Butterfly Gardening in the Carolina Piedmont

Butterfly Gardening in the Carolina Piedmont is now available for purchase at Park Road Books, Reedy Creek Nature Center and Preserve, Stevens Creek Nature Preserve and, of course, on Amazon. It draws on my years of experience at Shamrock Gardens Elementary School and in my own garden. It was beautifully designed by Little Shiva. It…

Watching for Butterflies

A Tiger Swallowtail glides above my backyard creek, held up by yellow wings with coal-black tiger stripes. It heads toward a clethra bush festooned with spikes of nectar-filled pink flowers. It settles and sips. I never tire of watching. Late summer is butterfly season here in the North Carolina Piedmont. . . . If you’re…

Butterfly Gardening

Growing a butterfly garden is a multifaceted delight. It also serves the planet. Butterflies pollinate a wide range of plants. Caterpillars transform leaves into food for birds, frogs, lizards, mice and countless other creatures. With residential and industrial development rapidly consuming open land, home habitat gardening has taken on new urgency.

Instars

Caterpillars pass through five stages of growth, called instars, before they make chrysalises or cocoons. They enter each new stage by shedding their old skins. This Polyphemus cat is nearing the end of its last stage. Caterpillars often stop eating a day or so before shedding. They use silk to attach their rear ends to…

Polyphemus 2023

I thought I was done with Polyphemus moths when the past spring’s group didn’t end up producing any offspring. I was wrong. Last fall, students in a friend’s preschool class found a caterpillar at their school. It made a cocoon and stayed in it all winter. Two weeks ago, a beautiful Polyphemus emerged – a…

Adventures in Bureaucracy: Bradford Pears

The crazed, broken trunks of dying Bradford pear trees emerge from the ground at awkward angles, like wraiths struggling to rise from ancient graves. I’m standing at the corner of Anne Street and Country Club Drive, looking through the trees at the bustling construction site where the new Shamrock Gardens Elementary is slowly taking form….

August & September: Monarchs, Fritillaries and more, oh my!

As the days get hotter, butterfly activity intensifies. It’s a great time for outdoor explorations. I went over to Shamrock on Monday, and the gardens were teeming with all sorts of creatures. With kids away, the insects play. Visit if you can! You can find every butterfly featured in our Shamrock calendar in some form…

July: Luna Moths

July was indeed a month for Luna Moths, with lots of folks in Charlotte and environs raising caterpillars at home. Kids gave them names like Melody, Moonpie, Creeper, Zombie and Steve. Fun. The caterpillars came to us courtesy of Mia and Ana, two of the lady Lunas who grew up in Shamrock classrooms during the…

June: Eastern Black Swallowtails

We started our Shamrock butterfly program by raising Eastern Black Swallowtails. Butterfly eggs can be hard to spot. But Eastern Blacks lay round, bright yellow eggs that stand out clearly. Plant parsley, fennel or another host plant in your yard or in a pot, and you’ll probably get some. Young Eastern Black caterpillars are black…

May: Skippers

As summer arrives, small, active Skipper butterflies descend on gardens across Charlotte. Their thick bodies, big eyes and narrow wings make them look like moths. But they have the club-shaped antennae that mark a butterfly. They get their name from their habit of “skipping” from flower to flower. About 70 different species of Skippers live…