"mbb" wrote in message
...
My young sons' school has an (almost) surrounded quadrangle garden, a
simple
lawned area with 3 or 4 mature buddlejas, a neglected pond, and some other
herbaceous beds.

I'm told that it's a pleasant area, but "the bushes don't encourage
butterflies". I know it's a subjective opinion, but might it be true? Are
there situations where the buddleja doesn't attract butterflies? Or is it
the local geography, perhaps?

regards, mbb


I remember a similar discussion recently on this newsgroup about how
butterflies are attracted more to different varieties of buddlea. We have 3
different varieties of buddlea ranging from 'light lilac' coloured through
to dark purple.

The 'light lilac' colour seems to attract the most ('Painted Lady' and
'Peacocks' in abundance over the last week in Ipswich plus one of two
others). The middle buddlea (darker than the lilac) seems to have been
attracting mainly 'Red Admiral' this week. But I haven't seen any on the
dark purple buddlea!

regards

Peter