The Butterfly Garden

Overview: The Butterfly Garden is an ecolological garden demonstrating plants that attract butterfliew.

A closer look: Most of the plants in this garden produce flowers that attract butterflies. Others are included here because they serve as a food source for butterflies’ larval form —caterpillars. In many cases—as with milkweeds---a species serves both functions, whereas, in others, it serves only one phase of the insect’s life cycle.

Caterpillars are often very specific in their food preferences and it is the role of adult butterflies to deposit their eggs on these preferred species. Upon hatching, the emerging caterpillars find themselves on the plant that meets their nutritional needs. Butterflies are especially attracted to plants with large clusters of small tubular flowers, like Lantana and Pentas. These flower clusters serve as landing pads for butterflies and the droplets of nectar in the throats of individual floral tubes provide a food source. Florida’s official state butterfly is the beautiful yellow and black Zebra Longwing.

The Butterfly Garden overlooks the water garden from a hill that was constructed from soil excavated in the development of the neighboring pond. Because this garden was originally the Perennial Hill, the plants in this garden are mostly flowering perennials, i.e. species that live for several years, in contrast to annuals that die at the end of one growing season. Most are killed to the ground during the winter but reappear each spring to grow and flower again. Signage identifies both plant species and the more common butterflies that attend them.