Butterfly Gardening: Creating Summer Magic in Your Garden

by The Xerces Society, Smithsonian Institution, Edward O. Wilson (Introduction)

This revised edition of the classic handbook describes how to attract butterflies and other beneficial and beautiful insects to your garden. It presents everything the gardener needs to know to create intricate, small-scale ecosystems in an urban or suburban setting that can substitute for the rapidly vanishing habitats that are essential to the survival of butterflies.
Contributors to this volume include Miriam Rothschild, an eminent entomologist, avid butterfly gardener, and expert in wildflower conservation, who describes the life cycle of butterflies, how and what they see, and how this relates to "gardening with butterflies." Landscape architect Mary Booth provides imaginative garden designs and easy-to-follow directions for designing and planting. Edward S. Ross, pioneer of close-up nature photography, discusses observing and photographing butterflies.
The book also includes a "Master Plant List" of species that attract butterflies, butterfly food plants listed by geographic region, seed and plant resources, a list of gardening and conservation organizations, and a bibliography of books and periodicals about butterflies.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction, Reference

208 pages, Paperback

First published September 19, 1990

Reviews

[Quirkyreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Granted, this book is 30 years old and the Earth has changed since then, it still contains good information and all the essays are worth a read.

But be mindful of what the suggested plants for you growing zone are, a plant that thrived there 30 years ago might not thrive today, and a plant that wouldn’t thrive at all might be a good choice. Mostly keep in mind though, staying native and not planting something just because it looks pretty. Our ecosystem has become increased fragile and planting non native species could have negative side effects.

[Quirkyreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second edition was a good as the first.

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of information about butterflies in general. The small chapter on butterfly garden design by Melody Mackey Allen is very helpful. Other than that the book is more about butterflies than butterfly gardening.

[Christina]

As part of my weeding my gardening books project, I just skimmed through this to see if I should keep it. It’s a collection of essays by different authors on a range of topics. One is selecting plants and planning a butterfly garden, which is what I was looking for. I learned at a gardening lecture that specific species of butterflies have specific host plants and nectar plants. So you need both food for caterpillars in the form of certain plants, as well as the plants for the pretty butterflies to feed from.
This book also contains essays on things like butterfly photography, butterfly watching tips and the life cycle of butterflies.

Verdict: Seems conprehensive and wirth keeping.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I were forced to only have one book on butterfly and caterpillar gardening, this would be the one. The Xerces Society is the only American nonprofit I know of that is dedicated to conservation of invertebrates, and all their books on helping to create invertebrate habitats are wonderful references for gardeners, farmers, and others interested in helping to conserve these important but often undervalued critters.

[Jessica Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this little book - each short essay was filled with valuable information.

Robert Michael Pyle's afterword is particularly important. I especially relate to Pyle's concern about what he calls 'extinction of experience' - the loss of everyday species within our own radius of reach.

[De · Rating 2 out of 5]

There was way more fluff on enjoying butterflies as opposed to how to garden to attract them - perhaps 2:1 ratio of fluff to real info. However, I'm inspired to plant a butterfly/insectary garden based on their slim advice and beautiful photography.