Butterfly Bush that doesn't work ???
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 |
Butterfly Bush that doesn't work ???
"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 Could just be a general lack of butterflies. We have had budleias of various kinds in the back garden for about 20 years now. 15 years ago they would be covered in butterflies each summer. In recent years, nary a one. This year has been a good one for butterflies and moths, but still no comparison to years back. Two or three at a time on the budleia is an event. I almost never see honey bees either. Loads of bumble bees of different sizes and colours though. Probably due to local agriculture; large fields, few hedgerows, loads of spraying. Cheers Dave R |
Butterfly Bush that doesn't work ???
In article , David W.E.
Roberts writes "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 Could just be a general lack of butterflies. We have had budleias of various kinds in the back garden for about 20 years now. 15 years ago they would be covered in butterflies each summer. In recent years, nary a one. This year has been a good one for butterflies and moths, but still no comparison to years back. Two or three at a time on the budleia is an event. I almost never see honey bees either. Loads of bumble bees of different sizes and colours though. Probably due to local agriculture; large fields, few hedgerows, loads of spraying. Cheers Dave R We have a buddleia which is about 6 years old. This year is the best it has ever flowered. 15ft high with a 10 - 12 ft spread. From where I am sitting at the computer, I can see in excess of 50 flowers. (Just sat and counted them :-( Sick isn't it?) and Joan who has just done a search, found ONE Bumble Bee. Whether fine, slightly overcast, slight breeze. Isle of Wight. Lack of Butterflies and Honey Bees Yes. Joan has 'cultivated a bed of Nettles to try to encourage them to no avail. Mike -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- British Pacific Fleet Hayling Island Sept 5th - 8th Castle Class Corvettes Assn. Isle of Wight. Oct 3rd - 6th. R.N. Trafalgar Weekend Leamington Spa. Oct 10th - 13th. Plus many more National Service (RAF) Association Scarborough. Nov 7th - 10th (Nearly Full) |
Butterfly Bush that doesn't work ???
snip Are there situations where the buddleja doesn't attract butterflies? Or is it the local geography, perhaps? regards, mbb Could just be a general lack of butterflies. snip Dave R snip Lack of Butterflies and Honey Bees Yes. Joan has 'cultivated a bed of Nettles to try to encourage them to no avail. Mike Hmmm yes, my Mum and I were commenting last week at the lack of butterflies this year. Still, the sedums are coming up for flowering - *that* will be the acid test. We had loads and loads of butterflies on them last year (and photos to prove it!) --Alison |
Butterfly Bush that doesn't work ???
On Tue, 22 Jul 2003 07:52:48 +0000 (UTC), mbb wrote:
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? Only adult butterflies feed on buddleias. They must have other vegetation around. And they like a source of water. Remember that butterfly larvae often have quite narrow food preferences -- our black swallowtails, for example, are limited to various Compositae (Asteraceae). Fill up those herbaceous beds with a wide variety of material, make sure the pond has a splash of water in it, and you might be surprised. -- Rodger Whitlock Victoria, British Columbia, Canada |
Butterfly Bush that doesn't work ???
On Tue, 22 Jul 2003 10:16:39 +0100, "David W.E. Roberts"
wrote: "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 Could just be a general lack of butterflies. We have had budleias of various kinds in the back garden for about 20 years now. 15 years ago they would be covered in butterflies each summer. In recent years, nary a one. This year has been a good one for butterflies and moths, but still no comparison to years back. Two or three at a time on the budleia is an event. I almost never see honey bees either. Loads of bumble bees of different sizes and colours though. Probably due to local agriculture; large fields, few hedgerows, loads of spraying. Cheers Dave R I'm with Dave on this one ......... We have had a good to normal year with butterflies / moths and live in Lincolnshire. No hedgerows (we planted 200 metres around our property) large fields, and spraying ......... god knows what !! Oh yes all controlled spray chemicals, etc etc. But what do they ACTUALLY spray and in what concentration. Example: Potatoes ....... when ready to harvest, the top greenery is sprayed with acid (not sure which) sulphuric I think ..... this allegedly kills off the green tops, it does, (and also butterflies/insects/birds/god knows what else) to ensure that the harvesting machine does not 'clog' with foliage ....... (by the way it does not effect the potatoes :-| so they say) On as still evening, the whole hundreds of acre area is covered in hovering acid killing stench .......... how the hell can anything survive. I am all in favour of progress ..... but at what cost?? Look at the humble house sparrow ....... We really need to get a grip in the UK ............. |
Butterfly Bush that doesn't work ???
