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How to attract butterflies
Tallulah
Posts: 38
I have plenty of bees and hover flies in my semi rural garden and I grow a good variety of insect friendly nectar rich plants including buddleias and nettles......but I seem to have very few visiting butterflies except the inevitable cabbage whites.I'm not sure whether my garden is a lot more exposed than anyone else's although it is situated on a southwesterly slope facing the prevailing wind. Am I missing a trick or are there perhaps very few butterflies around these days? Any advice would be welcome.
Tallulah
0
Posts
Very few butterflies around at the moment. The weather has just been terrible for them. My garden usually has lots of butterflies but this year my count has been very low.maximum number of species seen at one time but not all of them at the same time! - 2 orange tip, 2 holly blue, 3 cabbage white, 1 speckled wood, 1 red admiral and 1 comma so far this year.
Thanks Daintiness. My observations about lack of butterflies in my garden however applies not just to this present summer....which is clearly not going to be conducive to butterfly sightings ....but to previous summers as well. Im interested to know why you think your garden normally attracts plenty of butterflies......is it very warm and sheltered I wonder.
Tallulah
My top butterfly attractors include majoram/oregano and viper's bugloss
In the sticks near Peterborough
They were around a few weeks ago, but I haven't had many recently. My top attractors are Sedum spectabile royal Purple and Verbena bonariensis, though I've recently let Garlic Mustard grow under my hedge and found this one the other week. I think it's a Grizzled Skipper.
Incidentally, the Geranium Johnson's Blue was a real Beestro yesterday. I counted 12 Bees at one time on the one plant.
In the sticks near Peterborough
Me neither Nut, I had to look it up. What I've read about it, it says it's not common round this part of the country so quite exciting!
Thanks everyone.....I actually grow all of above plants....but must make a point of allowing my herbs to flower! i seem to attract far more bees than butterflies.....also I'm not sure what would be an average butterfly count for a garden.....I certainly have far far less than I remember in my childhood garden 50yrs ago when our solitary buddleia bush would be constantly smothered with them.
there's far less of all the insects Tallulah. Mostly down to destruction of habitat and insecticides.
In the sticks near Peterborough
I have a pond and created a sheltered seating area near it with lots of the above mentioned flowers and more and the butterfles seem to favour this area. At the moment I have buddleia globosa in flower and today there were lots of bees on it but no butterflies - again the day was too windy and cold for butterflies to be about. Wimbledon starts tomorrow so the next fortnoght will probably be no better....