Butterflies are vitally important for several reasons, the most obvious of which is that they are active and valuable pollinators of flowering plants. Like bees and hoverflies, flowering plants in town and countryside would not be able to reproduce without the aid of pollinating insects. Of course, they also have a place in the food chain in all stages of their life-cycles, being the meal of choice for all sorts of other creatures, from birds, reptiles and small mammals to all sorts of other invertebrates.   Perhaps less important in the grand scheme, but valid nonthelesss butterflies increase our interest and enjoyment to the natural world and their population fluctuations are valuable markers for the health of our environment.

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Creating a butterfly garden  is one of the most rewarding things you can choose if you are thinking about creating a wild garden, as  the simple introduction of a few plant species will just about guarantee visits from large numbers of butterflies. A bed filled with Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ or a well pruned buddleia dripping with flowers will attract numerous visitors, with the follow-on benefit that these numerous butterflies will attract a host of other garden wildlife.

We have 59 species of butterflies in Britain, 56 of which breed here, with another three species who migrate here so regularly that they are on every British butterfly list. In addition there are another 12 or 13 species that are quite often seen around the British Isles, having been blown across the Channel or having migrated here during a spell of bothersome weather on their home ground but who are not considered to be resident. Even with all these counted together it’s not so very many - and it is about a third fewer than we had 200 years ago. Since the early 1800’s we have lost 33 butterfly species from these shores, mostly due to loss of habitat and climate change and it is thought that another six species – The Ringlet, the Speckled Wood, the Large Skipper, the Large White, the Small White and the Green-veined White – will become extinct from Britain in the next 35 years or so, due to continuing changes in our climate.

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This little list, you may have noticed, includes a couple of  butterflies that the gardeners among you will be very familiar with and which often go under the collective name of the Cabbage Whites.   Even while these chaps are an unmitigated nuisance to vegetable gardeners, and while they might not be missed from our plots,  I would hazard a guess that nobody reading this would wish for the total annihilation of the species no matter how bothersome they can be.  It is a sad truth that for some British butterflies, our gardens are their best bet for long term survival.

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When my children were small I used to send them out into the garden with a bucket each and the promise of a penny for each cabbage white caterpillar or each leaf they brought back which was playing host to a colony of cabbage white eggs. They liked the pennies and I liked the easy garden clean up. I am not sure that we made much of a dent in the Cabbage White population as a whole, even within the boundaries of my garden, but it was enough to keep the blighters within manageable proportions  and it allowed us all rub along happily together.

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Happily for all of us, the vast majority of British butterfly species are not considered pests by anyone.  Quite the opposite;  they are an indispensible part of our ecosystem, both on a local and a national level.

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Gardens are essential for the preservation of butterflies. Whatever the size of the plot, our gardens  are a sanctuary,  providing feeding opportunities for both adult and larval stages, as well as valuable breeding sites as the wild environment is depleted and disappears.  A well thought-out and well-planted garden space can be a life-saver to individuals, and gardens on a wider scale can save whole species. The importance of gardens to butterfly conservation cannot be overestimated.

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Gardening for butterflies

If you are thinking of creating a butterfly garden don’t allow yourself to be restricted by the traditional vision of an English country garden. Butterfly gardens can be any style and any size, from a single container to a vast prairie garden or a tiny corner at the back of a shrub border. There is a narrow grass bank near my home which is squeezed in between a road and a manicured  park.  At first glance this strip of ground appears to be rather scrubby; unmown and untidy. But at certain times of year it is awash with day-flying moths, butterflies and bees and the reason is easy to spot when you get close up. Scattered among the grasses are well established clumps, albeit small ones, of lesser knapweed, field scabious, birds foot trefoil and clovers. On one hot sunny afternoon last summer I spotted 13 different species of butterflies, moths and bees in one 10 minute period. 

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As well as planting for nectar, also keep in mind the breeding needs of our butterflies. Let a corner of your garden grow wild, allowing nettles and grasses to flourish, or deliberately plant swathes of plants from the list below to attract a particular species.  An important note to emphasise here is that if you are thinking of allowing a wild corner for breeding, it has been shown that the larger the patch of nettles the more it will be noticed by passing butterflies,  so allowing just a square foot of nettles to grow will likely not encourage any egg laying on your patch.

When thinking about butterfly gardens it is often easier to think of immature caterpillar stage and the mature butterfly stage  as two different creatures, as they have such different needs when it comes to feeding and habitat.  Where as breeding sites often have to be generous, feeding sites can be small and very successful. Butterflies like warmth and sunshine, so if you have the choice, site your butterfly plants in a hot, sheltered spot in the garden and plant them in large groups. You can plant annuals or perennials and you can grow your butterfly garden from seed or plants.

Wildflower seed mixes make a very quick and attractive feature in the garden, even if they are on a fairly small scale...a patch only 5’ x 10’ will offer you and your winged visitors a riot of colour and nectar for many months. To extend the seasonal attraction of any wildflower mix, add in some calendula and cosmos seeds before planting.

