IN THE Flights of fancy
Plant the right nectar-rich flowers and you’ll have a garden full of butterflies all spring and summer
The big winners in today’s greener, eco-friendly gardens are butterflies. Nowadays, several of the commoner kinds are regular visitors and you may also see woodland or hedgerow species – or more unusual oddities – flitting through occasionally.
But you can easily attract more butterflies to drop in and linger longer by turning your garden into a feeding station.
You don’t need a wildlife garden to bring in a large range of species. Glamorous borders work just as well so long as they are stocked with a diverse selection of nectar-rich flowers opening in sequence all season, from spring to autumn.
Single flowers are the ones to plant.
The double sort very often don’t produce nectar as they’ve converted their pollen gear into extra petals.
This may look prettier to us but is no use to butterflies and other insects. Good butterfly plants include most old-fashioned hardy annuals and biennials, including honesty and sweet rocket, as well as some perennials, such as lavender, Sedum spectabile, scabious and Michaelmas daisies. Flowering herbs – especially marjoram and oregano – single roses and a few shrubs, especially buddleia, are a wise choice too.
Some wild flowers, such as valerian, are worth growing where they fit in with the general scheme of the garden. And although you probably don’t think of blackberries as butterfly plants, many species visit the flowers for a drop of nectar or to sunbathe in safety. So if there’s room, plant one along a fence or over an outbuilding.
But providing the right sort of flowers is not enough. Most butterflies are only on the wing on sunny days, and it’s in sunny places that you’ll see them flying, feeding or resting. So to create the ideal habitat, grow your nectar-rich flowers in warm, sheltered, sunny spots. The right style of garden helps too. Woodland species such as the speckled wood will visit gardens that have dappled, shady corners under a light canopy of trees and shrubs.
The ideal habitat is nectar-rich flowers in sheltered, sunny spots