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By Piedro Molinero

When flirting with butterfly gardening, it is good to know a little bit more about these small and beautiful animals you want to attract to your backyard. To know which flowers and plants to grow for feeding butterflies, their eating habits are from particular interest for starting a butterfly garden.

As you probably already know, butterflies go through different life cycles. All butterflies life cycle starts as an egg, then it turns into a caterpillar, afterwards it becomes a pupa and in the end it comes out as a butterfly.

Most of its eating during all these butterfly stages, this creature does when it is a caterpillar. For some types of butterflies, this caterpillar stage is the only time in its whole life when it will ever eat.

The caterpillar eats and grows until it bursts and drops its skin for a new one. This process can be repeated many, many times and in a couple of weeks the caterpillar can be a lot larger than it emerged.

But also butterflies have the equipment to eat. They have a head, they have a thorax, and they have a venter as well. Just rather than the typical insect mouth, those butterflies which do eat, have a tube. When not in use this tube rolled up like a coil spring but can be pushed deep into the glands of flowers to absorb their nectar.

The best way to find out which kind of nectar and food plants to offer your butterflies is to take a hike around and explore your location. Discover which species of butterflies live in your area.

For best results have a butterfly identification book handy and make some notes about what these specific species of butterflies use for nectar and food plants. Although this might take some time and effort, you will appreciate the result. Once you discovered the local butterfly species and prepared a list of flowers and plants they prefer, you are ready to start designing your butterfly garden.

About the Author Piedro Molinero is a hobby gardener sharing his experience at DIY Gardening Tips.

(ArticlesBase SC #625942)   Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ – What Do Butterflies Eat?

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Image by BeautifulRust via Flickr

By: JC Schwartz

Butterflies need water just like we do. Keep a mud puddle damp in a sunny location, or fill a bucket with sand and enough water to make the sand moist. Periodically saturate the sand to keep it moist. You can also bury the bucket in the ground for aesthetic purposes and provide access to it by surrounding it with some small rocks.

Male butterflies appreciate a patch of wet sand or dirt. They sip salts and other minerals from the sand, a behavior known as “puddling”. The minerals are passed on in a sperm packet during mating, to enrich the eggs.

In you want to include the use of butterflies in your landscape you will need to create a safety zone for your butterflies to feel safe. Butterflies frequent habitual zones, where they feel safe and where areas of the landscape meet with the tree lines.Creating your butterfly gardens near or around trees will help in attracting even more of these graceful creatures to your gardens. You should also consider hedges; groups of small trees or shrubs; or walls, fences, trellises covered with vines.

Butterflies are attracted to areas of your gardens where they can gather food for their offspring. The caterpillar will eat from the plants while the adult butterflies will sip on the nectar of the flowers.As your plants, shrubs, and flowers mature, the amount of butterflies to your gardens will also increase. The plants and flowers that you put in your garden this year will attract only a few, but in the years to come the natural instinct of the butterfly will lead them to your garden.

What is the adult butterfly searching for in your gardens? The butterfly searches for areas to take shelter from the high winds, the rains, and the summer storms. This is where the trees and shrubs in your gardens become important in protecting the butterfly and offering shelter. During the normal, warm sunny summer day the butterfly wants the wide-open areas of your lawn and garden.

Butterflies will seek soft soil that is sandy-like to find water. The sand-like soil that allows water to puddle up after a rainstorm is a butterfly’s delight. The developing stages of the caterpillar to the butterfly are observed often in the established butterfly garden. Butterflies don’t need anything fancy or expensive: just a large, open, sun-filled area; some flowers, for adults; some food sources, for caterpillars; shelter; puddles; and rocks.

You might consider planting an herb garden if you enjoy herbs – many butterfly species do too. So now you have the location and a plan put in place for your garden. The next step is to figure out what plants you want to put in to attract butterflies.

About the Author Learn about butterfly identification and karner blue butterfly at the Butterfly Facts site.  (ArticlesBase SC #620760)

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ – How to Water Your Butterflies Garden

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Propagating Butterfly Bush from root cuttings.

The first step for how to root cuttings from the butterfly bush is to select a stem for cutting. In early Fall, choose a stem for butterfly bush propagation that is at least 6 inches long, and is new growth cut the flower off. A new growth stem will be a lighter green than old growth.

Also be aware that if you live in a colder climate where the butterfly bush dies back to the ground, the whole shrub may be new growth.

Once you have selected a stem to propagate the butterfly bush, take a sharp pair of shears and cut the stem off just below a leaf node. A leaf node is where a set of leaves will be growing.

The butterfly bush cutting should be at least 4 inches long and should contain at least one additional set of leaves above the selected leaf node. Snip the cutting from the stem.

Next, strip all but the top most set of leaves from the cutting. The cutting should have only two leaves left, dip the end of the cutting in rooting hormone.

Rooting hormone will increase the chances of successfully propagating butterfly bush, place the cutting into damp potting soil. Place the pot in a sheltered location out of direct sunlight.

Check the butterfly bush cutting every few days to make sure the soil is still damp. In about 2-4 weeks, the cutting will be rooted and your butterfly bush propagation will be complete. That is all you need to know about how to propagate butterfly bushes. With a little effort and care, you can start propagating butterfly bushes for your yard or for friends and family.

Buddleia davidii, Butterfly Bush

The Buddleia plant is a genus of flowering plants and there are up to one hundred species on record. Most of these are shrubs with only a few being trees. Because the tree varieties can grow to over 30 feet, it is the shrub varieties that are more suitable for the average sized garden.

Butterfly bushes (Buddleia davidii) have a prime place in butterfly gardens, and are particularly adept at attracting tiger swallowtails. But they also attract hummingbirds, making them must-haves for hummingbird gardens, too. And don’t forget the bees: butterfly bushes will also attract the bees that will pollinate other plants in your garden.

Buddleia davidii produces woody stems, it behaves like a perennial and dies back close to the ground. And just like a perennial, it makes no difference to the plant. Simply cut back the dead stems in early spring, stand back and watch the plant explode with growth.

Buddleia blooms on new wood, so its floral display is not diminished by its dieback behavior. In fact cutting Buddleia back benefits the blooming and overall plant habit. Even in the south where its wood remains alive, an annual spring whacking makes for a nicer plant, blooms from midsummer until frost.

I own and operate a perennial nursery in Nashville, TN.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/gardening-articles/propagating-butterfly-bush-from-root-cuttings-1528955.html

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