The Suffolk Argus
Spring 2019
Thanks
Garden Nectar Plants for Butterflies B is For Buddleia and Bowles Mauve Wallflower.
Twm Wade I thought some of you might know Gill Perkins who, I suspect was a volunteer into the WCBS scheme at the start. At the grand age of 80, she has decided to retire and wrote to me thus:
enjoyable to survey a lovely part of Suffolk and I hope someone else will take it on. This year hasn’t been good for Red Admirals, Small Tortoiseshells, Peacocks and Commas but Brimstones, Orange Tips and whites haven’t done badly. I hope next year will be better for all species.
“I enclose my record sheets for this year and have decided it is time for me to retire. (I am 80 years young now!) It has been very
All the best for the future”.
Casual observations of butterfly habits during the 2018 drought Trevor Goodfellow
Purple hairstreak and white-letter hairstreak were apparently feeding more often at or near ground level. I suspect their food supply of honeydew at their normal treetop haunt was dried up or the aphids that produce the honeydew may have vacated the treetops as the oaks and elms (respectively) react to the hot weather.
caterpillars manage to crawl to some food nearby if the chosen plant dies. Another consequence of the prolonged dry spell was that grass died off and when the rains finally returned, weeds (wild flowers) recovered much quicker than the grass, ok for meadows but not for many gardens. For example: In late August, I watched brown argus and common blue butterflies frantically laying their eggs on these lush new growths of cranesbill, trefoils and vetches. This led me to wonder whether many lawns would get the ‘weed and feed’ treatment as a result and maybe the flourish of second brood argus and blues may be thwarted. The impact of these natural adaptions will be revealed next year. Fingers crossed that it is favourable for our ever-declining butterflies.
The oaks will regenerate but it was noticeable that some elms were dying, possibly diseased trees, that lack of water accelerated their demise. During the very hot weather I also noticed small heath and small copper, laying their eggs on dried and shriveled leaves, and not always their first choice of foodplant. I am not sure whether these eggs will be successful, but I hope the tiny hatching
22
Richard Stewart Much has been said about the ‘butterfly bush’ so I will restrict my comments to just two points. First, by planting early varieties like the graceful alternifolia and late- flowering weyeriana the flowering season can in a good year extend from late May to early December. The best way of seeing a wide range of buddleia species is to visit Trudie’s garden at Aldeburgh, normally in the last week of July as a Butterfly Conservation event. Details will be on the forthcoming 2019 programme.
and cuttings are easy. Ours survived the 2018 summer drought but its height was noticeably shorter. Like some species of buddleia, it can be grown in pots and fine examples, admittedly in very large pots, surround the main fountain in the Cambridge Botanical Gardens. Nectaring: Brimstone, Large, Small and Greenveined White, Orange Tip, Common Blue, Red Admiral, Painted Lady, Small Tortoiseshell, Comma.
Secondly, I have lost count of disappointed comments about lack of butterflies on summer flowering davidii species and I think it often occurs because there is no deadheading after the initial flowering period. In the long hot summer of 2018, I deadheaded six times, extending the flowering through to the start of October. Species recorded nectaring on alternifolia in our Ipswich garden: Small White, Greenveined White, Holly Blue, Red Admiral, Small Tortoiseshell, Comma, Meadow Brown. Davidii: Large Skipper, Brimstone, Large, Small and Green-veined White, Purple Hairstreak, Holly Blue, Red Admiral, Painted Lady, Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock, Comma, Silver-washed Fritillary, Speckled Wood, Grayling, Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown plus Silver Y moth and Hummingbird Hawk moth. Weyeriana: Large White, Green-veined White, Red Admiral, Peacock, Comma, Speckled Wood, Gatekeeper, Meadow brown plus Silver Y moth.
Painted Lady by Beryl Johnson
Bowles Mauve Wallflower: this has the great advantage of having a long flowering period 23
