Don't squash the caterpillars! Linda Blue explores the discerning tastes of backyard butterflies. (Organic Living).

When Nancy and Bob Baldwin moved to their retirement home in the mountains of western North Carolina, they quickly rediscovered their love of gardening. Before long, they were carving out sweeps of lawn grass to create curving beds for shrubs, roses and flowers. Their rural location with sweeping views of the surrounding mountains also proved ideal for enjoying a variety of wildlife in the garden area.

Although they have planned their gardens to provide food and homes for a variety of wildlife, they have become especially devoted to the butterfly population. Nancy Baldwin says, "The more we started paying attention to the different types of butterflies we saw in the garden, the more interested we became in identifying them. Of course, that led to wanting to learn what types of flowers would attract which types of butterflies." The Baldwins' interest in butterflies has grown so much that they have become active members of the Carolina Butterfly Society which is headquartered in Greensboro, NC.

Butterfly enthusiasts quickly learn that simply planting certain types of flowers to attract butterflies is only part of the picture when gardening with butterflies in mind. The gardener might also want to consider things that will encourage the butterflies to stay awhile--even raising the next generation.

The location of the butterfly garden is not critical, but sunny spots usually work best. The Baldwins' sunny hilltop might be considered ideal for a large variety of butterfly species. But don't let location stop you. Butterflies will visit a small wooded lot if the right plants are there to attract them.

Butterflies will be attracted to almost any brightly colored flower, but they do have their favorites. Baldwin says, "For nectar plants, it's hard to beat butterfly bush for attracting a variety of butterflies. But we like to use a lot of annual flowers too. A couple of my favorites are Tithonia (Mexican sunflower), and Asclepias annus, an annual butterfly weed".

Other recommended nectar plants include Caryopteris (blue mist shrub), Monarda (bee balm), Joe Pye weed, asters, sedums, Echinacea (purple coneflower), marigolds, lantana, verbenas and zinnia. When selecting nectar plants, be sure to consider each plant's bloom period. You will want to make sure you have several attractive plants blooming from spring through fall.

But you may want to go a step further than simply enticing butterflies to pass through your garden. To do your part to help increase the population of butterflies, you need to do more than provide food for the adult butterfly. Butterflies also need water, shelter, and basking spots. They also need to reproduce. And that means caterpillars.

According to Baldwin, "While we are happy to see birds, bees, and butterflies in our gardens, we are often not so happy to see caterpillars munching on our plants. But of course, to have butterflies you first have to have caterpillars." And butterflies have to eat.

It is interesting to note that most caterpillar species are very specific as to their food source. They are so adapted to eating only certain plants, that even when faced with starvation, they cannot eat something else. So it becomes important to learn about the life cycles of the different butterfly species that live in your area and what plants are needed for their larva. The female butterflies are pretty smart. They usually will only lay their eggs on plants their offspring can eat.

Gardeners who use insecticides on all their garden plants "just in case" there might be some pesky insect about often kill more butterflies and their babies as well as beneficial insects than they do pests. Even organic products may kill these innocent bystanders if not used carefully.

The Baldwin's plan into their garden as many larval "host plants" as they can. They say that "people worry about the plants looking ugly because the caterpillars chew up the leaves. But if you mix your host plants in with other plants, usually you will hardly notice the damage."

For example, dill and fennel are good plants for the caterpillars of the black swallowtail butterfly. These are tall plants that work well at the back of the flower bed. With all the other plants in front of them, the caterpillars seldom eat enough foliage to even be noticeable. Other good larva plants include milkweeds and butterfly weeds (for Monarch larva), snapdragons (buckeye larva), sassafras (spicebush swallowtail), violets (spangled fritillary), cherry trees (tiger swallowtail and viceroy) and honeysuckle (hummingbird moth).

The Baldwins feel that gardeners should remember that lack of adequate host plants and inappropriate use of pesticides have contributed to the decline in the populations of many species of butterflies. Nancy Baldwin will explain more about providing for butterflies at the 9th Annual Organic Growers School in Asheville, NC.

Linda Blue is an Agricultural Extension Agent in Buncombe County, NC.