By Christine Reid.
Here’s a question: why take the time and trouble to create a garden that will attract butterflies and hummingbirds? Here’s a better question: why not? Butterflies and hummingbirds are beautiful, fun to watch and, being insect eaters, are beneficial to your garden. What’s not to like about that? Most important of all, butterflies and hummingbirds are also pollinators and pollination just happens to be vital to life on earth. Those all seem like pretty good reasons to make a wildlife habitat, don’t they?
Another advantage to having that kind of garden is that butterflies and hummingbirds like native plants best. Not only do most native plants, once established, use less water than many exotic non-natives, they’re attractive as well as tough enough to handle the sometimes challenging Texas weather. Unless you want your yard and garden to resemble the Mojave desert, you’re going to put in plants and trees anyway, so why not choose some of the varieties that these interesting creatures need?
Along with putting in natives and other appropriate plants, avoiding the use of pesticides, synthetic or natural, will help butterflies and hummingbirds thrive in your yard. The ingredients meant to kill the insects are also harmful to the good guys. Plus, the insects that you might be spraying are sources of food for the garden helpers. Try to leave the aphids alone and invite the butterflies to dinner!
There are four basic areas that need to be addressed when it comes to making a yard that will draw in butterflies and hummingbirds. You need to provide food, water, cover and nesting areas.
For nectar, hummingbirds are attracted to flowers that are red and tubular, like Flame Acanthus, Cross vine, or Coral Honeysuckle, the better to accommodate their long, skinny beaks. And they especially like the plants that serve up insect hors d’oeuvres, ones with large, flat flower heads that are yellow, blue or white, like sunflowers, lantanas or zinnias. Both hummingbirds and butterflies are drawn to large masses of flowers and plants.
Butterflies have a couple of different kinds of food requirements. While they feed at many of the same nectar plants as the hummingbirds, each butterfly variety also requires specific host plants that will provide food for their caterpillar. For instance, the variegated and Gulf Fritillary butterflies lay their eggs on passion flower vines so that the caterpillars, after hatching, are near the food they have to have to grow and become a butterfly. They may munch voraciously on the vine, but don’t worry, the leaves will grow back as long as the plant is healthy and it’s the growing season. Milkweeds are host plants for the Monarch and Queen butterflies. The Black Swallowtail and Giant Swallowtail butterflies lay their eggs on rue, fennel, dill and parsley plants. And the Pipevine Swallowtail is drawn to, you guessed it, pipevines!
Along with people, all living things, including butterflies and hummingbirds, need a source of clean water. Provide water in shallow bird baths, trays or pools. You can place small, smooth rocks in the water so that the butterflies have a place to sit as they drink. Hummingbirds especially like water sources with movement, such as gentle fountains, drippers or misters. In addition, butterflies, especially male ones, like to sip from mud puddles, which are rich in salts and nutrients. And don’t forget to put out some rotting fruit, like old bananas. The butterflies love that!
Butterflies and hummingbirds also need areas that provide shelter, such as evergreens like pine trees and mature trees such as oaks, pecans, Yaupon Hollies and more. They both use trees and shrubs as nesting areas and to keep safe from predators. Butterflies often nestle in tall grasses to get out of the wind. If you can, leave some areas somewhat wild, with piled up shrubbery and decaying logs, to provide additional shelter and nesting spots.
Recently, there have been reports of declining Monarch butterfly populations that over winter in Mexican forests. It’s thought that harsh weather, growing use of herbicides and loss of both habitat and food are some of the reasons for the drop in numbers. While we can’t do anything about the weather, we can all help out the lovely and hardworking butterflies by at least planting some milkweed, which is both a host plant and nectar source. And putting in some plants for the hummingbirds won’t hurt, either. They’ll share!
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