Aug 31

GARDEN SURROUNDINGS: Butterflies In The Garden

By Francesca Filanc, for Let’s Talk Plants! September 2024.

One of the many Swallowtail butterflies to visit the author's garden over the years. Photo credit: Francesca Filanc.

Butterflies in the Garden

Seven kinds of butterflies visit the author's garden each year. Photo credit: francescafilanc.com.

This time of year the garden is a flutter with seven varieties of butterflies, especially the Gulf fritillary butterfly. While eating breakfast in the garden yesterday I tried to get photos of the Gulf fritillary butterfly for this article. But as its name suggests the butterflies are so busy fritillary-ing, if that’s a word, that you will see from my photos it was not easy to get a photo.

Gulf Fritillary butterfly. Photo credit: Pixabay.com.

There are dozens of butterflies in the garden.

About a month ago, my gardener’s brother texted me a photo and wondered if he should remove the passion flower plant because all the leaves and flowers were totally eaten. I thanked him for asking me before just removing the vine and I texted him “please don’t remove the plant. If you look closely, you will notice caterpillars and chrysalis all over the vine. This is the host plant for the Gulf fritillary butterfly.”

The great thing with having a big naked vine front and center is that once the butterflies hatch and they have dried their wings, you have a fabulous display, beauty to enjoy right where you eat your meals, work or sit in your garden.Next spring, the vine will be all green and covered with beautiful passion flowers until they get eaten again next summer and the process continues.

There are seven vines planted all over my garden and one passion fruit vine. This one is growing in a parterre which is prominently located in an area that most people wouldn’t plant this vine but I enjoy the beautiful flowers and the foliage until they are eaten, and when it is stripped, I know I’m going to have many beautiful butterflies in the garden. Next spring, the vine will be all green and covered with beautiful passion flowers until they get eaten again next summer and the process continues.

When I was a child, I loved reading Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll. I also loved the original Walt Disney movie with the flowers singing. Making space for butterflies and dragonflies in the garden gives that kind of magic to one’s garden and landscape. It is so easy to accomplish. And if you don’t want to have a big naked bush in the middle of your garden at the end of summer, you can hide it to the side. The great thing with having it front and center is that once the butterflies hatch and they have dried their wings, you have a fabulous display, beauty to enjoy right where you eat your meals, work or sit in your garden.

Read more about butterflies by Francesca Filanc here:

Butterflies in our Gardens, Butterflies in my Art – Francesca Filanc

Read more about the Gulf Fritillary here:

Gulf Fritillary (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov )