The Birds, Bees and Butterflies with the Westmont Garden Club

CONEFLOWER

The Travelling Toe attended the monthly meeting of the Westmont Garden Club.

The program topic was “Birds, Bees, Butterflies:  The Pollinators”.  It was presented by Master Gardner Sher Dunaway with her able assistant, husband Bill Dunaway.

Sher Dunaway
Master Gardner

Bill Dunaway
tech support

Tarrant County Master Gardner

The first topic in Sher’s presentation was creating a haven for butterflies, who are considered the flying jewels of the sky

There are over 400 species of butterflies in Texas.  It is one of the most diverse states in the US for butterflies.  Sher talked about one of the most spectacular butterflies that migrate through Texas and that is the Monarch Butterfly.  The Monarch has the longest know distance of any insect migration. 

Monarch Butterfly

The female is lightly darker than the male and also has slightly wider wing veins.  The males have a small spot on the inside of their wing.  The most important plant for the Monarch is milkweed.  The most common types of milkweed are:

                    Antelope Horn          Green Milkweed            

                         Swamp Milkweed - which is native to Texas

           

                    Butterfly Weed         Tropical Milkweed

Monarch caterpillars feed on milkweed.  Eggs are laid in the spring and it takes 3-4 weeks for caterpillars to complete the cycle.  To attract butterflies to your garden, the best perennials and annuals to plant are:

                     Cone Flower              Milkweed                       Asters

                     Parsley                       Hollyhocks                     Spider Flower

Trees that can serve as host sites for butterflies are:

    

         Apple                        Cherry                               Plum                Dogwood

These plants have short tubular blossoms that provide easy landing for the butterflies:

   Bee Balm             Purple Cornflower           Lantana                     Butterfly Bush

To provide a source of nectar the plants suggested are:

             Tree Peony               Zinnia                            Scabosa                         

             Marigold                 Coreopsis                 Antique White Rose

Ensure that these plants are in a sunny location as butterflies need the sun to warm their bodies.  Also place a few flat stones in sunny locations next to the nectar sources so they will have a place to warm up.  Butterflies do need access to a water source and will drink from puddles or muddy areas.  They also enjoy various fruits.  To attract butterflies have continual blooms in your garden from spring through fall.

From butterflies we moved on to discuss bees as pollinators.   Bees are the most important insect when it comes to pollination.  One in three bites of food depends on the honeybee.  Example:  80% of the world’s almond production comes from California.  1.6 million colonies of honeybees must be transported to the orchards before the almond trees flower. Honeybees are not native to the New World but came from Europe with the first settlers.

Honeybee

Vanilla is the second most expensive spice after saffron.   The Millepora Bee must pollinate the vanilla orchard on the day the flower blooms.   If the orchid is not pollinated it will wilt and drop off after a single day.  Vanilla orchids survive only in the tropics.

Vanilla Orchid

Bee colony collapse disorder is due to these causes:

Use of pesticides

Increase of urban development

Extreme weather conditions

Poor colony health

Asian Varroa mite

Asian Varroa mite

The next pollinators discussed were birds.  North Central Texas lies beneath one of four fast lanes of North America.  The bird migration is called the Central Flyway.

To attract birds to a garden requires:

             Bird feeders         Nesting boxes              Bird baths

Also, trees and shrubs provide shelter and food.

Backyard birds in Texas most normally seen are:

            
        Robin       Blue Jays       Cardinal      Hummingbird      Downey Woodpecker

                        
                           Mockingbird           Doves

Cardinal

Native trees and shrubs that attract birds are:

   
                            Beauty Berry       Blackberry     Crap Apple

                           Fir                         Juniper          Hawthorne Shrub

Ornamental Grasses can also be used to attract birds:

  
                        Mexican feather grass    Basket grass    Big Muley

Silver Spike Ornamental Grass

Hummingbirds are the jewels of the garden and are the only bird who extend its tongue to lap up nectar.  They are attracted to the shade of red so these are good plants for the Hummingbird:

      
                      Honeysuckle       Red Yucca      Turks Cap     Bee Balm

                         Cora Bells           Sandy Cypress       Fuchsia

Hummingbird

The program ended with the thought that we are all stewards of the land and must protect it and the creatures in it.