Jonny and I went to Butterfly World. It was Amazing! You will never see as many butterflies as you see in this place! They have so many different kinds of plants and butterflies. They also have a nursery area where you can see the butterflies coming out of their chrysalis.

They gave me a list of plants to use for butterfly gardening. The following are larval plants for South Florida yards:

Dutchman’s Pipe (Any Aristolochia spp.) for the Polydamas Swallowtail

Wild Lime (Zanthoxylum fagara) and Citris (Ruta spp.) for the Giant Swallowtail

Passion Vine (Passiflora spp.—Suberosa, Incense, Incarnata) for the Zebra Longwing, Julia, and Gulf Fritillary

Wild Senna (Cassia spp.—Shrubs: Alata, Didymobotrya, Coluteoides; Trees: Surratensis, Fistula) for the Orange-barred Sulphur butterfly and the Cloudless Sulphur butterfly

Milkweed (Asclepias Curassavica) for the Monarch and the Queen butterflies

Their recommendations for nectar plants are as follows (plant in abundance): Buddleia (Butterfly Bush), Heliotrope, Lantana, Milkweed, Mint, Pentas, Porterweed, Verbena, and Zinnias.

For our butterfly garden, we planted a bunch of Milkweed plants. We were fortunate enough to have tons of fat Monarch caterpillars on each plant. They came like that straight from this amazing nursery that we go to (Abell’s Nursery). They don’t spray pesticides. There are always butterflies fluttering around their plants.

After planting the milkweed, we counted 25 monarch caterpillars. There were most likely more since they hang under the leaves to eat. I was thrilled to watch these caterpillars much on the leaves. Their size indicated that they were within hours or days of forming their chrysalis.

Later that day, we went to check out the caterpillars. We noticed a large wasp hovering around the plants. Then, to our horrifying surprise, the wasp stung one of the caterpillars. White liquid squirted from the caterpillar and within a minute, the wasp had devoured the entire caterpillar. I was very upset and feared that the wasp would eat more of them. I thought about creating a cage around the plants to keep the wasps out, but we were busy that day and we went about our errands.

A few hours later, we returned home to find absolutely NO caterpillars on the milkweed plants. NOT ONE! I was heartbroken. These huge caterpillars only had a few days until they formed their chrysalis. At that point, I decided that I would start a little caterpillar nursery so that I could raise a few without wasp interference. Online, they sell pop-up mesh butterfly cases for $15.00 and up (plus shipping). I decided I couldn’t wait, so I went to Target and bought a pop-up mesh hamper and 3 milkweed plants.

The monarch butterflies definitely are laying eggs on our milkweed plants. I have already put 5 small caterpillars into the nursery. We released our second butterfly from the nursery this morning, and we have two that formed their chrysalis and the rest are still munching. Two have managed to disappear from spiders. I guess you can’t stop nature.

Here is a picture of my creation:

Over the last few months, we have been working on our butterfly garden. I worried that even though we planted the garden, that the butterflies would not come. Friends have told me that they have not had success with butterfly gardens. I am confident that the reason MUST be their pesticide use.

It is imperative that weed killers and other pesticides are NOT used anywhere near your butterfly garden. Actually, they should not be used at all.

The very weekend that we planted our backyard islands, we could see butterflies flying around them. The plants that we used were:

Milkweed: This is one of the BEST plants you could possibly have in your butterfly garden. The monarch butterflies LOVE it. We seem to see various butterflies around this plant throughout the day. This is the larval host plant for the Monarch Butterfly. Unfortunately, the monarch caterpillars in our yard don’t last very long due to the hungry wasps. I created a little “butterfly nursery” out of a spiral pop-up hamper that I bring the baby caterpillars to so that they will not be eaten. Inside the hamper, I have 3 small milkweed plants. These are more beautiful than I thought they would be.

Passion Vine: This is another absolute MUST in your butterfly garden. The passion vine is a host plant to 3 kinds of butterflies. Gulf Fritillary butterfly, Julia butterfly, and the Zebra Longwing butterfly. So far, we have only seen the Gulf Fritillary caterpillars and butterflies. They don’t have any predators in my yard, so there are tons of caterpillars on it. You can see the holes on the leaves made by the caterpillars. You may be able to see some of the Gulf Fritillary caterpillars in the photo (they are orange with black spikes).

Lantana: We are using two kinds of Lantana in our yard (pink/yellow flowers and orange/red flowers). They all have beautiful color. They seem to be a popular nectar source for various butterflies.

Pentas: We have pink and red pentas. Our pink ones are established and very popular to the butterflies. I haven’t seen butterflies on the red ones, but they are very small right now.

Pink Porterweed, Cat Whiskers, Swamp Lilly: All good nectar sources for various butterflies.

If you wanted to start a butterfly garden, I would recommend the following plants to start with:

1.) Milkweed (put this throughout your yard, and get LOTS of it)

2.) Passion Vine

3.) Various nectar plants like Pentas, Lantana, and Porterweed. You can have a butterfly garden for very little money by having these plants. Just be sure NOT TO SPRAY anything on or around the plants. This goes for bug spray as well as weed spray.

My family has experienced a lot of joy in watching the butterflies in our yard. I never tire of watching them flutter from flower to flower, knowing that they can live their entire life, happily, here in my yard.

Here are some pictures of a Florida Soft Shell Turtle laying eggs in my backyard.  This picture was taken in Lake Worth, Florida.

 Dear Andria,

This is a little late as it was meant to be a birthday gift for you, but I guess it is better late than never as the saying goes. This website is dedicated to you as a place for you to escape and write about all of the things you love such as butterfly gardening, bird watching, home schooling and growing with Jonny, anti-toxin research and awareness, and anything else that you desire. I will teach you how to post journal entries, pictures, and videos. No one can take away from your views, research, and love here. This is your place babe.

Welcome to your Butterfly Place!

I love You.
-Mike