The Butterfly Plants

One of the shots I took at the Tucson Botanical Gardens "Butterfly Magic Display"

I thought I would begin this series as a way to get people excited for summer!!!  This year my focus is going to be on butterfly plants in the planters around the property.  I'll be working at the Tucson Botanical Gardens this week today at 9 AM and on Thursday morning at the same time in the Butterfly Pavilion so if you've got some time, come and join us at the Gardens.  If you haven't gone before, this exhibit is spectacular.  So you want to attract butterflies to your garden?  Who doesn't?  We are very lucky in the Desert Southwest to have these beautiful insects flying around our gardens for a good part of the year.  Plant the right plants and they'll come.  Today at 3 PM, I'll kick off this new plant series and get you thinking about some things you can do to attract these beautiful creatures into our Tucson gardens.  It's not hard to do and you'll be surprised at what plants are out there for you to use around your place. I'll admit that I was intimidated by this idea at first, but after visiting several Tucson gardens, I discovered this was an easy thing to do.  There are some bushier plants and vines that will be featured in this upcoming series.  If you are wanting to know more now, you can check out my previous posts from last year on butterflies by typing the word into the search box at the beginning of the blog.  You'll find some videos and pics that show you what a patch of a butterfly garden would look like. Several butterflies are present in Tucson throughout most of the year. You can often see sulfurs, queens, gulf fritillaries, or buckeyes well into November. By starting your garden now in the warm weather, you'll be promoting an area for butterflies to visit in just a matter of a month!