Swallowtails on Liatris                       Silver Spotted Skipper on Phlox

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Black Swallowtail on Joe Pye Weed                          Spicebush Swallowtail on Phlox

Buckeye on Brown Eyed Susan                                Gulf Fritillary on non native Zinnia

Monarch on a zinnia (monarch                                                   Red Admiral                                             hatched from a chrysallis formed in                                                                                                             net butterfly hatchery on my porch

I’ve had lots of visitors in the pollinator garden this week.

It seems people are showing more and more interest in attracting butterflies to their gardens. A group of native plant society members recently spent a Saturday in Plains, GA meeting President and Mrs. Carter, enjoying a one woman play, and visiting the Rosalyn Carter Butterfly trail gardens all around the town of Plains. We all have pollinators gardens, and most of our gardens have been registered with the Rosalyn Carter Butterfly Trail.

Now is a great time to be on the lookout for butterflies, as many are migrating. Hope you have lots of blooms in your yards to welcome these delicate visitors. Host plants will help to keep them in your yard as they find places to lay their eggs. Most important right now is the milkweed as the monarchs will soon be on their southern migration back to Mexico. If you don’t have milkweed this year, be sure to get some in your garden by next year. The monarchs look for it on both the northern migration in the spring and the southern migration in the late summer/early fall.

A great book for identifying butterflies, their preferred nectar and host plants, and their habitat range is Butterfly Gardening with Native Plants-How to Attract and Identify Butterflies by Christopher Kline. I especially like it because it gives a time line showing the months you would most likely see the particular butterfly in the Eastern United States. It’s never too late to become a butterfly gardener!

Hope you enjoy a peek at my world of butterflies!