The Butterfly Count is upon us for 2017 and Julia is preparing the materials for the group.
We had a preparatory look in the garden on Friday to get some idea of what was about, and had a good result, considering it was a cold day. The buddleia didn’t attract much (possibly because it’s planted in a shady spot) but the mint attracted a lot of pollinators and the Mint Moths. (Mint Moths are only about quarter of an inch across (6mm) in real life – don’t go looking for something the same size as the photo). I didn’t see butterflies on the mint, but they were mainly seen in the area around the mint.
Comma
Mint Moth
Painted Lady
Red Admiral
Speckled Wood
White, Large
There was also an unidentified white, an unidentified brown (probably Meadow Brown or Gatekeeper) and an unidentified brown Skipper.
We need to add a few more plants around the place – more buddleia would be good, and oregano used to attract a lot of butterflies when we were at the Ecocente. Although the Mencap garden isn’t anywhere near as good as the Centre garden for attracting butterflies, it’s still as exciting to try to spot new species and plan to attract more. We have a few buddleia seedlings to donate and I’ll have to persuade Julia to grow oregano.
The last week has been reasonably good in the house garden (which is a bit of a butterfly wasteland), with Small Tortoiseshell, Large White and Orange Underwing moth all seen this week. There are Mint Moths in a herb garden along the street and I live in hope of seeing another Hummingbird Hawk Moth on the Red Valerian like we did (twice) in 2015.
Time to start giving some serious thought to our own garden, after a year of hacking back in 2016.
I’m slightly ambivalent towards buddleia as it’s a non-native species and can be considered a pest. I think it’s best summed up here by Butterfly Conservation – it’s a valuable source of nectar and is OK in gardens. However, it doesn’t feed caterpillars and it can be invasive in the wrong place.
There are other plants to feed butterflies and caterpillars, as this list shows.
So heartening to read about all the concern for butterflies, which I know are in decline. I am hoping that concern will make a difference.
If butterflies do well birds and pollinators do well too. If not, we could have problems.
You’ve given me a reason to be thankful for not having buddleia. I don’t see as many butterflies as I would like to but maybe they are in the garden at different times from me. Good to know they like lavender.
Lavender is excellent, and well behaved. 🙂
I think it can self-seed – but not cause the mayhem that buddleia does.
🙂
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Hardly any butterflies on our buddleia. We’ve found that lavender is excellent for bees.
Yes, must get more lavender – I replaced it with rosemary a few years ago after it got woody.
You are doing well. There is hardly a butterfly or moth to be seen in our garden.
You have more birds – they probably eat the caterpillars. 🙂
There are budleias that do not throw seed, but I do know they can easily start up from fragments of roots. I have one that is about 10 feet tall that started from fragments of roots left behind when I pulled up a potted budleia to plant it elsewhere. The roots had gone through the bottom of the pot. What was left started a whole new shrub.
Butterfly weed is a good one if you can get seed, although it is listed as not native to your area.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asclepias_tuberosa
I was a bit worried about them spreading on the farm but with deadheading we seemed to be able to control them. Will have to see what I can find about Butterfly Weed. 🙂
I’m with you, Lavinia – Our buddleias are never a pest (here in South Jersey, USA) – and butterfly weed is a favorite as well.
Butterfly weed seems to be reasonably hardy in the UK -may give it a try.
That is a good number of butterflies and moths! I have found oregano good but not as good as lavender. I grow loads of herbs and just let them flower; the pollinators love them better than any ornamental flower.
Yes, that’s what seems to happen with us too. 🙂
Yes – I agree – the swallowtails can’t keep away from my dill.
🙂
Do you have viper’s bugloss? – great for bees. Never seen a mint moth
No, but I keep seeing it mentioned so must get some.
My friend Giles gave us a small plant. It has spread rapidly and is always swarming with bees
Sounds just the sort of plant I’d like – rapid spread and loads of bees. 🙂