Butterfly Garden

While the asclepia and monarda have already started to fade, the Butterfly garden is particularly appealing in the the late summer, when the Buddelia go into high gear bloom, and emit a pleasant, sweet smell. The asters start to form their buds, but are not quite in full glory until September.

In the late 1990's, we witnessed large numbers of Swallowtails in our butterfly garden, and we attracted a healthy number of Monarchs among the milkweed plants in our wetland as well. On some days, we could see dozens of butterflies and moths flying about our garden.

While our observations are strictly anecdotal, we have noticed a huge drop off in the number of butterflies, beginning three years ago. While we believe the malithion spraying for West Nile misquitoes might have played a role, we can't help but wonder what kind of an impact the die off of Monarchs in Mexico during the winter of 2001-2 has had on the population. As of early August, 2002, we have yet to see one butterfly visit our garden. Let's hope this is not a sign of things to come.

photo courtesy of the Riverdale Press, September 10, 1998