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Dave: Hi! I am Dave Epstein. This is Growing Wisdom. We are here with Ralph Schilling at New England Wildflower Society’s Garden in the Woods. And a lot of you at home, I got some great e-mails about how do you create a butterfly or a wildlife garden. And we want to talk about using native plants and it is not just about, “Oh, there is a butterfly on my flower.” It is more than that, is it not?
Ralph: Right. A lot of butterflies need to feed on native plants. They have an obligate relationship with them. They are only food plants are found amongst our native plants here and the Astra family’s best place to start, which includes the black-eyed Susan, the bee balms, sunflowers, blazing stars, cone flowers.
Dave: So, the Astra family.
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Dave: And, this particular one that I have here,
Ralph: That is a Monardo bee balm. Swallowtails love this. Zebra swallowtails, black swallowtails, pipe vine swallowtails, monarchs, viceroys.
Dave: Tell me about what the butterfly stages and how they interact with the plants.
Ralph: A lot of times, there are different plants that the butterflies lay their eggs on from the plants that they feed on as caterpillars and then feed on as adults. So, you really want to have a range of plants. But first, just like the monarchs feed on milkweeds as larvae and they lay their eggs on them, but as adults, they feed on a huge range of plants and actually love the blazing stars.
Dave: You could do those plants you mentioned.
Ralph: Sure.
Dave: Right in the container, could you not?
Ralph: Oh, yes. Absolutely. There is no reason skip butterfly garden just because you are living in urban areas. It is actually an oasis for them. They are out there in the urban areas. So, they can do butterfly gardening anywhere.
Dave: So, we her so much today about green. It is like the “buzz” word and this seems to me another way that people might not think of. You are creating, like you used the word oasis. Right?
Ralph: Right.
Dave: It is really is an oasis that you can build.
Ralph: Absolutely, I mean, Garden in the Woods here at New England Wallflower Society is an oasis at the middle of the suburbia. This is 47 acres of woods and gardens in an area that is mostly pavement and your home and any urban situation can be the same thing. The best things you can do ecologically is to provide a stopping spot for butterflies and other insects to feed along their way in an urban area,
Dave: Not only creating something beautiful for the butterflies but we get to benefit from it as well.
Ralph: We get all the beauty.
Dave: We do. Ralph, I really appreciate it, thanks a lot. And I hope that you have learned a little bit here. Butterfly gardens are not just that you have to create this big meadow. You can create a nice container and the butterflies will come. If you build it, they will come. Come back every week for all of our tips, hints and helps at growingwisdom.com.
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