Butterfly Garden

WHEN EAST MIDDLE School's sixth-graders came back from outdoor school completely enthused about nature, there was only one thing to do."Strike while the iron is hot," said Heather Goodhart, the school's Integrated Language Arts specialist, who helped shape that excitement into the creation of a butterfly garden at the Westminster school. The pupils applied for a $500 grant from the Hashawha Environmental Center designed to provide outdoor gardens at schools, Goodhart said."The kids had to write it," she said, adding the application entailed answering questions such as why are you doing this project, what value will it be for wildlife, and how will this habitat be used by you and future classes.

I want to plant a butterfly garden for my grandchildren. What plants would you suggest beyond butterfly bush? While butterfly bush quickly comes to mind, it is not the best by itself. It provides nectar but no food for the other life stage of butterflies, i.e. caterpillar. No caterpillars means no butterflies, so caterpillar food sources are important. Butterflies evolved feeding upon native plants, and some species can be very particular, only eating one type of plant. For shrubs and trees, you can try summersweet (clethra)

IN SPITE OF RECENT blustery weather, some folks are thinking spring.At Elmer Wolfe Elementary School, plans for a butterfly garden are well under way, with fourth-grade parents Cinda Bertier and Lisa Spence heading a parent-teacher committee to design, plan and oversee the welcoming garden spot at the entrance to the school. Spence is also a horticulturist for the county.The garden will not only enhance the school grounds, but is designed to honor a longtime teacher at Elmer Wolfe, Joan Meyers, a New Windsor resident who has retired from teaching.

Reservoir Hill's Whitelock Street, once known for its thriving businesses, is known more today for violence and illegal drugs. On Thursday, the Baltimore Ravens and a nonprofit organization built a new playground and butterfly garden at German Park in an effort to aid the long-troubled neighborhood. The old playground at German Park was built in 1979. But the wooden structure, built over concrete, proved dangerous and has fallen into disuse in recent years. The new playground is built from metal and plastic over a foundation of mulch and rubber.

Reservoir Hill's Whitelock Street, once known for its thriving businesses, is known more today for violence and illegal drugs. On Thursday, the Baltimore Ravens and a nonprofit organization built a new playground and butterfly garden at German Park in an effort to aid the long-troubled neighborhood. The old playground at German Park was built in 1979. But the wooden structure, built over concrete, proved dangerous and has fallen into disuse in recent years. The new playground is built from metal and plastic over a foundation of mulch and rubber.

Plant the right flowers, shrubs and trees and they will come. The monarchs, swallowtails, sulphurs, American coppers, gray hairstreaks, hackberrys, painted ladies, red admirals, skippers, mourning cloaks, fritillaries, question marks, little wood satyrs, cabbage whites -- all butterflies -- will both enjoy and enhance a Maryland garden.There are 524 types of butterflies east of the Mississippi, says Rob Mardiney, director of education at the Irvine Natural Science Center in Stevenson, and the Maryland gardener can attract a fair representation of them.

NORFOLK, Va. -- Holly Cruser's heart flutters when she spies a butterfly, especially if it's feasting on the sweet nectar of a blossom."A swallowtail can work one buddleia panicle a day," says Cruser, referring to the flower clusters of the plant commonly called the butterfly bush.Talking with visitors about the recent opening of the new 2-acre Bristow Butterfly Garden at Norfolk Botanical Garden, Cruser leaves the group to walk over to where she can get a better look at a butterfly she can't readily identify.

Butterflies are welcome visitors to most gardeners. Choose the right plants, add some amenities and you can encourage them to stay awhile.For best results, select a place in your yard that receives full sun for at least six hours a day and has adequate drainage. If you don't have a yard, you still can have a butterfly garden -- just think smaller and plant your garden in a window box or container.For ease of maintenance, plan a garden that is no larger than 10 by 12 feet. Butterflies may be wild, but the plants aren't: They'll need watering and weeding.

When 200 Painted Ladies are released in Mount Washington next Sunday at 3 p.m., surely some of them will decide to make Wesley Home their permanent home. Maybe they'll even be joined by a few Black Swallowtails, Tiger Swallowtails, Cabbage Whites and Red Admirals.Even the most finicky butterfly would be lured by the brilliant orange butterfly weed, flowering Russian sage and other enticements designer Gary Baverstock has planted in the retirement community's new butterfly garden.With a diameter of about 15 feet, the island garden -- it's in the middle of Wesley Home's front lawn -- is small enough that amateur gardeners can easily duplicate it. The plantings are all common annuals and perennials available at local nurseries.

SECOND-GRADE teacher Ginny Ellingsworth got the idea of planting a butterfly garden with her pupils at Thunder Hill Elementary School after reading an article in The Sun about the Dorsey Hall Garden Club."

