Hi,

Can anyone recommend plants that attract butterflies? I live in Adelaide.

Cheers
Luke

Buddleas, Buddleas and more Buddleas. It is fascinating to see them,
and when the Wander butterflies come, you can see the other
butterflies chasing them away.

Linda

On Thu, 23 Jan 2003 15:55:07 +1030, "Luke"
wrote:

Can anyone recommend plants that attract butterflies? I live in Adelaide.

Luke,

The Buddleia family are very attractive to butterflies and moths. They have
delightful flowers and are quite drought tolerant and pest free. Prune them
by 75% each winter for production of new canes and flowers through spring
and summer. Really good old fashioned plants.

Many of the Lantana are also attractive to butterflies. Choose the
varieties that don't seed freely or they can become a weed in bushland.
Here in the SW of WA winter frosts burn some of the tender varieties but
they reshoot each spring and power on.


Enjoy

CT
--
Remove Nospam_ from address to reply


"Luke" wrote in message
...
Hi,

Can anyone recommend plants that attract butterflies? I live in Adelaide.

Cheers
Luke

Oleanders have a butterfly that only breeds on them. Although they are
poison to eat the shrub, as a child growing up I was fascinated with the
butterflies and watching their life cycle.

Should be available at most nurseries.

Hope this helps,
Peter

"Bushy" wrote in message
...
Oleanders have a butterfly that only breeds on them. Although they are
poison to eat the shrub, as a child growing up I was fascinated with the
butterflies and watching their life cycle.

Should be available at most nurseries.

Hope this helps,
Peter



But try not to plant it in your backyard, because it makes the place bloody
difficult to sell to anyone with small kids. Whilst that isn't a real
problem at the moment, should the real estate market become less buoyant it
could be a problem. Frontyard should be OK though.

I found that grapevines were always good for attracting those black and
white caterpillars. Not sure which butterfly they are the larva of.

On Thu, 30 Jan 2003 22:57:39 +1030, "silvasurfa"
wrote:

"Bushy" wrote in message
...
Oleanders have a butterfly that only breeds on them. Although they are
poison to eat the shrub, as a child growing up I was fascinated with the
butterflies and watching their life cycle.

Should be available at most nurseries.

Hope this helps,
Peter

But try not to plant it in your backyard, because it makes the place bloody
difficult to sell to anyone with small kids. Whilst that isn't a real
problem at the moment, should the real estate market become less buoyant it
could be a problem. Frontyard should be OK though.

I found that grapevines were always good for attracting those black and
white caterpillars. Not sure which butterfly they are the larva of.

Oddly enough, they are the larvae of the vine moth - an attractive
black, white and red day-flying moth. Vine moths can become pests in
vine growing areas, but for most of us they don't cause a problem.

I've found that buddlea (however it is spelled) is good, as well as
lavendar (also great for bees), leptospermums and melaleucas.

HTH
Tish

Linda writes:
Buddleas, Buddleas and more Buddleas. It is fascinating to see them,

You have come up with three good suggestions there Linda.

Buddleas come in various colours apart from the common mauve, I have also
seen white, yellow, and black, the latter being such a dark purple as to
be essentially black. But only the common mauve has the overpowering scent,
the others seem bland in comparison. I walk past a white buddlea most days,
it's in flower at the moment, yet I can't recall ever seeing a butterfly
around it. So anyone desiring to attract the monarch butterfly had better
plant the common mauve buddlea, IMO. They do wilt badly in hot weather,
but rally overnight and seem none the worse for it.

If anyone's experience with the scent of coloured buddleas differs from
mine please elaborate, as I don't wish to generalise based on my limited
sample.
--
John Savage (for email, replace "ks" with "k" and delete "n")

Ummm - the Monarchs only go for Swan Plant (Asclepius fruiticosa or
similar spelling) as a breeding plant, but like the nectar of the
Buddleas. Cannot tell which one, as until last week I had them all.
But due to lack of pruning they became full of dead twigs. Many trips
to the tip as a result, as fires get nearer.

So if you want to attract Monarchs, you need the Swan Plant first.

Linda

On Fri, 31 Jan 2003 20:37:12 GMT, John Savage
wrote:

.. So anyone desiring to attract the monarch butterfly had better
plant the common mauve buddlea, IMO. They do wilt badly in hot weather,
but rally overnight and seem none the worse for it.

"Bushy" writes:
Oleanders have a butterfly that only breeds on them. Although they are
poison to eat the shrub, as a child growing up I was fascinated with the
butterflies and watching their life cycle.

There are oleanders in the yard here, but I've never noticed any
butterflies on them. We have red, pink, and white flowered oleanders,
but no sign of a butterfly. Perhaps Sydney is too far south for those
particular butterflies? Or perhaps there is something better nearby?
--
John Savage (for email, replace "ks" with "k" and delete "n")

I grew up in Grafton, so Sydney shouldn't be that different? Maybe they
aren't in your area and might come back?

Sorry I can't help,
Peter

Hi Luke,

I'm in Adelaide too. I'd recommend "butterfly bush" (Buddleia
davidii), borage, zinnias, lavender, rosemary.

Rita.


On Thu, 23 Jan 2003 15:55:07 +1030, "Luke"
wrote:

Hi,

Can anyone recommend plants that attract butterflies? I live in Adelaide.

Cheers
Luke