Sea Holly

We've been trying to add more plants to the butterfly garden in the front yard to attract more butterflies. The Monarchs prefer the Asclepia; in fact, they like it so much that the caterpillars who hatched out in the late fall pretty much stripped all the Asclepia plants out there.  The plants are coming back slowly, but the Monarchs will also reappear soon and start laying eggs again, so we're hoping to have enough Asclepia by the time they do.

Sea Holly

While we love Monarchs, we also want to provide plants that other butterflies may like as well.  Cindy is going to take some parsley and some of the volunteer dill plants that have sprouted in the vegetable garden in back and transplant them to the butterfly garden to attract more of the Anise Swallowtails and other butterflies that like those plants.  We're hoping that if we can attract them to the butterfly garden,  that will keep them far enough away from the Scrub Jays that visit the vegetable garden in the back yard; Scrub Jays regard any caterpillars in the backyard as a legitimate part of the free buffet.

She also recently planted a very beautiful Sea Holly (Eryngium) in the butterfly garden, hoping to attract butterflies such as the Painted Ladies and Mylitta Crescents that like thistles.

I don't know about the Checkerspot butterflies, though:  They like figworts, and I have no idea what a figwort is.