beautiful, and more resilient community, using butterflies as the catalyst for transformation. Seeds2Share is designed to further our mission by turning our neighbors into nurturers of nature who teach others how to propagate native pollinator plants from seed. It was inspired by the fact that the fastest growing demographics in our village of Miami Shores, Florida, are kids and the elderly, and we love getting those groups together. We want to instill in our young people a connection with community and with nature, and a love of making plants grow, and we want to give older residents the ability to grow things despite infirmity or having downsized to a condo or apartment without a garden.
Mary Benton
With assistance from a grant from the Miami Shores Community Alliance, matching funds from other donors, and the help of numerous volunteers, we developed a kit that includes a mini-greenhouse, information on the native pollinator seeds in the kit, a sheet of butterfly stickers, two sets of peat pellets (we will be switching to coir pellets which are better for the environment), and seed packets. After running a lot of germination trials before launching this program, we settled on seeds of red Tropical or Blood Sage (Salvia coccinea, native from South Carolina to Florida, and west to Texas), which fit our requirements: the seeds germinate quickly and easily; the plants attract butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds (and, judging by the myriad insects that crawl out of the seed pods when we are harvesting the seeds, a lot of other wildlife as well) all year round; they are drought-tolerant; and they grow well in sun or light shade.
Victoria Charlot is proudly showing off her six-week-old seedlings. When asked what was her favorite part of the Seeds2Share program, Victoria responded that she liked putting the seeds in the soil, adding water, and giving them sunlight to grow. “It’s called ‘photosynthesis,’” she added.
Although we had originally envisioned teaching older people in the community how to germinate the seeds using our kits and having them go on to teach youngsters, we quickly realized the even greater impact the program would have if we started with young people, who could take pride in their germination skills and their ability to teach adults how to use the kits to make seeds grow. Once the kits were developed, we started reaching out into the community, starting with the Girl Scouts of Troop 1305, then moving on to local schools. Thanks to the grant from the Alliance, we were able to provide these kits free of charge to local children and, since we launched the program in February of this year, we have taught germination skills to 103 young people, who will go on to teach those skills to 103 others in the community. So how exactly does the program work? After connecting with a local school or community group, we arrange to give the students or members a workshop showing them how to use the kits. While the peat pellets are expanding from ¼ inch to 1¼ inches with the addition of water (a way-cool thing to watch, judging by the kids’ expressions), the students decorate the base of the kits using paint, markers, or just the butterfly stickers included with the kit. We feel that this is an important step, as we want the children to take pride of ownership and use the kits again and
Anne Francois
Students at the W.J. Bryan Elementary School in North Miami are embarking on the frst step in the process, which is placing the peat pellets in the base of the mini-greenhouse. Doing a Seeds2Share workshop in a classroom or summer camp setting enables the children to watch and learn from others.
Butterfly Gardener
Maribel Trujillo-Fruitstone
One youngster at the Miami Shores Presbyterian Church Preschool is proudly demonstrating that his seeds are all planted, while his buddy is carefully sowing the Tropical sage seeds in the peat pouches.
again, even after the second set of seeds has been shared, sprouted, and planted. Once the pellets have fully expanded and the decorating is done, the students are taught how to gently ease back the webbing holding the peat together to create more surface area for the seeds. Then it is time to pour the contents of the seed packets into the palm of their hands, so they can take pinches of the seeds and distribute them evenly among the peat pouches. We think the act of holding the seeds and gently putting them in the moist peat is a significant first step in transforming these young people into nurturers of nature. Tropical Sage seeds start to swell very soon after being placed in wet soil, which is a remarkable thing to observe. Last but not least, we are working with educators to come up with age-appropriate activity sheets to accompany the kits. We hope that, tied to state standards, these activities will teach kids to become citizen-scientists. In our local schools, we have taught students from Pre-K to fourth grade, to middle school STEM, to high-school biology. They are all excited when decorating the kits, adding the water, and watching the seeds swell—and particularly when the seeds start to sprout. With Tropical Sage, that can be as soon as five days. Owing to their rapid growth, the seedlings are ready for planting directly in the ground in as little as five weeks. Planting seedlings they have grown from seeds generates a real feeling of accomplishment in the kids. Then, turning around and teaching someone else the skills they just learned cements their knowledge of seed germination, while their ability to share that knowledge empowers them and connects them to the broader community. We look forward to hearing their stories of sharing the Seeds2Share kits with their neighbors.
