Your Florida Guide to Butterfly Gardening
Your Florida Guide to Butterfly Gardening
A Guide for the Deep South
This colorful, illustrated guide shows you how simple it can be to start a butterfly garden today!
In this easy-to-use and brightly illustrated introductory guide, lepidopterist Jaret Daniels shows beginners how to create a haven for butterflies and other flower-loving wildlife in Florida and throughout the Deep South.
Updated in this second edition with new photographs and expanded to include additional species of butterflies, Your Florida Guide to Butterfly Gardening offers a thorough look at Florida’s most common garden butterflies and the plants they prefer for food, shelter, and egg laying. It helps you select plants for a yard where butterflies can live and return year after year. The book features garden layouts designed for Florida’s major growing zones and also suitable for gardens in neighboring southern states.
Full-color images show common butterflies and their caterpillars, as well as food plants and host plants. Daniels also discusses current environmental threats to butterfly species, with a special focus on the monarch butterfly, describing how humans can play an important role in sustaining native wildlife populations and promoting biodiversity through our yards and home gardens.
Praise for the first edition:
“[Specifies] many ways to attract beautiful winged creatures.”—Publishers Weekly
“Gives easy-to-follow instructions for making your garden a butterfly magnet.”—Tallahassee Democrat
“Shows that gardening to attract butterflies doesn’t take a lot of time, effort, or room.”—Tampa Tribune
“A resource you will quickly and easily assimilate, as you discover everything about why butterflies are so important and how you can create your own butterfly garden.”—Ocala Star-Banner
“Will definitely appeal to butterfly fans. It’s brimming with color photos of every butterfly you’re likely to encounter, as well as clear photos of their larval stages.”—Lakeland Ledger
“Gives readers all the information they need to start a butterfly garden.”—Stuart News
Jaret C. Daniels is a curator at the Florida Museum of Natural History’s McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity and professor in the Department of Entomology and Nematology at the University of Florida. He is the author of many books, including Butterflies of Florida Field Guide; Native Plant Gardening for Birds, Bees & Butterflies: Southeast; and Backyard Bugs: An Identification Guide to Common Insects, Spiders, and More.
CONTENTS
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . .. 1
Butterfly Gardening and Conservation . . . . . .. 4
The Four Stages of a Butterfly’s Life . . . . . . . . . 17
Butterfly Garden Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Components of a Successful Butterfly Garden . . . . . . 41
Your Florida Butterfly Garden . . . . . . . . .. 50
Common Garden Butterflies of Florida . . . . . .. 59
Guide to Butterfly-Attracting Plants . . . . . .. 115
The Special Case of the Monarch . . . . . .. 219
Quick Guide to Florida and Deep South Butterflies . . .. 228
Quick Guide to Adult Nectar Sources
for Florida and the Deep South . . . . . . . . . 236
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Additional Resources . . . . . . . . .. 243
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . .. 247