Buddleia is a butterfly magnet. In no way would a buddleia ever 'not'
attract butterflies, unless the butterflies are just not about. And sadly tales of decreasing numbers of these are increasing! Don't give up hope though, because over the next few weeks the SECOND brood of indigenous butterflies will hatch. Watch the numbers increase in August/September. Hope this cheers you up! Helen |
Butterfly Bush that doesn't work ???
mbb wrote:
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 Butterflies definitely have strong preferences for different buddleia varieties. The last few weeks have been quite good in our back garden for butterflies - we've had Painted Ladies, Red Admirals, Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper and Large White. On some occassions there have been 20+ butterflies in the garden. We also have something like a dozen buddleia bushes, mainly 3-4 years old. A very dark one is of absolutely no interest at all to butterflies. They much prefer the "common" buddleia varieties but we have two right next to each other with almost identical colour, both scent quite strongly although the scent is different, even to my insensitive nose, however, there have been up to a dozen butterflies on one and none on the other. In fact, I don't think we have ever seen a single butterfly on the one they don't like. So, I would suggest that you need to collect seed/seedlings/cuttings from bushes that are known to attract butterflies. And the effort will definitely be worth it. -- Larry Stoter |
Butterfly Bush that doesn't work ???
Helen wrote:
Buddleia is a butterfly magnet. In no way would a buddleia ever 'not' attract butterflies, unless the butterflies are just not about. And sadly tales of decreasing numbers of these are increasing! Don't give up hope though, because over the next few weeks the SECOND brood of indigenous butterflies will hatch. Watch the numbers increase in August/September. Hope this cheers you up! Helen Sorry - butterflies don't like some buddleia varieties, see my previous post. -- Larry Stoter |
Butterfly Bush that doesn't work ???
"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 |
Butterfly Bush that doesn't work ???
"Larry Stoter" wrote in message o.uk... mbb wrote: 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 Butterflies definitely have strong preferences for different buddleia varieties. The last few weeks have been quite good in our back garden for butterflies - we've had Painted Ladies, Red Admirals, Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper and Large White. On some occassions there have been 20+ butterflies in the garden. We also have something like a dozen buddleia bushes, mainly 3-4 years old. A very dark one is of absolutely no interest at all to butterflies. They much prefer the "common" buddleia varieties but we have two right next to each other with almost identical colour, both scent quite strongly although the scent is different, even to my insensitive nose, however, there have been up to a dozen butterflies on one and none on the other. In fact, I don't think we have ever seen a single butterfly on the one they don't like. So, I would suggest that you need to collect seed/seedlings/cuttings from bushes that are known to attract butterflies. And the effort will definitely be worth it. -- Larry Stoter I agree totally Larry almost down to the types of butterfly seen this year (sorry for my similar posting below, I wasn't keeping an eye on new postings). Think I will dig up my Buddlea(s) which are not 'working' and propagate the 'good' one Peter |
Butterfly Bush that doesn't work ???
Michael 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? It's funny you should write that because Sue and I were discussing only yesterday that our neighbours large Buddleia on the allotment next to ours, despite being in full flower, was devoid of any insect/butterfly life whereas our own flowering Oregano/Marjoram/Apple Mint patch was alive with them. Loads of butterflies especially Gatekeepers, Meadow Browns and some tiny orange ones I don't know, and loads of bumblebees, hoverflies, etc. Strange, has the Buddleia lost it's appeal? -- Bob www.pooleygreengrowers.org.uk/ about an Allotment site in Runnymede fighting for it's existence. |
Butterfly Bush that doesn't work ???
my previous message.
Buddleia Davidii is the foolproof one. Buddleia alternifolia Buddleia Globosa and Buddelia Weyeriana do NOT attract butterflies. I should have carified this. Apologies to all purists. |
Butterfly Bush that doesn't work ???
Here in Essex I have butterflies everywhere! Yesterday while hanging the
washing out there were at least four - three that landed on me and one that landed on the washing line! We have a massive buddliah with hundreds of prongs of flowers and there are always a few on it along with honey bees. Charlie. "Alison" o.uk wrote in message ... snip Are there situations where the buddleja doesn't attract butterflies? Or is it the local geography, perhaps? regards, mbb Could just be a general lack of butterflies. snip Dave R snip Lack of Butterflies and Honey Bees Yes. Joan has 'cultivated a bed of Nettles to try to encourage them to no avail. Mike Hmmm yes, my Mum and I were commenting last week at the lack of butterflies this year. Still, the sedums are coming up for flowering - *that* will be the acid test. We had loads and loads of butterflies on them last year (and photos to prove it!) --Alison |
Butterfly Bush that doesn't work ???
my previous message.
Buddleia Davidii is the foolproof one. Buddleia alternifolia Buddleia Globosa and Buddelia Weyeriana do NOT attract butterflies. I should have carified this. Apologies to all purists. |
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