Memorial butterfly garden for mother

14 years ago

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this forum, so please excuse any questions I may ask that may have already been asked and answered.

I need your assistance in creating a memorial garden for my mother, who recently passed away. She had always loved butterflies and her intention was to have a garden when she retired. She never made it to retirement, so IÂm going to dedicate a garden in her memory this season.

Basic background info so you all would have a better idea of our location/environment.

I live in central Texas. We have heavy clay soil; hot, hot summers, usually in the 100Âs, and some winters, like this winter, we have a hard freeze (mid-20Âs). The past couple of years we were on water restrictions, so plants need to be semi-drought tolerant.

My house is new, approximately 2 years old, so there are no mature trees at this time to provide shade. The plants would be in full sun, with shade in late afternoon on the east facade of the house. The shade garden (if I may call it that) holds a few hydrangea plants. The sun garden contains several rose bushes and one lonely purple flowering butterfly bush.

Please provide suggestions on plants and requirements that would best bring in butterflies. If IÂm able to attract some butterflies, that would mean the world to me and, in some way, my mother too.

Thanks in advance for all who answer my post.

Drey

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Comments (9)

butterflyman
14 years ago
Here's my site which has a lot of information and you can also download my book for free.

Here is a link that might be useful: Butterfly Gardening
nancy86
14 years ago
How sweet of you to do this for your mother! I'd definitely get some milkweed for the Monarchs. I use Tropical Milkweed. That would be an annual for your area. I would get a passion vine for the Gulf Frits and some senna for the sulphurs. I think there are a lot of Buckeyes in Central Texas, but I can't remember what their host plant is. I hardly ever see them in my backyard. And then I would put in lots of zinnias and as many butterfly bushes as will fit!
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What a touching and loving thing for you to do; your husband is a very lucky man. I too am not from your area but would think some of the smaller tea roses like Westside Rose Cream Tea would be wonderful; it blooms all the time and is bushy with lovely large blooms. There are wonderful climbers like Reve d'Or which bloom practically all the time. Cl. Pinkie is a darling rose you might consider. I hope that people from your area will chime in to help you with this wonderful project. The old roses like teas, Chinas and noisettes are beautiful and romantic, and will actually do better than many modern roses in terms of vigor and disease resistance. Chamblee's is a good on-line vendor in your part of the country. Have a look at their site and find some things you like and then you can always come back to the forum to ask advice about these. This is a wonderful project you're undertaking and we'd love to help you make it something beautiful, something your wonderful mother-in-law would have appreciated, and a peaceful spot for your husband to spend time being with her. Ingrid
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My Mom loved Butterflies. I planted a Butterfly Garden a year ago last Fall...my first attempt at gardening of any kind. It doesn't get enough sun to support most nectar plants (host plants do okay) so I've had to plant a LOT of pots to get sun. It started out with me just putting in some Tulips my father tried to grow for my mother and couldn't for 30 years because the deer/rabbits ate them. I wanted to give them back to him so I plant bulbs and spray the life out of them with repellant. After that I became determined to attract butterflies and it's grown from there. Hard to find things critters don't eat but manage many plants with variety of protection methods. Did your father fly a B-52 in Europe during WWII? If so, Flanders Poppies are a natural symbol of that. Native American lore is full of Hummingbird references so maybe you could plant some things with nectar for Hummers. http://hummingbirdworld.com/h/native_american.htm Annual salvia (coccinea) was a big hit and Agastache of many varieties as well. Mixed in with some smaller native grass (Little Bluestem) it would be a pretty Hummer retreat. Deer browse the bluestem so I don't have it. :( The Hummingbirds fly just like your Dad did! Besides "hummer" plants you can use other native flowering plants. The 'Native American Seed' site is linked from the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Their prices are very high but you can go through their seed offerings to get an idea of what native american flowers you might grow and then hopefully find the seed cheaper somewhere else. I've seen things like annual Texas Blue Bonnet (lupine), native red Columbine, annual/perennial Coreopsis, Gaillardia (Indian Blanket), Mealy Blue Sage, etc. on the seed rack in food markets and box stores around here so some are readily available. That Indian Paint Brush is said to look very pretty with the Texas Blue Bonnet as they bloom about same time in their natural habitat. It's a beautiful thing...gets me rambling too much. Here is a link that might be useful: Ideas for Native American Flowers
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tdogmom
14 years ago
I think this is a lovely memorial!

If you would like, I am more than happy to send you some seeds from my garden. Drop me a line at monarchfriend@yahoo.com.

I have several websites dedicated to butterflies.

My Butterfly Guide
Monarchs
Painted Ladies
perennialfan273
14 years ago
First of all, I'm extremely sorry for your loss. The plants that you want to plant kind of depends on what you're trying to attract. I wouldn't recommend planting milkweed, because milkweed prefers soil on the sandy side and you have clay soil, so this will not do.

Try to focus on plants that will tolerate clay soil. Since you're in Texas, you should check out High Country Gardens. They have an excellent selection of plants and their site will show you which plants will tolerate clay soil the best.

In fact, here's a link:

http://www.highcountrygardens.com/catalog/group/clay-soil/plants/?start_at=48
nancy86
14 years ago
Drey

I live in Houston, and all I have is clay soil. Tropical milkweed flourishes in my backyard. (Except when it freezes!)
Lisa_H OK
14 years ago
I am so sorry about your mom as well. A butterfly garden is a lovely idea.

I planted passion vines last summer and had endless entertainment with raising gulf fritillaries.

Zinnias are one of the best flowers I have in my garden for drawing butterflies.

This forum is the best resource you can have. They have taught me so much, and I am still just a beginner :)

I've attached a link to my butterfly pictures. The first couple of pages are from last year when I was chronicling the raising of swallowtails and gulf frits, but if you look back through I have pictures of butterflies and flowers I found them on. I can help you id the flowers if you need help.

Lisa

Here is a link that might be useful: Pics from my garden and butterfly raising.
vuwugarden
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks everyone for the replies and kind words. I will take all advice to heart!

I've been reading a lot of the older posts to gain more knowledge and hopefully will not bother you all with my newbie questions. :-)

I look forward to getting to know you all soon...
khakitag
14 years ago
I'm not sure where you are in central Texas, but I'm in New Braunfels, in my fourth year of butterfly gardening, and as most people will agree, it's a trial and error thing. I'm always digging up plants that don't work, and trying different ones. Some of my staples that I would not be without are...
Pipevines- lots and lots of them, and you will be inundated with pipevine swallotails.
Rue- I've had black swallowtails and Giant swallowtails lay eggs on the same plant.
Milkweed- I get even numbers of both Queens and Monarchs on my wilkweed.
Mexican sunflower (tithonia) attracts more hummingbirds and butterflies than any other flower in my garden (other than mistflower.)
Greg's Mistflower- Queens will flock to it. I've counted more than 30 BF in my small patch at once. It does spread out and take over, so make sure to have room.
Pentas- the pipevines especially love these for nectar.
Buddleia- almost any variety
There are many more in my garden, but these are must haves for me. Hope this helps, and good luck. It should be a good year, as we've finally gotten some rain
susanlynne48
14 years ago
You can add some gypsum to your clay is you want to loosen it up a bit, but generally speaking, milkweeds will grow in clay soil, especially A. incarnatum, A. curassavica, A. tuberosa even. They are pretty adaptable.

Khakitag has listed some great butterfly plants.

Welcome to the forum!

Susan

Memorial butterfly garden for mother

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