Butterflies seeking sap

Garden volunteers, Master Gardeners, and fellow butterfly enthusiasts Carolyn and John Turner told me today about butterflies visiting oozing sap on an oak near the Caboose Parking area and showed me some remarkable photos. 

There were Red Admirals, and Commas, and others taking advantage of the fresh sap, perhaps as a consequence of Yellow-Bellied Sapsuckers drilling into the bark.

Garden horticulturist Kathy Bridges had alerted them to this, having just observed the masses of butterflies, and having talked with the Turners that morning;  it was the regular maintenance volunteer day for the Butterfly Garden.

Hopefully, I'll be able to post a few of their photos!

The 'new' Butterfly Garden

Our new Butterfly Garden site, planted last fall and added to this spring has proved to be an excellent one.  Shelter from wind, combined with plenty of sun, has created a wonderful spot to see adult butterflies, and their caterpillars.

A recent Butterfly Garden tour (under the aegis of the Carolina Butterfly Society and the Garden) found us excitedly seeing Cloudless Sulfur and Dusky Orange caterpillars on Cassia, Black Swallowtail caterpillars on fennel, Monarch caterpillars on Common milkweed, and Gulf Fritillary and Zebra caterpillars on passionvine.  The caterpillars are exciting because host plants are a fundamental element of our butterfly garden design, in its new incarnation below the Children's Garden.

We saw plenty of adult butterflies, too. Quite a magical morning, in spite of the cloudy weather. Photos to come (it's been a busy couple of weeks...)

Butterfly gardening

We'll be breaking ground for a 'new' Butterfly Garden near the Nature Center (in the Children's Garden area) in early August. It's an exciting opportunity to add more host plants for the caterpillars of native butterflies, but also to demonstrate the wonderful range of nectar plants that Upstate gardeners can grow in their gardens. Stay tuned!

I visited a seasonal butterfly house today that was simple and effective - an excellent model for the seasonal house that we hope to have in the future.

First spring butterflies

I saw a couple of sulfur butterflies swirling up in a courtship spiral early this afternoon. They're the first butterflies I've seen this spring! I'm not sure which they were, possibly Little Yellows.


This Cloudless Sulphur, taken by Gene Hanson, is visiting Lantana flowers. Gene was kind enough to let us use some of his butterfly images for interpretive signage.