B is for Butterflies

Who doesn't love butterflies? Like most of my other gardening successes, attracting butterflies came purely by chance. But if you'd like to enjoy some butterflies this summer I have three easy plant suggestions that will have you noticing more butterflies in your garden.

Zinnias

For an example, see the black swallowtail butterfly lounging on a zinnia in my photo. I stalked butterflies on my lunch hour, holding my camera positioned to the perfect spot just waiting for someone beautiful to land. Zinnias seem to provide a perfect landing pad for many varieties of butterflies (and moths). There are several reasons to try zinnias.

1. Easy to Grow - Basically, I rough up the soil (and it doesn't have to be the best of soil), toss the seeds, cover with a thin layer of soil and water until they start appearing. No special care, fertilizer, stratifying needed.

2. Inexpensive - If you wanted, you could buy a $2 pack of zinnias seeds once and never buy them again. Taking advice from my dad, I simply cut off any flowers that dry on the stem and store them over the winter in a brown paper bag each year. Then in the spring I simply crumple up the flowerheads over a garden bed to release the seeds.

3. Variety - You can choose from tall, short, large flowers, compact flowers and just about every color imaginable. Sometimes I choose varieties just for their names. Last year was Queen Lime, a sort of pale green and pink mix.

4. Cutting garden - Zinnias are a long lasting addition to a bouquet. Many zinnia types are even encouraged to bloom again by cutting. Just remember to leave enough flowers so you can harvest seeds.

5. Versatile - Yes, they need sun. But they do equally well in the ground or containers. They are also the perfect pinch hitter for a bare spot where something faltered or if you haven't decided what you want to put there long term.

Sedum

There are many sedums (hundreds!) but I'm thinking of the varieties that grow into a basketball sized bush that starts out with wide green flowers that eventually turn color later in the season. Autumn Joy is a classic variety. They die back late in the fall but return, new shoots often poking through the dried brown stems of the past season. They aren't picky about water or soil and, because of their predictable size and shape, I like to plant three or more in a row for a living "fence". They are also super easy to dig up and divide, ensuring you never run out of sedum to punctuate your garden and feed migrating butterflies.

Parsley

Decide how much parsley you think you'll need for cooking, then double it. Black Swallowtails lay their eggs on parsley that eventually hatch into caterpillars that eat the leaves and then turn into a chrysalis that eventually splits open to reveal a butterfly. I recommend planting parsley in two spots - one your kitchen parsley and the other your butterfly parsley. Then, when you notice a fat green and black caterpillar chowing down on your kitchen parsley you can ease him across the garden to your butterfly parsley. Parsley for everyone!