Enjoy a flutter (General Garden)

Member Name: gailsmith

Product:	General Garden
Date:	17/11/00 (105 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Create you own beautiful butterflies!!!

Disadvantages: needs a bit of looking after

Having your very own butterfly house isn't quite the flight of fancy you imagine.
In fact, with just a little leg work you could soon have their colourful beauty adding a magical touch to your patch.
To start with, you need to heat the greenhouse during the spring. then pop in a few plants like passion flowers and Mexican orange blossom for the caterpillars to munch.
The next step is to add some long-flowering nectar-rich favourites such as marigolds, for the butterflies to feed on. Now you're well on the way.And you can still use it as a normal greenhouse-except you won't be able to use pesticides as virtually all of them, even the organic ones, are harmful to butterflies. You'll also have to put some fine mesh over the doors and vents to stop the butterflies flying out.
Now you've got the perfect environment for them, you need to get a few in there.
The easiest way to start off is to get some pupae, once you've got the pupae,see them hatch out a few days later...... and then let nature over. The average lifespan of a butterfly is 14 days-but during that time they do little else but eat and breed, so it doesn't take long to build up stocks.
Most of the butterflies and caterpilars are a bit picky about their food-so you need to know what they like. The monarch variety, for instance adores the lovely orange-red blood flower. Others prefer rotting fruit.
A perfect meal for them is a mix of mashed banana, apple juice, yoghurt and sugar water.
But whatever they eat butterflies always guarantee a real feast for the eyes.
And now you've got no excuse and every reason to have a flutter on your own patch of paradise.
For more information on butterflies you can read The living tropical greenhouse by the Guild of Master Craftsmen.
You can also visit one of the special display houses such as the Butterfly and Falconry park, Long Sutton, Norfolk; the Tropical Butterfly House in Sheffield;The Stratford u
pon Avon Butterfly Farm; and the London Butterfly House, Syon Park.

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