Nature’s Gift

Everywhere Butterflies

Outdoor space at the Chattahoochee Nature Center and the Dunwoody Nature Center is full of plants that butterflies love. The Freedom Park Bird and Butterfly Garden hosts a variety of butterflies and birds (freedomparkbirdandbutterflygarden.blogspot.com). And Atlanta Botanical Garden’s pathways are surrounded by plants that attract Southeastern butterflies. Don’t miss the 12-foot stainless steel Swallowtail butterfly atop an arched pavilion in the Children’s Garden (atlantabg.org).

1,000 and 1 Butterflies

Calloway Gardens’ Cecil B. Day Butterfly Center is one of North America’s largest tropical butterfly conservatories, with more than 1,000 butterflies fluttering in its glass-enclosed space. The center’s butterfly population of more than 50 species changes throughout the year. In summer, join butterfly experts in a discussion of “Gardening for Butterflies.” September is Blue Morpho Month, when visitors can see a huge display of the iridescent blue butterflies. Find out more at callawaygardens.com.

Backyard Butterflies

Invite butterflies into your yard by planting flowers and bushes that attract them, including fennel, Spicebush and Passionflower for caterpillars. Adult butterflies love parsley, butterfly weed, butterfly bush, lantana and zinnias, according to gardening expert Walter Reeves. Burying a plastic basin in the ground filled with wet sand or mud will give the butterflies a moist place to land, drink and bask in the sun, he says. Other plants that attract adult butterflies are Narrow-leafed Sunflowers, Goldenrod and Asters. For a link to identifying the Southeast’s butterflies, visit walterreeves.com.

Grow Your Own Butterflies

You can plant caterpillar-friendly plants and wait for butterflies to lay their eggs, then keep watch as caterpillars turn into chrysalis then butterflies. Atlanta Parent tested the easier route: Insect Lore’s Live Butterfly Kit arrives with four or five caterpillars and their own diet in a plastic, see-through jar. Once the caterpillars become chrysalis, they can be transferred to the mesh habit that comes with the kit. When they emerge as Painted Lady butterflies, the family can release them into the backyard. Our 4-year-old tester was fascinated with the process and wowed when the butterflies emerged. Kits cost $19.99. Find out more at insectlore.com.
– Amanda Miller Allen