Mary Benton founded Bound by Beauty after putting down roots following 20 moves over three decades around the globe. Those roots sprouted butterflies, whose transformational qualities she realized are a powerful and positive proxy to address the otherwise alarming concepts of climate change and sea-level rise, and a wonderful way to bring neighbors together. BbB’s Network of Neighborhood Nurturies program is designed to pot up, nurture, and share seedlings and cuttings with neighbors and local schools. The Foster Garden program benefits both butterfly caterpillars and their host plants by transferring hungry caterpillars to neighbors’ gardens with flourishing host plants, giving depleted host plants a chance to regenerate.
Berlinda Good
Butterfy Paradise in Florida
By Jeffrey, Judah, Mason, and Remy Glusman
Prior to development, my suburban neighborhood in Jupiter, Florida, was part of a farm, which left us with rich, fertile soil surrounding our house. Add in an ocean breeze, abundant sunlight, and a yearround warm climate, and we have all the ingredients for a butterfy paradise.
The joy of butterfy gardening is the daily new discoveries that my three children, Mason, Judah, and Remy, and I make. From identifying a species of caterpillar that is new to the garden to watching a butterfy emerge from its chrysalis––on any given day, the garden holds something exciting to discover and observe. Our home is on a quiet road used by many in our community for a daily run or bike ride, and as they pass by nearly every person stops to enjoy the vibrant fowers and butterfy activity. Seeing the smiles on the faces of people passing as they point at the beautiful creatures that frequent our butterfy garden flls us with delight.
We started with a patch of grass that was often used for parking and built the garden from our vision and desire to enjoy a true butterfy world of our own right at home!
In addition to a colorful garden that is visible from the road, passionvines and pipevines grow in abundance along the side and back of the house, where a large fcus hedge serves as wonderful protection and provides basking opportunities for our winged guests. The front garden has a variety of milkweed species, porterweeds in a variety of colors, pentas, fre bushes, plumbagos, and salvias, to name just a few of the plants that attract butterfies and their caterpillars.
Each morning starting around 9am and through the balance of the day, we are able to watch an assortment of butterfies and their caterpillars— including Atalas, which have recently appeared in the garden. As butterfies cruise around our garden, we realize that the plants provide an oasis for them as well as for us.
Great Spangled Fritillary Caterpillar
Special weaponry: The Great Spangled Fritillary caterpillar’s secret weapon for survival is extreme secrecy. The caterpillar hides in fallen leaves during the day and only returns to its food plants to feed at night. It is so successfully shy that few butterfly lovers have seen this caterpillar in the wild, although hungry ground-feeding birds may be more successful at finding it when they toss the fallen leaves looking for a meal. When disturbed, caterpillars may also deploy rounded glands on the sides of their heads that emit a disagreeable odor.
Known Food Preferences: Native violets (Viola genus) are the only caterpillar food that Great Spangled Fritillaries will eat, which is an excellent choice since more than 90 species are found in widely varied habitats in North America. Note: Variegated Fritillaries, another widespread garden butterfy, also dines on violets as well as passion vines (Passifora genus), but the Great Spangled Fritillary is exclusively loyal to native violets.
Known
disguises: The Great Spangled Fritillary caterpillar is a dramatic black color overlaid with bright orange knobs from which barbed black spines protrude––a very unpalatable looking creature! In theory, the color pattern of orange and black warns and/ or repels predators. However, many predators such as birds and spiders relish the Great Spangled Fritillary caterpillar.
If capture is avoided: Once fully grown, the caterpillar forms a very wellhidden chrysalis. (I belong to the Idalia Butterfly Society, and none of us have a photograph of the chrysalis! This is a VERY secretive caterpillar.)
Winter hide-out: The Great Spangled Fritillary spends the winter as a newly-hatched caterpillar, hidden in leaf litter. Mom lays eggs near or sometimes on the base of violets in the fall. The caterpillar emerges from its egg, but it doesn’t eat until the following spring! Instead it spends the winter hiding in the leaf litter. As the violet leaves begin to emerge in the spring, the caterpillar begins to eat and grow, continuing its metamorphosis. (If you needed a good reason to leave your fallen leaves in autumn, this is it! If you remove them, you risk killing these tiny caterpillars.)
The butterflies that eventually emerge are large, with silvery spangles on the underside of the wings, the inspiration for this species’ common name. These flashy butterflies are eye-catching as they fly in prairies and meadows, near open woodland edges near violets, and in gardens. Male Great Spangled Fritillaries emerge first, with females following a few weeks later to the great delight of the males—which, sadly, die after mating with as many lovely ladies as possible. The females may be seen nectaring in your garden sporadically throughout summer, before laying eggs near their caterpillar food, the violets, in late summer or fall. Great Spangled Fritillaries produce only one brood per year.
