BIRDS AND BUTTERFLIES IN THE GARDEN
By Steve Brigham
By Steve Brigham
PART ONE:
June 2005 marks the official Grand Opening of our new Bird and Butterfly Garden at Buena Creek Gardens. This half-acre garden features over 600 different kinds of plants that attract butterflies, hummingbirds, and other birds, and although it was planted just a few months ago, the plants in it are already huge. The design of this garden pretty much reflects the taste of its designer (that's me) in that there is a great diversity of uncommon plants that grow quickly and produce lots of pretty flowers without needing a lot of water or maintenance. Most importantly, however, the garden reflects the tastes of birds and butterflies - and it is already home to a great variety of winged friends, some of whom are permanent residents and some of whom are just visiting for a while.
June 2005 marks the official Grand Opening of our new Bird and Butterfly Garden at Buena Creek Gardens. This half-acre garden features over 600 different kinds of plants that attract butterflies, hummingbirds, and other birds, and although it was planted just a few months ago, the plants in it are already huge. The design of this garden pretty much reflects the taste of its designer (that's me) in that there is a great diversity of uncommon plants that grow quickly and produce lots of pretty flowers without needing a lot of water or maintenance. Most importantly, however, the garden reflects the tastes of birds and butterflies - and it is already home to a great variety of winged friends, some of whom are permanent residents and some of whom are just visiting for a while.
Would you like to attract more birds and butterflies to your garden? This month and next month, this column will take a look at what birds and butterflies really like, and which plants they like the best.
What Do Birds and Butterflies Want?
When it comes to observing the natural world, in the immortal words of Yogi Berra, "you can observe a lot just by watching!" And watching is what our new garden is all about. Time spent watching what birds and butterflies do can tell you a lot about what they like.
Although birds and butterflies are obviously very different from us, we all want these same basic things: a nice place to live and maybe raise a family, and good food to eat. Birds and butterflies depend on plants for these things, and if you plant plants that they can use, they will be happy to live in your garden.
Although birds and butterflies are obviously very different from us, we all want these same basic things: a nice place to live and maybe raise a family, and good food to eat. Birds and butterflies depend on plants for these things, and if you plant plants that they can use, they will be happy to live in your garden.
Habitat For Birds
Everyone likes a nice place to live. Most birds spend much of their time resting in shrubs or trees that give them shelter and protection against predators. But when it's time to go to work, a prominent branch with a good view can be most handy for proclaiming or defending their territories - and you'll notice that each bird has its favorite branches. Then there's the annual nesting project, again with individual birds having their own rather specific preferences of where to rest.
In our garden, plants are planted close together to make a thicket that gives plenty or hiding places for birds large and small. The perimeter of the garden in particular is a mixed planting of shrubs that provide plenty of shelter and protection. One particular thicket of Podranea ricasoliana, Cassia bicapsularis, and Rosa 'Kathleen' is home to dozens of California Quail every afternoon. We call them the "Buena Creek Air Force." Every day around 2:30 PM they fly in from the chaparral in one big group, and sleep in this protective thicket every night.
For birds "on the job," the right type of plant can make a big difference. At the entrance to our new garden is a 25¢ tall Tabebuia 'Raspberry'. Although I like it for its flowers, a number of birds like it for its branches. Every year just in time for mating season this tree loses all of its leaves and becomes a marvelous perching and lookout tree with a great view of the surrounding area. It is the perfect tree for the mating and territorial activities of hummingbirds because the twigs are just the right size for their tiny little feet! Other good perches for birds are dead twigs and branches, which is why the birds like it when you just let your plants grow naturally and give your pruning shears a rest.
In our garden, plants are planted close together to make a thicket that gives plenty or hiding places for birds large and small. The perimeter of the garden in particular is a mixed planting of shrubs that provide plenty of shelter and protection. One particular thicket of Podranea ricasoliana, Cassia bicapsularis, and Rosa 'Kathleen' is home to dozens of California Quail every afternoon. We call them the "Buena Creek Air Force." Every day around 2:30 PM they fly in from the chaparral in one big group, and sleep in this protective thicket every night.
For birds "on the job," the right type of plant can make a big difference. At the entrance to our new garden is a 25¢ tall Tabebuia 'Raspberry'. Although I like it for its flowers, a number of birds like it for its branches. Every year just in time for mating season this tree loses all of its leaves and becomes a marvelous perching and lookout tree with a great view of the surrounding area. It is the perfect tree for the mating and territorial activities of hummingbirds because the twigs are just the right size for their tiny little feet! Other good perches for birds are dead twigs and branches, which is why the birds like it when you just let your plants grow naturally and give your pruning shears a rest.
Nice Places For Nests
Every type of bird has its own specific preferences on where to build a nest. Very near our new garden, the top of a towering Corymbia (Eucalyptus) maculata is home to the permanent nest of our Red-tailed Hawks. These are our largest birds, who spend much of their daytime way up in the sky and like to nest and sleep atop the tallest trees they can find. On the other end of the size scale, the tiny Anna's hummingbirds always nest about six feet off the ground in shrubs or vines. I have seen their nests in dozens of different kinds of plants, but the smart ones seem to prefer nesting under big leaves which give them protection from the rain. The colorful Hooded Orioles are even more careful in this regard, often attaching their hanging woven-fiber nests to the undersides of large fan palm leaves, which guarantees that their nests will stay dry.
From tall trees to thickety shrubs and even palms, the more diversity of plants you have in your garden, the more kinds of birds you'll attract. Having a nice place to live is mighty important for all of us.
From tall trees to thickety shrubs and even palms, the more diversity of plants you have in your garden, the more kinds of birds you'll attract. Having a nice place to live is mighty important for all of us.
