A lovely montage, after a week of miserable weather, from commentor Glidwrith:
You put out the call that you needed photos and for once, I happened to have something Juicers might want to see.
They give you little cups of nectar to attract the butterflies and a list of the species to try to spot.
Gorgeous!
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What’s going on in your garden (planning / prep / memories), this week?
swiftfox
Bartemious Crouch says: The name , please. Give us the name.
MagdaInBlack
I have visited the Butterfly House in Chesterfield MO, and it was pretty darned cool, including the little quail family that also lived there.
So, where is this particular butterfly house?
Lapassionara
Who is this “they” of which you speak? There is a Butterfly House in the St Louis area. Fabulous place.
satby
What a nice idea, flying flowers indeed Glidwrith! Beautiful, thanks!
IIRC, Glidwrith is on the west coast, so maybe the Butterfly Farm in Encinitas? My son stationed at Pendleton took his kids there.
Marleedog
Guessing Costa Rica. Did Gildrith do a recent OTR? The third one down is a blue morpho which is iridescent and can appear to be either blue or brown.
satby
@Marleedog: another good guess! Whereever, now I want to go too!
Marleedog
@satby:
I always want to go to all of these great places!
MazeDancer
Really beautiful!
Mai Naem mobile
Phoenix has a really nice lepidopterarium. We had a lot of fun there. One thing I learned after going there was that you need to wear bright colored clothing to get the butterflies to be attracted to you and supposedly yellow and orange are the best colors.
WaterGirl
Love the concept of flying flowers.
kalakal
One thing you have to give Florida points for. The butterflies are georgeous, Monarchs, Viceroys, Zebras, Fritillaries, and huge iridescent Swallowtails.
JeanneT
Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids MI just opened their yearly butterfly exhibit, staged in their conservatory – mostly South American species. They have a nifty set up where you can see the butterflies emerging from their chysalises. If any of you are going to be in the area, it runs through April 30.
J R in WV
Many years ago, prior to Covid plaguing us, I visited NYC with friends, and one day we visited the American Museum of Natural History, where in the giant lobby they had erected a butterfly house, with airlocks and staff to watch to see that no one escaped on a leaving guest.
Regardless of looking carefully at each other, AND the staff member sweeping me — some time later on in the Space area, I found a butterfly on my pants, as happy as it could be. I went to a staff member and showed it to her, at which point she grabbed it in what appeared to be an approved butterfly grabbing manner, and literally ran off with it to return it to the butterfly house — which was full of ferns and blooming plants and butterfly food sources of all sorts.
Was big fun !!
Lehrjet
Hershey hotel has a great butterfly room! Well worth the trip.
Glidwrith
@MagdaInBlack: Wild Animal Park (now called Safari Park) in Escondido, north of San Diego.
WaterGirl
@Glidwrith: Thanks for these photos. As Anne Laurie said, they are quite lovely!
StringOnAStick
I’ve read that a basin filled with wet sand placed in the shade of your blooming plants is a welcome source of moisture for butterflies, especially if you live someplace dry like we do. I found that putting it in the sun meant it dries out in hours, so here it needs to be shaded a bit. I learned from my neighbours the beekeepers to have a basin filled with gravel and water so the bees can drink but not drown as in typical deeper bird baths.
I added a bird bath made from fractured columnar basalt to our yard, and fortunately the basin walls are a shallow angle and rough rock. I noticed bees landing on the edge or even in the water and paddling safely to the edge a few weeks ago in a warm day, but I added a few rocks for them just in case. The other bird and butterfly watering basins are pasta dishes I bought at the ReStore.
oldgold
Damnation!
The Motherlode does not often read this blog named for spittle in a an expandable plastic tube, but this morning she did.
Thanks to Glidwrith an edict has been issued: “OG, turn that damn weed patch, that has not produced a tomato since Ike lived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, into a Butterfly Garden.”
Does anyone know where I can secure some caterpillars?
MagdaInBlack
@oldgold: If you plant it, they will come 😊
MomSense
Gorgeous photos this morning. My garden is safely tucked under 2 more feet of fresh snow today. We really needed a good snowfall.
Hopefully a week from today I’ll be at the Naples Botanical Gardens communing with sunshine and flowers. I love their orchids and can’t wait to see them. I need to clear some space on my phone for new photos.
Manyakitty
@StringOnAStick: love this idea! Will definitely add it to my garden this season. 🦋
Gvg
@oldgold: find a book or club or mentor for your area. It’s pretty local what works as far as plants for caterpillars. If you have the right plant to munch, the butterflies should provide the eggs.
Around here, there are so many homegrown experts that there are multiple butterfly gardening books written in this small town. The local science center has a butterfly garden and does weekend plant sales. I think next weekend is an extra big sale.
There used to be at least one company that would sell live butterfly’s for release at weddings and memorial services. I attended one memorial for a co worker who had loved butterflies with a release. I suspect they would sell catapillers too. Does your state have a cooperative extension service? They might know the resources.
OzarkHillbilly
My DIL did a 5K run this AM, Pushing her 2 daughters all the way. So of course I went to fill the emotional support role (not that she needs it, but she does like that I come). Anyway, I had to come by and see what we got this week, a very beautiful gift Glidwrith, thanx so much for it.
Yutsano
Flutterbees!!! Always a welcome herald to the changing of the seasons.
Glidwrith
Aww, thanks folks. Glad to have brightened your day.