Books for People Who Love Butterflies and Other Creatures
prepared by Pat Thomas, St. Louis County Master Gardener
@ please request permission
to reprint
BUTTERFLY AND WILDLIFE GARDENING
Brooklyn Botanic Garden Series. Watch for their Butterfly Gardening Handbook, edited by Claire Hagen Dole, scheduled for summer 2003.
Damrosch, Barbara. Theme Gardens.NY: Workman Publishing Company, l982
Learn how to plan and grow different kinds of gardens, one of which
is a butterfly garden.
Ernst, Ruth Shaw. The Naturalist's Garden. Old Saybrook, CT: Globe
Pequot Press, l993
Well written and informative book with bibliography and resources. Chapter
8 deals with butterfly gardening with appropriate flowers, trees and
shrubs.
Henderson, Carrol L. Landscaping for Wildlife. St Paul, MN: Department
of Natural Resources, l987 (more recent version available)
Valuable resource for creating wildlife habitat. Excellent lists of
plants, trees, shrubs and vines to attract butterflies, bees, moths
and other creatures to your yard. Most highly recommended.
Merilees, Rick. Attracting Backyard Wildlife. Stillwater, MN: Voyageur
Press, l989
Chapter 2 dedicated to butterflies. Useful appendix for locating agencies
involved in wildlife matters and good bibliography for further reading.
Mikula, Rick. The Family Butterfly Book. Pownal, VT: Storey Books,
2000
This field guide to 40 common species of North American butterflies
makes it easy to identify all 4 stages of a butterfly's life. There
are photographs of the adult butterfly and drawings of the egg, caterpillar
and chrysalis as well as host and nectar plants.
Roth, Sally. Attracting Butterflies & Hummingbirds to your Backyard.
Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press, 2001
Beginning butterfly gardeners will find success with this book and advanced
gardeners will pick up new information and ideas as well. Most highly
recommended.
Schappert, Phil. A World for Butterflies. Buffalo, NY: Firefly Books,
2000
An excellent reference book with beautiful photographs and a wealth
of information: worldwide butterfly populations, their evolutionary
origen, ecology and migration. Get a world view from a butterfly's perspective!
Schneck, Marcus. Creating a Butterfly Garden. NY:Simon & Schuster,
Inc., l993.
Pretty booklet that lists plants for butterfly gardens as well as evening
gardens for bats and moths. General information on the life cycle and
needs of butterflies. Some information on wildflowers and brief descriptions
of some butterflies one might expect to see in the garden.
Sedenko, Jerry. The Butterfly Garden. NY: Villard Books, l991
Author is from Northwestern Minnesota. He arranges plants, shrubs and
flowers according to season of bloom and height of plant. Plans included
for two gardens. Very good appendices and wonderful photographs.
Tufts, Craig. The Backyard Naturalist. Washington, D.C.: National Wildlife
Federation, l993.
Several sections devoted to butterflies and hummingbirds. Good booklet
for general information on how to start gardening for wildlife. Tufts
manages the National Wildlife Federation's Wildlife Habitat Program
which helps people establish and certify their backyards as wildlife
habitats.
Tekulsky, Mathew. The Butterfly Garden. Boston: The Harvard common Press,
l985
An excellent book that every butterfly enthusiast should read.
Tufts, Craig and Loewer, Peter. Gardening for Wildlife. Emmaus, PA:
Rodale Press, l995
Chapter 7 devoted to butterfly gardening. This informative book is lovely
to read and full of ideas for creating a backyard wildlife habitat.
Fifteen interesting garden designs are featured (one from a Master Gardener
in Minneapolis). Plants discussed for meadows, woodlands and water gardens.
Good bibliography and resource section.
Xerces Society and the Smithsonian Institution. Butterfly Gardening:Creating
Summer Magic in your Garden. (2nd edition).San Francisco: Sierra Club
Books, l998
One of the best books on butterfly gardening you can find. A must read.
GENERAL GARDENING
Brookyln Botanic Garden. Natural Insect Control. Handbook # 139.
Consult this booklet if you need help since butterfly gardeners cannot
use pesticides, insecticides or herbicides in the garden!
Lanza Patricia. Lasagna Gardening. Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press, l998
Don't till that soil and don't dig another bed. Read this book and enjoy
an easier way to garden.
Reich, Lee. Weedless gardening. NY: Workman Publishing, 2001
You don't have to double dig or remove the clay from your garden. Plant
your butterfly beds quickly with this book. Very highly recommended.
