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

"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

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)

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

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

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 .............

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

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

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

"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

"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

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.

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.

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

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.