I am interested in landscaping the pool area of my south Florida home with plants that will attract butterflies. I'm familiar with some of the plants I can use but need help with designing the garden. Are there any newsgroups, books or persons who can assist me in this endeavor? P&K
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Hie thyself down to your County Agricultural Extension Office (you can find them under county government in the BLUE pages of your phone book). They will have chapter-and-verse about b'fly gardening in your area. Your neighborhood Borders or B & N bookstore also will have a book whose title I THINK is "Butterfly Gardening in Florida." There may be books on b'fly gardening in SOUTH Florida, but since I don't live down there I don't know them.
Remember that to have a successful butterfly garden you also have to grow the plants that the caterpillars like to eat. Often these aren't as attractive as the ones the butterflies themselves like. So, you will have 2 gardens quite close to one another. Most host plants like full sun (maybe part shade down there ????)
The book will list food plants as well as nectar plants. Nectar plants include Buddleia, Aster, Globe thistle, black-eyed susan, coneflowers, phlox, lantana (especially good in Florida!), butterfly weed/milkweed (Asclepias).
Food plants include blueberry, aster, various citrus (if you have any left down there), clover, dogwood, false indigo, various vetches, marigold, Parsley, queen ann's lace, and more.
Do a google on "butterfly garden" and you will find help -- maybe not for S. Fla . . .
Jim Lewis - snipped-for-privacy@nettally.com - Tallahassee, FL - Only where people have learned to appreciate and cherish the landscape and its living cover will they treat it with the care and respect it should have - Paul Bigelow Sears.
The folks in West Palm at the Mounts Botannical Garden can help The folks in Delray at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center can help The folks in Coconut Creek at Butterfly World can definately help The folks who run the Garden Gate garden shop at the entrance to Sears at the Pompano Square mall can help.
And I only go to S Florida a few days a year! It's a beautiful sunny 28 degrees here in Southeast CT
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