GARDENING - Attracting butterflies

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Have a bit of a flutter (Filed: 25/08/2001)

Choose the right plants and your garden can become a haven for butterflies. Charlie Ryrie offers some tips

BRITAIN'S butterfly population has declined in recent decades, largely because of the destruction of habitat. You are unlikely now ever to see an Adonis blue, a silver-washed fritillary or a purple emperor, and many others are on the wane.

Adonis blue

But some butterfly species, including commas, peacocks and orange tips, have been steadily increasing in numbers. Most of the credit for this is due to those gardeners who, in a bid to encourage these beautiful creatures, have forsaken chemicals and chosen to grow a wider palette of plants.

Orange tip

The perfect garden for butterflies has sun-drenched, scented flowers, places for the insects to shelter, a source of water, and a bit of wilderness. But you do not have to have all these elements. If you cannot run to generous flowering borders, you may have space to grow some herbs and a few wild flowers - thrift, heartsease, rock roses and candytuft - along paths or between paving stones.

Even in the tiniest garden, a single bush of buddleja, a few pots of lavender, or just a tub of scented tobacco plants on a sunny balcony will provide a good pitstop for visitors. And, when they have visited once, butterflies may return regularly all summer.

Peacock on buddleia (butterfly bush)

What attracts them

Butterflies are lured by the promise of sex. The scents of flowers often mimic the pheromones with which butterflies and moths attract mates. The scent draws the insects to the plant, where they are rewarded by nectar and act as pollinators.

Most highly scented flowers are winners, but vanilla seems to seduce butterflies above all other smells. Heliotropes, buddlejas and ivy flowers are firm favourites, too. Large whites are attracted to plants containing mustard oils, including wallflowers, aubrietas and all members of the cabbage family, as well as mignonette and nasturtium.

Flutter by: a peacock butterfly rests on some buddleja

Night-scented species, such as evening primrose and tobacco plants, will attract moths, including the spectacular hawkmoths.

Butterflies are not particularly interested in the shape of a flower: they have long tongues and can even suck out nectar from narrow, tubular flowers. But colour does encourage them to visit, and to stay. They see a much wider range of colours than we do - right into the ultraviolet spectrum. Many flowers have nectar guides around the centre that are invisible to humans, except under ultraviolet light. These help butterflies to navigate, ensuring successful pollination for the flower.

It is believed that moths might have the even more unusual ability to see infrared, picking up the heat emitted by plants on the darkest of nights.

Good colours to attract butterflies include red, orange, yellow, and certain shades of purple. Flowers should be well scented and nectar rich, and clusters appeal more than single blooms. Flowering herbs, red valerian, ice plants, scabious, honeysuckle and Michaelmas daisies are eagerly sought out, and the purple-headed Verbena bonariensis is almost as popular as buddleja.

Some butterflies pass the winter as tiny caterpillars, emerging in late spring; others, including small tortoiseshells and peacocks, need warm, dry places to crawl into and hibernate. A sheltered, creeper-covered wall or a dry hedge makes a good winter home.

However, butterflies are happy travellers; so if you can't provide food and accommodation all year round, do not worry. As long as your garden is well planted, they will be back next year.

Further information

Free butterfly chart

Butterfly Conservation is a charity dedicated to saving wild butterflies, moths and their habitats. For a free identification chart, write to Dept GS TL01, Butterfly Conservation, Manor Yard, East Lulworth, Wareham, Dorset BH20 5QP, enclosing a self-addressed A4 envelope with a 33p stamp. For more information: 01929 400209; www.butterfly-conservation.org.

Butterfly books

The Millennium Atlas of Butterflies in Britain and Ireland (Oxford University Press, £30), is available for £27, plus 99p p & p, from Telegraph Books Direct (0870 155 7222). How to Make a Wildlife Garden, by Chris Baines (Frances Lincoln, £14.99) is available for £12.99, plus 99p p & p, from Telegraph Books Direct (0870 155 7222).

Butterfly farms to visit

London Butterfly House, Syon Park, Brentford TW8 (020 8560 7272; www.butterflies.org.uk) - Open all year, except Christmas Day, 10am-5pm in summer, 10am-4pm in winter, adults £3.50, children £2.50 (please telephone to confirm opening times and admission prices).

Conwy Butterfly Jungle, Bodlondeb Park, Conwy LL32 (01492 593149; www.conwy-butterfly.co.uk). Open 10am-5.30pm to the end of September, 10am-4pm in October; adults £3.50, children £2.

Edinburgh Butterfly and Insect World, Dobbies Garden Centre, Lasswade EH18 (0131 663 4932; www.edinburgh-butterfly-world.co.uk). Open 9.30am- 5.30pm in summer, 10am-5pm in winter; adults £4.25, children £3.25.

Stratford-upon-Avon Butterfly Farm, Swan's Nest Lane, Stratford CV37 (01789 299288; www.butterflyfarm.co.uk). Open all year except Christmas Day, 10am-6pm in summer, 10am-dusk in winter; adults £3.95, children £2.95.

Site specifics

www.wwb.co.uk

www.butterflyplants.co.uk

www.greengardener.co.uk

-- Anonymous, August 25, 2001

Answers

Nice pictures and text. Our cats are just crazy about butterflies.

-- Anonymous, August 25, 2001

It seems Our Little Shadow does 2 things well, ...recoup from surguries, and he loves to chase butterflies!

-- Anonymous, August 26, 2001

As I understand it, the most important factor in attracting a variety of butterflies is providing the species-specific larval plants. The adults apparently aren't nearly as fussy.

-- Anonymous, August 27, 2001

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