Susan's Herb Snips

from Susan's Collection of Herbal Lore


Flying Flowers

If there was only one reason for growing many herbs, it would be butterflies, called by poet Robert Frost his "flying flowers." To invite these lovely creatures to your garden, grow nectar-rich flowers that attract adult butterflies and host herbs to fee their larva. Here are five often-seen favorites butterflies and their favorite herbal snacks:
Butterfly Nectar Herb Larva Host Herb
Cabbage White dandelion, bee balm, dame's rocket nasturtium, mustard, cress
Giant Swallowtail echinacea, Joe-Pye weed rue
Gulf fritillary daisy, hibiscus, scarlet salvia passionflower
Monarch milkweed, goldenrod, mint, thistle milkweed, dill, fennel
Mourning Cloak New Jersey tea, red valerian willow, birch

I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly
Or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man.
--Chuang Tzu, 300 B.C.


Copyright 2000 Susan Wittig Albert. All rights reserved.