If your goal is to create a lovely live butterfly garden, then the number one plant for shrub that you should consider is the butterfly bush. And if you wonder why, well, look no farther than the name itself.
The butterfly bush is named because it is basically a living magnet for many species of butterfly. Is it the only plant or flower you should look into? Not at all. But if you have one or two, you are going to be happier gardener – at least so far as butterflies are concerned.
The first time I planted butterfly bushes, I was a little nervous. The space that I had was fairly narrow and the soil had not been treated for a long time. A few weeks before I put the bushes in, I turned the ground over with a small tiller. After I did this, I added a trace of lime, and a good bit of chicken compost that our backyard chickens had created.
Then I tilled the garden again. I’m not an amazing gardener – my thumb is pale green at best. But I did take the time to try and make the garden patch a little friendlier. That almost always pays!
Butterfly bushes are notoriously easy to plant – or rather, to keep alive after you have planted them. I’m a big fan of hearty plants. Yes, my rose bush is very attractive to the butterflies in my region, but it is a relatively high maintenance plant. No so for the butterfly bushes. Once I had it planted, I spent about a week watering it. I added a little more organic fertilizer over a month or so.
And at that point, it was clear that the bush had successfully rooted itself. We were good to go?
You can get butterfly bushes in an almost endless array of colors. While it’s tempting to get a variety – because, really, it sounds like so much fun – it is probably better to go with two or maybe three of the same or at least very close colors – reds and pinks, say. Maybe blue and purple. The reason for that is that butterflies are attracted to fields of color. They need big patches to draw them. You will cut down on the number of visitors by a third, in my experience, if you try and get too fancy.
Remember, one of the keys to a good live butterfly garden is gardening from the butterfly’s perspective – not your own! That can be a bit of a challenge – especially if you really like to mix up your colors. But start with some monochromatic butterfly bushes. If you can get two planted, and they make it for a year – which I assure you they will, because you pretty much have to want to kill off the butterfly bush to get it to fail – then perhaps you can another couple in another corner of the garden. There are an almost endless variety of bushes available.
One thing to keep in mind about the butterfly bush. It will tend to proliferate. When I say it is not a high maintenance plant, I mean that you don’t have to spend hours a day coaxing it to bloom. But you do want to be sure to trim it and rake up any shedding. You might notice a lot of volunteers – baby butterfly bushes springing up in the shadow of the original bush – growing. You can always dig them up and then replant the new shoots somewhere else.
Don’t rule out the butterfly bush – your butterfly garden is really not complete without at least one. And if you are a newbie to butterfly gardening, well, butterfly bushes are your friend. They are an almost sure bet that you’ll see several species of butterflies over the course of the season.
Comments on this entry are closed.