“Butterfly House” Exhibit 2020: Planning and planting
As stated yesterday, my current focus is preparing for the larvae life stage of the butterfly. Caterpillars can be absolutely tenacious eaters. While I’m trying to be prepared for as many varieties as possible, the varieties that we are looking to bring in mostly consume plants from the parsley family. We will have to sow more in a couple of weeks just to make sure that any larvae born at MVG doesn’t go hungry!
Yesterday, the production team planted some curled parsley seedling plugs and a few fennel plugs into 4” pots. Meanwhile I sowed seeds for the following:
- 12 x 6” Borage
- 18 x 6” Moss Curled Parsley
- 12 x 6” Fennel
- 12 x 6” Dill Dukat
- 12 x 6” Dill Fern Leaf Dwarf
- 12 x 6″ Dill Greensleeves
I’ll need to trim the snapdragons that we have set back for our common buckeye larvae.
Other than that, I will be sowing large containers of Asclepsias. Tomorrow my update will include info on milkweed (Asclepsias). It seems to attract the most butterflies and supports multiple life stages of multiple varieties. I’ll let you know what I learn!
-Shonna Seymour
Guest Experience Manager & 2020 Butterfly House Organizer
#MVGbutterflies2020
