Our house and garden are on a gently sloping upland, overlooking Plum Island Sound. An hour's drive from Boston, the garden is a peaceful refuge from the hustle of urban life. On three sides we look out over a hayfield, a salt marsh, and a young woods. The woods and edges of nearby lanes contain many trees which are caterpillar host plants of the butterflies that visit the garden at various times: red oak, ash, and hickory (hairstreaks); willow, poplar, and birch (Mourning Cloaks, Viceroys, Red-spotted Purples); black cherry (Spring Azures, Striped Hairstreaks, Viceroys, Red-spotted Purples); red cedar ('Olive' Juniper Hairstreaks); and locust trees (Silver-spotted Skippers). The garden itself is mostly a dry, sunny meadow.

The herb garden attracts many butterflies. Chives, thyme, hyssop, lavender, and mints are the most popular.

   Many areas that used to be lawn are left unmowed for the summer. Here, grasses, sorrel, plantain, daisies, yarrow, and bird's-foot trefoil provide habitat for American Coppers, Common Ringlets, and various skippers (European, Least, and Peck's). Off to the south is an area with wet, heavy soil, where in late summer a dense stand of goldenrod, loosestrife, and Joe-pye weed bursts into bloom, attracting Monarchs, Viceroys, American Ladies, wood-nymphs, and skippers. A small herb garden has chives, mints, thyme, lavender, hyssop, and oregano, all excellent nectar sources throughout the season.

   Shelter from wind is an important factor near the coast, so most of the main butterfly plantings are situated to the west of a grape arbor and a brush pile, protected from the prevailing northeast wind. In these areas I grow milkweeds, New Jersey tea, verbena, purple coneflowers, lupines, Liatris, and grasses (mostly little bluestem). Here, too, are various species of legumes clover, bush clover, wild indigo for Eastern Tailed-Blues, Wild Indigo Duskywing, and sulphurs; asters, black-eyed Susans, and coreopsis for Pearl Crescents; and alfalfa for Orange Sulphurs. These areas have to be fenced because of our hungry little friends, the rabbits.

   The star plant performer of 1996 was my new addition, swamp milkweed. Of course I grow Buddleia, zinnias, coneflowers, and other milkweeds, and that pot of lantana on my deck is always wildly popular, but swamp milkweed topped them all. Monarchs hung around the tall, showy pink flowers, mating and laying eggs. They set up territories around the milkweed and the adjacent Liatris ligulistylis, which bloomed afterward and which they also loved. Since these plants were right next to a nice stand of parsley and rue, we had little territorial squabbles between the Monarchs and a Black Swallowtail. In addition, swamp milkweed was a magnet for three beautiful species of hairstreaks (Banded, Striped, and Coral). By contrast, true white valerian, also tall and showy, did not seem to appeal to butterflies, but did attract eight-spotted forester moths.

Meadow gardens and vegetable garden

   One of my favorite butterfly companions is the American Lady. It breeds here, laying eggs on pearly everlasting and pussytoes (wild and cultivated). There are two or even three broods, the last probably overwintering. Some years I have had good numbers; this year I saw only two flying in May, and the first batch of caterpillars on my newly planted pussytoes was killed by wasps. Another batch simply disappeared no doubt as meals for our ravenous mockingbirds, blackbirds, song sparrows, orioles, bobolinks, and catbirds. By August, thank goodness, there was a third brood, which I carefully protected under garden Reemay cloth.

   Aside from predators, another challenge of butterfly gardening is to keep something in bloom at the proper time for all your species. This assures they'll be hooked on your garden, not wandering off somewhere else! For instance, Eastern Tiger Swallowtails seem to be flying here almost continuously. To lure them in May and June, I depend upon lilacs, then rhododendrons, then privet, which I allow to flower. After that, they will come to honeysuckle, day lilies, sweet William, and phlox, but by mid-July they switch to the tall, imposing yellow-flowered silphium, or prairie cupplant. Surprisingly, this plant attracts quite a few butterflies, including skippers and Pearl Crescents. When this plant finishes in August, the Tigers can be found on Buddleia and Joe-pye weed. To fill in any gaps, I plant zinnias and put out a pot of lantana. In the wild, nature orchestrates the intricate synchrony of insect and plant life, but we gardeners can always try to improve on it a bit.

Hops for Question Marks and commas

   When I first started butterfly gardening, my main strategy was simply to stuff as many different nectar and caterpillar food plants as possible into my little corner of the world. Now I've begun to see that there are a few other considerations. Large stands, rather than a plant or two, are best. Spacing and placement are important. Butterflies gravitate toward plants and flowers that are tall or stand out from the crowd. The Black Swallowtails came to the parsley that stuck out in a strip on the lawn, not the parsley in the overgrown vegetable garden. The tall Buddleia by itself drew in loads of butterflies, but the short one buried by mint was overlooked. And while thyme in the herb garden attracted some butterflies, that single plant that escaped down into the field was truly a hot spot.

   Among the other species that I plant for and have seen are Spicebush Swallowtail (spicebush, sassafras); Painted Lady (thistle, especially globe thistle); Red Admiral (nettles); Question Mark and commas (nettles, false nettle, and hops); Baltimore Checkerspot (turtlehead, plantain); Great Spangled Fritillary (violets); and Dun Skipper, Northern Broken Dash, Dreamy Duskywing, Common Sootywing, Black Dash, and Long Dash.

   One of the joys of butterfly gardening, as opposed to occasional tripping, is experiencing the daily ebb and flow of butterfly life. As I sit on the deck, I often see a Wood Satyr flying the same route over and over again. I follow a hairstreak on the same flower at the same time of day for four days, or the hatching and then fading of successive broods and new species through the summer. All these things can create a wonderful sense of continuity, stability, and peace. *

Sharon Stichter is Professor of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She is also an active member of NABA's Massachusetts Butterfly Club.