Butterfly Gardening Tips

As part of our mission, we offer gardening tips for our visitors to the web site.

We will try to update this page monthly, if possible, and include selected questions from our visitors.

If you have a question about butterfly gardening, please don't be afraid to ask us; please visit our About Us page and ask what ever is on your mind; we are here to help you gain a better knowledge and understanding.

Each month we will begin our gardening tips with "the plant of the month", a plant that will attract and keep butterflies in your garden.

Our Butterfly Plant selection of the month:

Cypress Vine , Ipomoea quamoclit, with its tiny red flowers and delicate fern-like leaves, grows well on an arbor. It is a South Florida wildflower and a butterfly and hummingbird favorite. This annual plant produces hundreds of flowers-- and thousands of seeds--usually insuring its presence from year to year.

For this Month, we begin with the best questions to ask before attempting to start your butterfly garden..Here are a few:

Q1. Does anything have to be sprayed for bugs or pests nearby and could that be eliminated or changed?

If your neighbors spray with insecticide, you might ask them to do this on a day when the wind is blowing away from your garden or eliminate this practice altogether.

Q2. Where is the deepest shade and the sunniest area? And for how many hours per day?

This will take some observation time, well worth it when it comes time to plant shade and sun loving plants.

Q3. What are the driest and wettest parts of your land?

Summer rainy season is the best time to decide this, since in winter almost everything is drier.

More Garden Tips:

Morning sunshine on nectar flowers is very important on a "cold" Florida winter morning for adult butterflies. In the summer, shade (60%) is important for certain butterflies to lay their eggs. As the seasons change, the direction of the sun changes. Morning sun is cooler in the summer in Florida . Afternoon sun can be overbearing in the summer months, even too hot for butterflies. In the Winter, butterflies do require certain temperatures to become active, depending on the species.

For example, small skippers are the first to arrive on flowers on a winter morning as the temperature rises to 60 degrees F. If Zebra Longwings are still around, as the temperature gets warmer (70 F) they will begin to show up.

A Fun Tip: