Butterfly in butterfly garden

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My daughters and I started a butterfly garden a couple of years ago, though we have seen a few butterflies pass by this was the first time we have been able to capture one on camera. 

This butterfly was visiting our butterfly bush, which for by many standards is basically a noxious weed.  But it doesn’t need much water, makes pretty flowers, and butterflies/bees like it so seems like a good plant to me.

3 Responses to “Butterfly in butterfly garden”

  1. Kimmi Says:

    My landlord asked me to plant one of those last year! I still haven’t done it, but if I had I’m sure it would be huge by now. I hear they grow very quickly!


  2. The Cheap Vegetable Gardener Says:

    In just a couple years it is about 10 feet tall. Planning on doing some serious pruning this year though.


  3. Matthew Says:

    Butterfly Bush is indeed quite hardy and an easy way to create a butterfly garden. I am all about butterfly gardens, but I would urge caution in using Butterfly Bush in particular. While there are related species in the same family that are North American natives, all of the commercially available cultivars are exotics from China. At best, given the hardiness of these exotics, some consider that they cross the line into “invasive species,” and thus shouldn’t be encouraged. At worst, I’ve been told that they are “ecological traps” that do damage to butterfly populations. Butterflies are so attracted to the flowers that they’re more likely to lay eggs on the bush itself, just based on increased time spent around it; yet being exotic the bush does not necessarily provide the right habitat to support the hatching larvae, which then die. And so butterfly populations are actually reduced, rather than encouraged! I am no expert, however, so the reader should continue his or her own research into the question – just don’t expect the guy at the nursery who sells you the bush to know anything about ecological traps.


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