PART TWO:
Autumn is one of the very best times for butterfly watching in the garden, particularly if you grow lots of the plants they love the most. It's the end of September as I write this, and every Butterfly Bush (Buddleja) in the garden has butterflies all over it right now. It's no secret that these shrubs (which are evergreen here) are most butterflies' favorite food. Other notable "butterfly cheeseburgers" include pentas, lantana, verbena, milkweed (Asclepias), fennel, heliotrope, and various types of daisies, just to name a few.
There are lots of different kinds of butterflies in the garden now, but two you can't help but be really amazed at are the biggest ones - the Anise Swallowtail and the Monarch. These "big boys" are not only very colorful (Swallowtails are the yellow-and-black ones and Monarchs are the orange-and-black ones), but they are also strong fliers with big wings that allow them to glide rather that flutter as they fly, which is a wonderfully graceful thing to watch.
You can actually watch Anise Swallowtails and Monarchs reproduce in your garden if you plant their larval food plants. Anise Swallowtails like Fennel in particular, which is a 4-5' tall perennial (Bronze Fennel, Foeniculum vulgare 'Purpurascens', is considered the most ornamental form). For Monarchs, plant Milkweed (the 3' by 3' Asclepias curassavica cultivars are the most ornamental ones here because they're evergreen and bloom all year with either red and yellow, red and orange, or golden flowers). Imagine seeing brand new Monarch butterflies hatching out in your own garden - it can happen if you've got Milkweeds!
Autumn is one of the very best times for butterfly watching in the garden, particularly if you grow lots of the plants they love the most. It's the end of September as I write this, and every Butterfly Bush (Buddleja) in the garden has butterflies all over it right now. It's no secret that these shrubs (which are evergreen here) are most butterflies' favorite food. Other notable "butterfly cheeseburgers" include pentas, lantana, verbena, milkweed (Asclepias), fennel, heliotrope, and various types of daisies, just to name a few.
There are lots of different kinds of butterflies in the garden now, but two you can't help but be really amazed at are the biggest ones - the Anise Swallowtail and the Monarch. These "big boys" are not only very colorful (Swallowtails are the yellow-and-black ones and Monarchs are the orange-and-black ones), but they are also strong fliers with big wings that allow them to glide rather that flutter as they fly, which is a wonderfully graceful thing to watch.
You can actually watch Anise Swallowtails and Monarchs reproduce in your garden if you plant their larval food plants. Anise Swallowtails like Fennel in particular, which is a 4-5' tall perennial (Bronze Fennel, Foeniculum vulgare 'Purpurascens', is considered the most ornamental form). For Monarchs, plant Milkweed (the 3' by 3' Asclepias curassavica cultivars are the most ornamental ones here because they're evergreen and bloom all year with either red and yellow, red and orange, or golden flowers). Imagine seeing brand new Monarch butterflies hatching out in your own garden - it can happen if you've got Milkweeds!
Serving Suggestions
If you really want to attract the most butterflies possible to your garden, there are two simple but very important things to keep in mind. First is how best to serve the food, and second is to provide plenty of drinks. It turns out that butterflies (like many humans) are very impressed by buffets with really big portions (as well as a nice variety of different foods tastefully presented, of course). This probably has something to do with the way their eyes see, and perhaps also the size of their appetites. Anyway, if you plant big groupings of the same plant, it really draws them in. This multiple-planting technique also looks good to us, for big swaths of the same color brings the scale of your garden up to human size. For example, in my garden, I planted not one but 5 plants of the tall Verbena bonariensis as a background for 5 plants of the tall orange Alstroemeria 'The Third Harmonic'. This grouping is much more dramatic than one plant of each. The butterflies (verbena) and the hummingbirds (alstroemeria) are impressed, too, with plenty of flowers nearly every day of the year from these plants alone. Similar groupings nearby of 5 plants of Heliotrope (Heliotropium arborescens 'Santa Barbara') and 5 plants of Red Star Cluster (Pentas lanceolata 'Crimson Star') are equally floriferous and impressive to all. (You just never know when company might be coming, so it pays to have plants that are in bloom every day of the year!)
Got Mud?
So that's the food part, but what about the drinks? The best party hosts are always careful to provide exactly the types of drinks that their guests prefer, of course, and we all want to be good hosts. If your guests are butterflies, you just have to know what they like, and what they like is mud! Because of the way their mouthparts work, it is difficult for butterflies to drink out of pools of water, but mud or wet sand is just fine. One way to provide this in the garden is with a large, shallow saucer of screened decomposed granite that you keep wet but not flooded. Another good serving suggestion is to create a small mud puddle in a low-lying area that you keep wet (this can also be filled with decomposed granite or coarse sand if you don't like the looks of mud). Butterflies actually get mineral nutrition from mud and wet decomposed granite or sand, so think of it as "butterfly tea". (Remember to freshen-up your mud puddle from time to time, so that you're not serving yucky "tea".)
Well, that's about it for now. If you've got good food, good drinks, and some "happy meals" for their kids, you're going to make lots of new butterfly friends! Pretty soon, you'll be able to identify all the different kinds of butterflies, and get used to which seasons each one is likely to be visiting. And even if it's a rainy day and there aren't any butterflies around, you'll see that all those butterfly plants you've planted have made your garden look fantastic!
Well, that's about it for now. If you've got good food, good drinks, and some "happy meals" for their kids, you're going to make lots of new butterfly friends! Pretty soon, you'll be able to identify all the different kinds of butterflies, and get used to which seasons each one is likely to be visiting. And even if it's a rainy day and there aren't any butterflies around, you'll see that all those butterfly plants you've planted have made your garden look fantastic!
