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St Louis MO 63126
Phone: 314-849-6114
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The Tom Terrific Company LLC
Plant a Smorgasbord of Flowers
Butterflies are like little children at times...finicky.
You know how some kids sit down to eat and whine,"What's this? or I don't like that." Well many butterflies are finicky too. They seem to prefer one type of nectar on a particular day,
at a particular time and they will stay with that one particular flower.
So try to give them a smorgasbord of flowers and nectar to choose from. The more options they have, the more likely it is they will stay in your yard.
Many gardeners plant two hundred of one variety and while it's impressive to see a mass of 200 petunias, the odds are that butterflies will pass it by. First they don't like petunias and secondly if that's their only choice they won't have any reason to stay in your yard.
Give them a smorgasbord of flowers; as many choices as possible. You can group them together; in fact that's a good idea, but plant a variety of nectar plants and the odds are the butterflies will find one to their liking and will stay around.
It's hard to predict why butterflies go to one particular flower and not another. I've seen Swallowtails on my Butterfly Bush, the Golden Privet, on Zinnias and my Phlox, but once they start sipping from one particular flower they stick with it. They seem to have a preference, at least for that day.
I like to plant at least three of the same plants together to achieve a mass of color. It's easy
for the butterflies to find the "one" particular flower they like and stay in the same
area. A grouping of one particular flower, say Zinnias, (and butterflies likes Zinnias), will attract
and keep them feeding for quite a long period of time. This is the time to run and get your camera.
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