Butterfly Garden at the Cape Coral Public Library

Members of the Garden Club of Cape Coral maintain the award winning Butterfly Garden at the Cape Coral Public Library. The library has a special, gated garden they have designated for butterflies and have given the care of this garden to our garden club. Our goal is to provide a healthy, inviting environment for butterflies and to encourage library visitors to observe and learn more about them and the plants they prefer.
To help visitors identify key plants, 50 plants are labeled with name tags. Some of these are "host" plants, on which butterflies lay their eggs and feed their caterpillars. Each butterfly only lays eggs on their host plant or family of host plants.

Butterflies and Their Host Plants

Butterfly	Host Plant	Plant Scientific Name
Monarch	Tropical milkweed	Asclepias currasavica
Sulfur (yellow)	Cassia Bushes	Senna Bahamensis, other sennas
Zebra Longwing	Passion vine	Passifloraceae
Gulf Fritillary	Passion vine	Passifloraceae
Black Swallowtail	Fennel & Parsley herbs	Foeniculum vulgare & Petroselinum crispum
Giant Swallowtail	Wild lime tree	Zanthoxylum fagara
Polydamus Swallowtail	Pipevine	Aristolochia
Cassius Blue	Plumbago	Plumbago auriculata

Butterflies and Their Necatar Plants

Other Florida native plants are "nectar" plants which are the favorite food source for the butterflies. Favorite native plants for nectar, which butterflies use for food, are porterweed, firebush, buttercup, tropical sage (salvia coccinea), blue mistflower and wild coffee. Non-native favorites are jatropha, zinnia, red penta, Panama rose and dwarf poinciana.

Volunteer at the Butterfly Garden

Garden club members meet Tuesday mornings to maintain the garden. Volunteers are always welcome.
Date: Every Tuesday (weather permitting)
Time: 8:30 am to 10:00 am
Location: Cape Coral Public Library, 921 SW 39th Terrace, near Skyline and Mohawk.
For more information, contact Sherie Bleiler

Butterfly Garden at Rotary Park in Cape Coral

In memory of Garden Club of Cape Coral members who have passed on, a small donation is given annually to the Butterfly Garden at the Rotary Park in Cape Coral. At a recent meeting, Cheryl Anderson from the Rotary Park gave a presentation to the Garden Club of Cape Coral about Florida Butterflies. If you don't see the video below then the video can be viewed on our YouTube channel at this link: Link to Butterfly Gardening Video