Butterfly Gardening from Scratch

The interest in plants for butterfly gardens is increasing every year. Did you know it’s pretty easy to start your own butterfly plants? Let me share some tips on how I do it. This year I’m concentrating on growing butterflyweed from seed. This is a pretty easy process. When starting any seeds I always use germination mix. You can see that it has a much finer texture than my regular potting mix. I am going to fill my plug tray with moistened germination mix. These plugs trays are readily available at many garden centers. I like to make a shallow depression in each cell. Butterflyweed seed should be planted about ¼” deep. Then a single seed is dropped in the hole, which is covered with more germination mix. The tray is covered by a clear humidity dome. Then these trays go on my germination shelves under LED shop lights. After several weeks you’ll have nicely growing seedlings. You can see I’ve got a really good stand growing. When ready I’ll transplant these into 4” cups into my regular potting mix. And in a month these plants will be ready to go into my garden for the enjoyment of Monarch butterflies. I’ve got extra interest in growing butterfly plants this year. You see my garden is a stop on the Rosalyn Carter Butterfly Trail that starts in Plains, GA. For more information go to rosalyncarterbutterflytrail.org. I’m horticulturist Gary Bachman and I’ll see you next time on Southern Gardening.