 

Nectar Plants for Butterflies

Spring

Aubretia

Bluebell

Clover

Cuckooflower

Daisy

Dandelion

Forget-me-not

Honesty

Primrose

Cowslips

Sweet rocket

Annual wallflowers and bowles mauve wallflower

Pansies and violets

 

Summer and Autumn

Daisy family, all  single flowered species and varieties

Verbena bonariensis

Marigolds of all kinds, Tagetes and Calendula

Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ or similar

Ivy

Greater and lesser knapweed

Lavender

Marjoram

Michaelmas daisy

Mints

Red valerian

Scabious

Thyme

Violets

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According to the charity Butterfly Conservation, the common garden buddleia is the favourite nectaring site for a whopping 18 species of British Butterfly. So if you plant buddleia look out for any one of these beauties: Brimstone, Comma, Common Blue, Gatekeeper, Green-veined White, Holly Blue, Large Skipper, Large White, Meadow Brown, Painted Lady, Peacock, Red Admiral, Small Copper, Small Skipper, Small Tortoiseshell, Small White, Speckled Wood and Wall Brown. This is one area where it would be rather fun to keep a record of which species you can spot over the season. Prune your buddleias in April to encourage them to come into early bloom.

 

Winter

As in all gardens, the rare winter flowers, like hellebores, winter flowering hebes, heathers and viburnums are always valuable for wildlife, especially those hardy species of butterflies, moths and bees that wake up whenever the weather warms a bit in winter. 

 

A selection of Larval Food Plants for British Caterpillars

Agrimony

Birds foot trefoil

Broom

Burdock

Cinquefoil

Cowslips

Cultivated brassicas

Devils bit scabious

Dog violet

Foxgloves

Garlic mustard

Gorse

Grasses

Heathers

Holly

Honesty

Horseshoe vetch

Ivy

Kidney vetch

Lady’s smock

Milk parsley

Nasturtium

Nettles

Plantain

Primroses

Rock rose

Storks bill geranium

Thistles

Wild sorrel

Wild strawberry

Wild thyme

 

 

If you plant a few clumps of these plants in your garden you can rest assured you have offered a wide variety of plants as nesting sites for butterflies, and food plants for caterpillars.  When looking out for signs of eggs or butterfly larva, remember that not all butterflies lay their eggs directly on the plants that their caterpillars will feed on. Some, like the silver washed fritillary, lay their eggs on completely different plants and the caterpillars find their way to their food plants soon after hatching.

 

If, however, you are really passionate about one particular species of butterfly and they are naturally occurring in your area, research the plants that it relies on and plant those in abundance. The larger the drift of the larval food plant or the nectar plant, the greater the likelihood that you will attract your favourite species.  Do remember that butterflies have different egg-laying sites, nectar plants and larval food plants, and all three may be necessary (together with your location) in order to attract a certain species to  your patch.  Chalk-loving blues, for instance,  won’t visit you on a peat bog, no matter what else is on offer!

 

Nettles, dog violets and one or other of the mustard family (including your prized cabbages) are some of the most popular larval hosts, so keep an eye out on those. There are some lovely websites out there that allow you to identify any butterfly eggs that you might find.

 

Butterflies in Winter

Butterfly species survive the winter by overwintering in nooks and crannies such as buried safely in the soil, in leaf litter, in gaps in tree trunks or under window sills, and they can overwinter in any one of the four life stages. Of our resident British butterflies nine species overwinter as eggs, 32 species as larvae (caterpillars),11 species as pupae (chrysalides) and only seven species will overwinter as adults. On top of this, in warmer years, there may be a few migrants from the continent that are still hanging around and may survive the winter as adults.

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The species  who overwinter as adults put on stores of food in the autumn, then tuck themselves into  hollow trees, caves or stone walls or in the corners of sheds or porches to see out the worst of the winter emerging  now and then when the weather warms to search out a of a mid-winter meal.  It isn’t unusual to find Red Admirals, Painted Ladies, Peacocks, Small Tortoiseshells, Speckled Woods, Brimstones and  Commas out and about on warm winter days.  

 

If you do come across one, leave it alone unless it is late in the day and a cold night is drawing in. In that case gently transfer the butterfly to a cardboard shoe box with a 1 cm x 5 cm hole cut into the lid and tuck it away in a corner of a frost free shed or porch. When the weather warms again, and if the butterfly survives the winter, it will be able to crawl out of the hole and fly off to feed. Sadly many butterflies do not survive the winter, succumbing to fungal diseases, freezing temperatures or predation.

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• The largest butterfly   in the world comes from Papua New Guinea. The Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing has a massive 1 foot wide wingspan!  Our largest butterfly is not too shabby either – the swallowtail has a wingspan of almost 4 inches!

• Different species of butterfly are active at different times of year, so you need to choose plants that are flowering when your butterflies are flying.

• Some butterflies and caterpillars survive the winter because they have sorbitol or glycerol – an antifreeze- in their blood stream to stop them freezing over winter.

• Butterfly or moth?

• There is no easy, definitive answer to this one but a glance through this quick guide will point you in the right direction.

• Moths usually fly at night while butterflies fly by day  though in the UK alone we have 100 or so day-flying moths that are often mistaken for butterflies.

• Butterflies are usually more colourful than moths.

• Moths usually rely more on scent than sight in their mating games, where butterflies rely more on sight than scent.

• Most moths spin a cocoon around themselves as they pupate, while most butterflies form an exposed,  naked pupae called a chrysalis. 

• Most moths have their wings connected by some mechanism such as a hook, while most butterflies move their fore and aft wings independently.

• Most moth antennae are feathery and comb-like while most butterfly antennae are thin and delicate with a clubbed end.

• Most moths have thick, furry bodies while most butterflies have more slender, less hairy bodies.

• Needless to say there are exceptions to every one of these markers!