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Gardening for Butterflies

Fall is a great time for Butterflies in Cape Coral! Their number and variety are at their highest. As I walk by my garden on this sunny day, late in the morning, I see a number flying about. A couple of deep orange and black monarchs are twirling upward around each other and then fly back down to the milkweed plants. A yellow butterfly is quickly darting around the senna bush. The orange gulf fritillary is drinking from the flowers on the scorpion tail plant. Seeing them flutter gracefully from flower to flower always puts a smile on my face. Bees are buzzing. Dragonflies whirl by. Lots of life in this flower garden.

Which butterflies do you see most often? Monarchs are plentiful, large and easy to spot with their orange and black wings. Did you know most of our Monarchs do not migrate? They stay right here and are actively breeding all winter. They lay their eggs only on milkweed plants which hatch in about a week. The caterpillars gorge themselves on the milkweed leaves for almost 2 weeks before shedding their skin to morph into a chrysalis. In 10-14 days, they emerge as butterflies. They live for only about 2 weeks to lay their eggs and die.

Look for giant swallowtails fluttering around citrus trees, where they lay their eggs. Their lower wing has an extension on it, thus the name swallowtail. Their upper side is black with cream lines while the underside is golden yellow with black. Magnificient! We have many other kinds of swallowtails visiting from time to time.

You may see Zebra longwings fluttering slowly in the shade. They are our state butterfly and active all winter, along with our monarchs. Zebras lay their eggs on the wispy ends of the passion vine plant.

Take your garden up a notch and add plants with nectar to feed the butterflies and other pollinators. Some easy plants to grow this far south that contain plenty of nectar are: porterweed, firebush, dune sunflower, scorpion tail, buttercup (Turnera ulmifolia), tropical milkweed (Asclepias curassavica), and jatropha (J. integerrima). You will find many more plants to choose from at local native nurseries, such as: All Native Nursery, 300 Center Rd., near Page Field, and Hickory Hammock Native Tree Farm, 13321 Peace Rd., near Buckingham.

To really reel in the butterflies to your yard, add plants they will lay their eggs on, called host plants. Butterflies have a particular plant or family of plants on which they lay their eggs. If you have passion vines, you will attract Zebra Longwings and Gulf Fritillaries. Senna bushes attract several kinds of yellow sulphur butterflies spring through fall. Parsley, dill and fennel attract black swallowtails in late spring.

What discourages butterflies from your yard? Spraying pesticides indiscriminately every month defeats the purpose. Butterflies are, after all, insects! In my yard, I deal with specific insect problems as they come up. If mealy bugs are on my fern or aphids on my peppers, I spray only that plant. Otherwise, I suggest you let insects attract biological controls such as birds, predatory wasps and ladybugs. The more insect diversity in your yard, the more butterflies you will see!

For more information online, see the North American Butterfly Association: NABA.com. Find information specific to Florida here: https://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/design/types-of-gardens/butterfly-gardens.html

Rotary Park in SW Cape has a well developed butterfly garden around the butterfly house. The house is open for Friday and Saturday tours, 10:30, masks required. Take a leisurely stroll and see how many butterflies you can see!

Sherie Blieler is a member of the Garden Club of Cape Coral.