Beds fit to flutter by
IF you relish the ro romantic idea of a garden burge burgeoning with blooms and butter butterflies, you’ll need to e ensure your beds havehav what it takes to attra attract them. Butterfl Butterflies are fussy about fl flowers and are inter interested only if they’r they’re nectar-rich.
Flow Flowers are service stations where they re-fuel using th their long hollow tongues to suck up ener energy-giving food.
They will visit all ki kinds of flowers – annuals and perennia perennials, shrubs, rock plants and bulbs – and do not discriminate between wild and cultivated.
If you can, allow a couple of nettle weeds to thrive in a sunny corner. These not only provide food but are often favoured breeding grounds for tortoiseshell and peacock varieties.
Aim to have flowers in bloom all through the season to get a succession of new visitors, but they are especially important in mid to late- summer, when most butterflies are active.
Sweet
Butterflies prefer blue, purple or yellow flowers. Most of them hate red.
Flower heads should be flat like yellow achilleas, or cup-shaped like nasturtiums. Petal-packed “modern” varieties such as roses that lack nectar should be avoided.
One of the most garden- worthy plants to attract butterflies is buddleja, also known as the butterfly bush. They cannot resist the sweet flowers.
The compact Lochinch variety is a favourite – with gardeners and red admirals alike. During July and August it becomes entirely clothed in long panicles of scented lavender-blue flowers that have an orange eye.
Great late-floweringlat bedfellows for buddlej buddleja include a mixture of daisy blooms,bloom such as coneflowers.
In lat late summer, heliotrope, Sedum spectabile, hebe, lavende lavender, hyssop and verbena bonariensis all encourage butterflies. Not powerfulpower fliers, they are more likely to feed in sunny spots sheltered from wind. I Irrigate the bed well to keep up the flow of nectar.
Like all i insects they also need water, so con consider installing a small bubble foun fountain or birdbath.