There is at least one alternative available to reduce the use of harmful chemicals on lawns in Maryland ("Less-toxic lawns in Md.," March 16): Grow less grass. If you drive through Baltimore County in the winter you may have noticed that many lawns and highway medians are an ugly shade of brown. Instead of growing grass, better to use a variety of ground covering plants, native shrubs and trees and a variety of mulch that requires no mowing and very little water. For example, a butterfly garden can be beneficial to a variety of wildlife and be much more attractive than grass.

After working 32 years in the U.S. diplomatic corps, Tom and Madeline Wajda were looking to retire, but instead bought a farm in southern Pennsylvania and found a new business in the field of purple. Lavender, that is — and lots of it. So much that the couple created a festival in 2001 to celebrate the crop. Back then, a few hundred people showed up, but this year's Pennsylvania Lavender Festival, which begins Friday, is expected to draw 3,000 visitors for lectures, tours and weed walks.

I love butterflies. I planted a butterfly bush. What do I plant next? Butterfly bushes attract butterflies but cannot sustain a single native species. Surprisingly, to "grow" butterflies, the best plants are oak, willow and black cherry, followed by other native trees and shrubs including birch, maple, pine, walnut, blueberry, sassafras and spicebush. Top perennials are goldenrod, asters, sunflower, joe pye weed, morning glory, sedges and honeysuckle. Every year ragged holes make my hostas an ugly mess, and I hate them.

It has been more than two decades in the planting, but the new National Garden, which can trace its roots to the rose, opened to the public this week in Washington. At the foot of the nation's Capitol, it is actually four separate gardens on 3 acres behind the U.S. Botanic Garden's glass-domed conservatory. It includes a rose garden to honor the national flower, a regional garden featuring the variety of plants that thrive in the Mid-Atlantic climate, a mosaic fountain to honor the nation's first ladies and a butterfly garden, paid for with more than a half-million fundraising dollars from the nation's garden clubs.

Carina Flaherty points to a feathery mound of pale yellow blossoms. "Coreopsis `Moonbeam,' my favorite," she says nonchalantly, moving on to pentas, sedum, bee balm and assorted other Latin and common names for what's growing in her family's tiny Philadelphia garden. Garden educators, always looking for ways to introduce kids to a world still primarily enjoyed by adults, would swoon over this lively 9-year-old. She's living proof that kids can dig gardening big time, if given the chance.

Once a week, fourth-graders Andrew Kuczmarski, Kelly Schwab and Cassie Gettinger volunteer to give up their recess. While their classmates shoot hoops and climb on Waterloo Elementary's playground equipment, these three children tend the school's butterfly garden. "It's not like you're inside on a beautiful day," said 9-year-old Andrew. "You're going outside and you're helping your school." Waterloo was designated a Governor's Green School in 1999, receiving recognition for inclusion of environmental awareness in its curriculum, community outreach programs and maintenance of the school facility, including the butterfly garden.

There is at least one alternative available to reduce the use of harmful chemicals on lawns in Maryland ("Less-toxic lawns in Md.," March 16): Grow less grass. If you drive through Baltimore County in the winter you may have noticed that many lawns and highway medians are an ugly shade of brown. Instead of growing grass, better to use a variety of ground covering plants, native shrubs and trees and a variety of mulch that requires no mowing and very little water. For example, a butterfly garden can be beneficial to a variety of wildlife and be much more attractive than grass.

It has been more than two decades in the planting, but the new National Garden, which can trace its roots to the rose, opened to the public this week in Washington. At the foot of the nation's Capitol, it is actually four separate gardens on 3 acres behind the U.S. Botanic Garden's glass-domed conservatory. It includes a rose garden to honor the national flower, a regional garden featuring the variety of plants that thrive in the Mid-Atlantic climate, a mosaic fountain to honor the nation's first ladies and a butterfly garden, paid for with more than a half-million fundraising dollars from the nation's garden clubs.

Donna Meoli, youth group leader at Emmanuel United Methodist Church in Laurel, brought seven teen-agers to the far reaches of Baltimore's harbor yesterday. They didn't come to sightsee or shop, but to help clear the shores of Middle Branch of debris. The group worked with more than 400 other volunteers who joined the city's first Middle Branch Clean Up, an effort that targeted about 8 miles of shoreline layered with trash. The teens climbed over rocks, occasionally slipping into the cool water near the Baltimore Rowing Club.

In case you didn't know, butterflies are in trouble. "Butterflies desperately need our help," says butterfly breeder Rick Mikula, author of the award-winning Family Butterfly Book and owner of Hole-in-Hand Butterfly Farm in Pennsylvania. "The destruction of habitat is killing butterflies. The more asphalt we lay, the more wildflowers we replace with hybrids and ornamentals, and the more insecticides we spray, the fewer the wings that will fill the sky." In an effort to reverse butterfly loss, Mikula breeds, raises and releases butterflies.