There are books written on the facets of butterfly gardens and bee keeping, so I won’t try to make this the definitive guide.  In fact, this is really just a quick list of what to add to your garden to attract the pollinators which will multiply the yield of your plants.  Ever see a picture of a tomato plant weighed down by so much fruit that you thought it must have been done in Photoshop?  Well, plants that produce well have to be pollinated well and that starts with the butterflies and the bees (maybe your version included birds.)

Even the most novice gardener tends to know that bees on the plants and flowers is a good thing.  The plant pops out a flower, the bees come wandering through and grab up some pollen, and then they move off to the next flower and do it all over again.  When they do, they move pollen between the  flower’s stamen and pistil and that helps the plant set fruit.  The more flowers are touched by these pollinators, the more fruit the plant will set and that means a bigger harvest.  I’m sure there is a more technical explanation, but really, does it matter?

So what do you plant to attract butterflies?

That depends a lot on your climate zone, but there are a few ways to look at growing for beneficial insects or pollinators like the butterflies and bees.  You could choose to simply plant flowers based on color.  This would be

NECTAR AND HOST PLANTS

Butterflies tend to hang out near one of two plants: ones that produce a tasty snack of nectar, and plants where they will lay eggs.  These are known best as  nectar and host plants.  And, since butterflies can tend to be picky eaters, they often use just a single plant family as a food source for the caterpillars. Prevailing wisdom is to plant both nectar and host plants to draw butterflies into their gardens.

FOOD FOR THE BUTTERFLIES & BEES

Maybe the hardest part of a butterfly garden is to allow the caterpillars to munch on your plants while they grow up.  With the exception of a handful of species, caterpillars don’t tend catastrophically damage to the plants. Take a deep breath and realize that’s why you planted the host plant to begin with.  Why else you have planted milk weed?

What about the Bees?

If you’ve ever been to a store that sells a good selection of honey, you realize that bees are much less selective than butterflies.  While clover and orange blossom honey seems to dominate the shelves of the supermarket, you can find honey made from just about any flowering plant or tree around.  In fact, one of mine and my wife’s favorites is the honey from the mesquite tree. Unlike clover honey that is light and thin, mesquite honey is dark and thick; perfect for simmering pecans in to drizzle over French toast  for a lazy weekend breakfast. I digress.  My point is that bees will make honey from just about any pollen producing flower, and that’s good for your garden.

Choosing Flower Colors for Bees?

Often times this is quite a riddle since bees see in Ultraviolet (UV) light.  Surprisingly, the color red is thought to be unseen by bees which means red flowers are pollinated by other means.  So if you hauled off and planted the most colorful garden you could imagine, the bees might fly right on by and miss it. What a shame.  Believe it or not, bees tend to be drawn to flowers that are good at reflecting UV light.  Flowers that are white or light in color are great bee attractors.  And, if you take the “violet” out of ultraviolet, you very well might have a bee’s favorite color. If the lavender in our front yard is any indication, I’d be planting rows of violet colored flowers if I needed the bees.

Okay, okay!  Shut up and tell me what Bees and Butterflies will like!

Plants for butterflies:

• Butterfly Bush (Buddleia davidii) – The name kinda make you say duh, huh!
• Bee Balm (Monarda didyma)
• Lantana (many varieties available, natives, hybrids, shrubs and creepers)
• Mexican sunflower (Tithonia rotundifolia), annual
• Milk Weed (Asclepias tuberosa)
• Pineapple Sage (Salvia elegans), perennial
• Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), perennial
• Red Pentas (Pentas lanceolata) Pentas come in a variety of colors, but the red ones seemed most popular with the butterflies I saw.
• Zinnias

Host Plants:

• • Citrus (lemon, orange, satsuma, etc.)
  • Dutchman’s Pipe (Aristolochia spp.)
  • Fennel, Dill, Parsley, or Queen Anne’s Lace
  • Passion Vine (Passiflora incarnata and other species)

Plants for Bees:

• Anise hyssop
• Aster
• Basil
• Chives & Garlic Chives
• Clover
• Cucumber
• Coreopsis
• Lavender
• Marigold
• Melons
• Milkweed
• Oregano
• Sunflower
• thistle
• Thyme

Like I said, bees aren’t all that picky, so as long as you plant a few that they like, you should have a great harvest.

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Yesterday I took the time to repot many of the seedlings that we started back in early February.  Of the varieties are: Cal Sweet Watermelon, Ice Box MickyLee watermelon, Straight 8 Cucumbers, Bunching White Libson Erect Onions, Hearts of Gold Cantaloupe, Early White Bush Scallop Squash, Waltham Butternut Squash, and several varieties of sunflowers including Mammoth, Lemon Queen, and Red Sun.

Most of the seedlings germinated, although not to the time tables on the package, and produced was seemed to be a great crop of seedlings.  We took extra care to cover on cold nights and really tried to water consistently.  We even kept the tops on the seed starting trays until the plants were hitting the top of the lid.  Then, within a week or so, several of the plants started to die off; starting with the cantaloupe, then the onions, Early White bush scallop squash and finally most of the Cal Sweet watermelon. I was able to salvage the Waltham squash, some of the Ice Box MickyLee Watermelon, a small amount of the onions, a single start o the Cal Sweet watermelon, and several the cucumbers.  Most of the sunflower starts are going nuts so those seem to be quite hardy and will take whatever bit these seedlings.

I thought it would be useful to post a couple pictures of one of the failed seedlings and let readers speculate on the cause.  I used bagged soil to start the seeds and did not sterilize the soil first which I have read will lead to some pretty major seed failures and disease.  It almost has the characteristics of damping off disease but I don’t know if that will strike such young plants.  Anyway, I’m going to pick up some more trays and start a new set — this time making sure to sterilize the soil first.  I also plan on moving the seed trays to an area where they receive more sun than the few hours they were receiving under the patio cover.

All in all, the good news is we have a ton to plant and there will always be some failure rate with seeds.  So a good rule of thumb is to plant 20% more than you think you will need.  If they all survive, you will have extra plants to give away to other Urban Gardeners or even those looking to Garden in Small Spaces.

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