Stein, Sara. Noah's Garden. Restoring the Ecology of our own Back Yards.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, l993
Read this book and be forever changed in the way you manage your garden
and yard
Stein, Sarah. Planting Noah's garden. NY: Houghton-Mifflin
Well, what are we waiting for? Stein now point the way to begin!
FIELD GUIDES
Glassberg, Jeffrey. Butterflies through Binoculars. The East. NY: Oxford
University Press, l999.
This guide makes it easy to identify butterflies through the use of
photographs and field marks. You should have this in your daypack!
Mitchell, Robert T and Zim, Herbert S. A Golden Guide. Butterflies
and Moths: A Guide to the More Common Species. NY: Golden Press, l987
You might have used this guide as a child! And it's still a great little
book!
Opler, Paul. Peterson Field Guides. Eastern Butterflies. NY:Houghton-Mifflin Co., l992.
Peterson First Guide to Caterpillars. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.,
l993
The butterfly gardener can use this booklet to identify caterpillars
that will become beautiful butterflies and moths. Highly recommended.
Pyle, Robert M. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Butterflies. NY: Chaticleer Press, l988
Scott, James A. The Butterflies of North America. Stanford: Stanford
University Press, l986 (more recent printings available, CD-ROM)
Excellent reference book on butterflies, their life histories, distribution
and food plants.
Weber, Larry. Butterflies of the North Woods. Duluth, MN: Kollath-Stensaas
Publishing, 2001
The Northland's first field guide that will help you identify butterflies
in our area. Very highly recommended.
MONARCH BUTTERFLIES
Brewer, Jo. Wings in the Meadow. Boston:Houghton Mifflin Company, l967
A wonderful children's book that teaches us all about monarchs.
Grace, Eric S. The World of the Monarch Butterfly. San Francisco: Sierra
Club Books, l997
Great photographs and lovely text describe the monarch's life and migration.
Halpern, Sue. Four Wings and a Prayer:Caught in the Mystery of the
Monarch Migration. Pantheon Books, 2001
A wonderful way to follow the monarch migration.
Pyle, Robert Michael. Chasing Monarchs. Migrating with the Butterflies
of Passage. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, l999.
An absolute delight. If you love monarchs you must read this book, it's
that simple.
INSECTS
Buchmann, Stephen L. and Gary Paul Nabhan. The Forgotten Pollinators.
Washington, DC: Island Press, l996.
A great book to help us realize how important insects are in our lives
and in the life of the Earth.
Waldbauer, Gilbert. Millions of Monarchs, Bunches of Beetles. How Bugs
find Strength in Numbers. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000
Read this book as the monarchs migrate or as you are forced inside during
the forest tent caterpillar invasions. Very informative.
ORGANIZATIONS
North American Butterfly Association
4 Delaware Rd
Moristown, NJ 07960
The Xerces Society
4828 SE Hawthorne Blvd.
Portland, OR 97215-3252
The Lepidopterists'
Society
Julian P. Donahue, Asst. Secretary
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
900 Exposition Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90007-4057
BUTTERFLY GARDENS
Most of the following have tropical butterfly houses and outdoor gardens. Some zoos and Audubon centers not listed have special exhibits. Please check these places when you are visiting other areas. The Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley has such a temporary summer exhibit on butterflies and the Duluth Zoo is planning one as well.
Cecil B.
Day Butterfly Center at Callaway Gardens
Pine Mountain, GA 31822
Niagara Falls Parks Commission
Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada
Vancouver Island
Butterfly World
341 W. Crescent Rd.
Qualicum Beach, BC, Canada V0R 2T0
Des Moines Botanical
Center
909 E. River Dr.
Des Moines, IA 50316
Detroit Zoo
Detroit, Michigan Cincinnati Zoo
Cincinnati, OH 45220
Crystal Garden
Vancouver, B.C., Canada
please let us know about others you have enjoyed in your travels!!!
WEB PAGES FOR BUTTERFLIES & BUTTERFLY GARDENING
http://butterflywebsite.com/
The Butterfly WebSite. lots of links and excellent articles on butterfly
gardening by Claire Hagen Dole
http://www.nearctica.com
Go to table of contents, and then Butterflies. Many other links are
here.
http://www.monarchwatch.org
Site for Monarch Watch
http://www.nwf.org/backyardwildlifehabitat/
Nat'l Wildlife Federation's site for backyard wildlife habitat
http://www.aworldforbutterflies.com
Phil Schappert's site for butterfly and wildflower resources