Lenora Larson is a Marais des Cygnes Extension Master Gardener and a member of the Idalia Butterfly and Kansas Native Plant Societies. She loves to garden and host butterflies in the cruel winds and clay soils of Paola, Kansas. She may be contacted at lenora.longlips@gmail.com
Book Review
Why should a butterfy gardener use native plants?
By Mary Anne Borge
Caterpillars are the most compelling reason. If you love butterfies and want to see them in your garden, the best way to ensure that outcome is to feed not just the butterfies, but also their “kids.” Female butterfies are on the lookout not only for plants offering nectar to feed themselves, but also for plants that provide food for their offspring. These are the plants where they will lay their eggs. Male butterfies are on the lookout for females, so they will follow. If we don’t host caterpillars, there is no guarantee that future generations of butterfies will grace our gardens.
It's fairly well known that Monarch caterpillars can survive only on a diet of milkweed foliage. Not as many people realize that almost all butterfy and many moth caterpillars have similarly specialized diets. Each species depends on a different small group of closely related plants native to the area where the insects evolved over thousands of years—the plants on which that species depends for its continued survival.
Many other animals have diets that rely on native plants, including bees and other pollinators. A garden with a variety of native plants attracts a diverse population of native pollinators. This diversity leads to increased pollination rates, which means more food for all species, including people. Do you like blueberries, cranberries, squash, tomatoes, peppers, or eggplant? Thank a native bee, because they are the most effcient pollinators of these crops, much more so than the widely recognized honey bee.
Native plants are adapted to the soils, rainfall amounts, and climate where they evolved, so they don’t require a lot of soil amendment, fertilizers, or pesticides, and once established, they typically won’t require watering. As a result, they are less expensive to maintain, require less work on your part, and will reduce the water pollution that results from excess fertilizer usage.
You won’t have to compromise on the appearance of your garden to get these benefts. Native plants offer lots of options in their size, shape, colors, and bloom times, and they are beautiful.
Convinced that native plants are the way to go? How do you know which species are native, and which of these you should select for the best garden display and to best support pollinators?
Native Plants of the Midwest: A Comprehensive Guide to the Best 500 Species for the Garden has the perfect blend of information to answer these questions for any Midwestern gardener, especially those who live in the area that is the focus of the book: from Michigan to southeastern North Dakota in the north, south to northeastern Oklahoma and northern Kentucky
500 species! Whew! That’s a lot to choose from. Where to start?
The introductory chapters of Native Plants of the Midwest guide you in defning a framework for your landscaping needs, whether you plan to add to existing plantings in a small home garden, create a small meadow or woodland garden where you currently have lawn, or implement a large-scale restoration project. Alan Branhagen encourages you to think about the style of garden you want to have, and the characteristics to consider in your plant selection. What role will a plant play in the architecture of your garden? What colors, textures, and fragrances will your selections provide, and
during what seasons will they have visual interest? Will they provide food and shelter for butterfies, birds, and other wildlife? The answers to these questions will infuence your choices.
The book’s organization is designed to make your selection process easy. Looking for trees or shrubs? They are grouped by size, and subdivided as deciduous or evergreen. Looking for herbaceous perennials? There are prairie perennials for mostly sunny sites, woodland perennials for shade, and selections that do well in wetlands or a rain garden. If you have a fence or arbor you want to cover, there is a chapter on vines, and how to select, grow, and maintain them.
Having trouble growing lawn in a shady spot? Good! That opens up an opportunity to introduce plants that will thrive in the shade. Consult the chapter on groundcovers for lowgrowing selections, then add some woodland perennials to create a shade garden.
Native Plants of the Midwest: A Comprehensive Guide to the Best 500 Species for the Garden by Alan Branhagen
Branhagen provides a general description and background information for each species, often including some of his own experiences with the plant. Beautiful color photos help you to make your selections, with guidance provided for each species on “How to Grow,” “Landscape Uses,” and “Ornamental Attributes.”
Timber Press 2016. 8 1/2 x 11 inches, 440pages. ISBN 978-1604695939
Midwestern gardeners have a great resource in Alan Branhagen’s Native Plants of the Midwest A Comprehensive Guide to the Best 500 Species for the Garden. And these are just the 500 best species for a midwestern garden. Native plants support so much life. With so many choices, why resort to exotic imports?
Mary Anne Borge is the Associate Editor of Butterfy Gardener, an instructor at Bowman’s Hill Wildfower Preserve, and a Pennsylvania Master Naturalist. She shares her love of nature through her writing and photography at her blog, www.the-natural-web.org.
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Articles, gardening tips and observations, artwork, digital high resolution photographs, poetry and comments will be considered for publication. Contact Jane Hurwitz, Editor, hurwitz@naba.org
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