Very warm summers and mild winters in the last decade have also favored butterflies. Beautiful thermophilic insects did not die en masse due to severe frosts, and in the summer, the luxuriantly developing flowers provided them with large amounts of food. We too can turn the garden into a butterfly paradise by providing colorful flyers with access to their favorite food.
How to lure butterflies?Graceful insects are especially attracted to the shiny, strong colors and the sweet scent of flowers. Colorful guests like single flowers the most, because full flowers often do not produce nectar at all.The butterflies' first meal in spring is provided by early flowering bulbs and perennials such as squill, primula, porcupine and geese. In summer, a very strong magnet for winged gourmets are the flowers of the thistle, which is even called a butterfly bush. Butterflies are most fond of varieties with flowers of pink and lilac colors. They are very eager to visit flowerbeds with marigolds, yarrow and sage. They also like the nectar of lantana flowers. In the fall, as the number of flowering plants declines, food sources become less and less available to butterflies. That is why they highly appreciate and visit the late nectar producing flowers of perennial asters, sedum and dahlias.
Colorful aviators on the balcony and terraceA lure for butterflies are flowering heliotropes with an intense scent of vanilla, verbena and zinnia. Insects also like fragrant compositions of various herbs, such as sage, thyme and rosemary.
Night butterflies, i.e. moths, constitute a separate and very interesting group.Some of them can hover over a flower like hummingbirds and drink nectar from it with a long sucker. Some plants have become addicted to nocturnal insects. They attract moths with their pleasant scent that appears only at night, which use nectar and pollinate flowers at the same time. The group of such specialized plants includes Lonicera honeysuckle, ornamental tobacco and evening primrose.
Where adult butterflies live, caterpillars also appear, which are one of the developmental stages of these insects.Larvae, i.e. caterpillars, hatch from the eggs laid by flying female butterflies. They are often beautifully colored and covered with an eye-catching drawing of the body. They feed on plant leaves and are very voracious. When they mature, they turn into almost motionless pupae, from which adult, reproductive butterflies hatch. In the garden, it is worth allocating a small corner for wild plants that are fed by caterpillars. For example, nettle can grow here, the leaves of which are the favorite food of the caterpillars of the rusalaceae family - the tortoise, the peacock and the admiral.
