h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

One of my successes has been with butterflies.

I began with milkweeds to provide breeding refuges for the caterpillars of monarch butterflies, found a local native vining milkweed that grows well on fencelines with 1 to 2 inch umbels of pale beige flowers that smell like vanilla and found to my delight, that not only the monarch bred well on it, so did the tiger swallowtail butterfly caterpillars,
both of which have successfully reared mature butterflies.

Another success was the desert croton, which has a eucalyptus like scent, hosting an ubiquitous grey butterfly with a 1 cm wingspan, but also a larger butterfly with bands of auquamarine blue and metallic silver on its wings.

I haven't been able to positively identify either of the latter two species yet, but since they do well on the desert croton, I'm using the croton to back up my milkweed fenceline.

Lost most of the planting while I was in the hospital last summer, except the oldest and best established plants, which have gone perennial.

Replanting, this winter.

Hello ITIWBS,

I am very sorry for taken so long in replying to your lovely message. Thank you for sharing your successes with attracting butterflies to your garden and the flowers/plants that attracted them. I hope that in spring I will be able to plant bee and butterfly wild flower seeds in my back garden and I hope I will have the same success as you have had with your plants.

My garden is quite mature but I have been problems getting to trees identified in my back garden as one of them similar to a rowan but has never had any blossom or berries.

I have had very pretty wild flowers that have tiny pink/purple petals that appeared sporadically in my front and back garden. Sadly the rosemary has died off as well as the ornamental passion flower and the blackberry bush.

I have been getting quite a number of starlings in my back garden but have not seen many sparrows or blackbirds as they have been quite numerous in other areas of Belhus and Ockendon.