Butterfly gardening has become one of the most popular gardening pastimes today. And it’s no wonder. After all, what could be more enjoyable than sitting peacefully in the middle of a butterfly garden on a sunny day?
There are many ways to enjoy a butterfly garden, but starting one in your own backyard is probably one of the best — and easiest.
According to Suzanne Cook, head gardener for Pekin Park District since 2004, starting a butterfly garden at home is as easy as picking a spot and planting some butterfly-attracting plants.
“A butterfly garden is not hard to maintain,” Cook insists. “It could be a formal garden or a wildflower garden. Butterflies like a variety of plants. They like herbs, especially mint — but mint is an invasive plant. Some of the best plants for home gardens are zinnia, butterfly bush, Victoria blue solisia, and tropical milkweed. But there are many others.”
Cook has a lot of helpful tips for home gardeners who wish to maintain a private butterfly oasis. First, she suggests trimming the butterfly bush in March for new growth every spring.
“A bird bath will bring more activity to your garden. Butterflies also need water,” Cook said. “And if you put a rock in it, you might see a butterfly sunning on it.”
Butterfly gardens do best in a sunny location, sheltered from the wind. Cook said butterflies enjoy two types of plants: nectar plants that provide food for the adults, and host plants that provide food for their offspring.
A short list of host plants include everlasting, daisy, burdock, hackberry, Queen Anne’s lace, turtlehead, false foxglove, plantain, parsley, dill, fennel, clover, elm, snapdragon, hollyhock, peas, mustard, sunflower, mallow, violet, milkweed, wild rose and aster.
A small list of nectar plants include aster, goldenrod, privet, vetch, dogbane, dogwood, buddleia, Joe Pye weed, milkweed, ciborium, wild rose, marigold, zinnia, butterfly bush, cosmos, cushion mum, dandelion, red clover, purple coneflower, strawberry, chickweed, thistle, black-eyed Susan, rotting fruit and Shasta daisy.
In Illinois, and Pekin especially, there are “dozens of varieties of butterflies,” and, according to Cook, “we do see them here in the park.”
A list of butterflies they’ve seen on a regular basis in the park include monarchs, painted ladies, black swallowtail, fritillary, red-spotted purple, and buckeye, to name some.
The Pekin Park District has maintained a butterfly garden for years. According to Cook, the original butterfly garden was located at the Arena and was put in by the previous gardener.
“We moved it to a more visible location so more children could enjoy it,” she said, noting that they “planted mostly butterfly-attracting plants and, because I do my best gardening at the park, I donated my home plants.”
Cook said the park’s butterfly garden, which is now located in between Royal Avenue and the children’s playground across from the lagoon, is set up in a “mirror image” fashion, meaning that the garden is set up in a circle with identical plants on each side. The garden is a 20-by-20-foot circle surrounded by autumn joy sedum, which blooms in the fall. Stepping stones lead to a bench painted in, well, butterflies. Next to the bench is a butterfly house where, according to Cook, “a butterfly could go inside the house and rest from the rain if it wanted to.”
Although Cook is hard-pressed to say butterflies actually have used the house for shelter in this way, she does know for a fact that people enjoy the butterfly garden, butterfly house included.
“I often see people taking pictures of their children watching the butterflies, and I’ve also seen couples having a romantic moment or just sitting on the bench reading a book. It makes me feel good to see people enjoying it so much.”
“When we designed this butterfly garden, my goal was to see immediate effects — and almost immediately my goal was met. This butterfly garden blooms from May to mid-October. Kids love it. You can see them pointing at the butterflies. We see mothers trying to identify butterflies for their children. People really seem to enjoy it. We’ve received lots of compliments on it.”
The park’s butterfly garden includes New England Aster, coriopsis, mums, daisies, lilies, amsonia, black-eyed Susan, autumn joy sedum, zinias, tropical milkweed, butterfly bush, hardy hibiscus, stachys, iris, hyssop, cleome and more. “This will be our third year for the butterfly garden,” Cook said, adding, “It will be fabulous.”
Butterfly gardening is nothing new to Cook, who used to raise monarch butterflies at her home. She also tagged monarch butterflies for the Monarchs Migrating program through the Monarch Watch — a program that helps scientists monitor the monarch population and their migratory routes.
She recalls an awkward incident that happened one Saturday over Labor Day weekend when the monarchs were migrating through. “It was on a Saturday and I wasn’t working, but I was at the butterfly park tagging monarchs. Someone called the cops on me,” Cook said, rolling her eyes. “They thought I was killing butterflies.”
“I explained to the park police that it was a humane tagging program, and how I do it and then send them on their way to Mexico. I explained that I was totally sending them free. Dozens of monarchs from Pekin were found in Mexico through the program, but I don’t do it anymore because I don’t have the time.”
Cook said the park has another, smaller garden that attracts “hundreds” of butterflies, but nobody ever sees them but park officials like herself and Bill Thompson, the park’s seasonal gardening assistant.
“Butterflies like mint, but mint is an invasive plant. We use it as a ground cover by Dragon Land,” Cook said. “It draws hundreds of buckeye butterflies that nobody but us get to see, because Dragon Land is closed when this phenomenon happens.”
Cook insists that no chemicals are used in the park, and she believes that’s a good thing for everybody. “It’s wonderful to see people enjoying nature in a chemical-free environment with their children, taking pictures and using our park gardens to highlight the special moments in their lives.”
Carl Bopp, a Pekin resident, said he likes “shooting pictures of flowers, bugs, mushrooms and butterflies in the park.” He believes that “the park has such a beautiful variety of plants. We’re lucky to have the butterfly gardens in Pekin. Suzanne does a great job.”
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