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Home > Research > Horticulture > Children's Garden > Gardens > Individual Gardens > Butterfly Garden
Butterfly Garden
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Purpose -
This garden in not only shaped like a butterfly; it also features plants that attract butterflies and focuses on the interdependence of plants and insects. It also looks at the life cycle of the butterfly.

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Click here for a garden mapÂ

Attraction -
The garden is shaped like a butterfly with symmetrical plantings on the butterflys wings. Children love our hops vine covered tunnel that simulates a chrysalis. They enter it wiggling like a caterpillar and exit flapping their wings like a butterfly.


More Info -
How does a caterpillar turn into a butterfly?
When a caterpillar hatches from its egg it is called a larva. The larva, or caterpillar, eats nonstop for about a month. It will shed its skin many times as it grows. When a caterpillar sheds its last skin, the inner skin hardens into a chrysalis. This is called the pupa stage. (A moth does not form a chrysalis -- it spins a cocoon). Pupas do not eat, they just rest and change. The change is called metamorphosis. When they emerge from the chrysalis, they will have changed into a wrinkled and wet butterfly. They will rest as their wings unfold and dry. Then they are ready to fly.

Butterfly gardening can be easy. It can be as simple as providing the appropriate variety of host plants for larval growth and adult feeding.

Resources -

Butterfly Identification

Butterflies of Minnesota

North American Butterfly Association

Monarchs in the Classroom

Monarch Migration

Monarch Monitoring Project

Monarch Larva Monitoring Project

Monarch Watch

Name that Bug

Theme Unit on Monarch Butterfly

Resources for Teachers

Plants and Animals, Partners in Pollination

Plants - (plantings vary from year to year)

Common NameScientific Name
Achillea (Yarrow)Achillea millefolium
French MarigoldTagetes patula
HeliotropeHeliotropum arborescens
HerbAnethum graveolens
HollyhockAlcea rosea
HopsHumulus lupulus
Bee BalmMonarda lambada (perennial)
ParsleyPetroselinum crispum
RebeccaRudbeckia fulgida var. sullivantii
TithoniaTithonia rotundifolia
ZinniaZinnia elegans
NasturtiumTropaeolum majus
MilkweedAsclepias syriaca
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x Butterfly Garden x
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