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Giving butterflies a home

Orange tip by Vicky Nall

Brett delights in having provided a home for orange-tip butterflies...

In my narrow town garden in Stourbridge I used to consider myself honoured if I had a single visit each spring from an orange-tip butterfly but, lately, all that has changed. Orange-tips  are famous wanderers, the males in particular flying tirelessly along lanes, woodland rides and through gardens in search of  a mate.

The best place for them to find one is near a patch of lady’s smock or garlic mustard, the foodplant of the orange-tip caterpillar. A few years ago, I introduced both plants to a small area of unmown grass near the top of the garden. The lady’s smock spread through the lawn  and now its pale lilac flowers are visited in spring by bee-flies, hoverflies and solitary bees as well as orange-tips that seem to materialise out of nowhere. The garlic mustard likes the borders and base of shrubs.

Orange-tip chrysalis attached to a twig by Brett Westwood

Orange-tip chrysalis by Brett Westwood

Only a year after planting,  I noticed a green chrysalis, looking like a miniature mediaeval long-bow attached to a garlic mustard stalk. As autumn came it turned brown and I made sure not to cut the dead stalk  so that the orange-tip chrysalis survived the winter.  

Orange-tip butterflies on lady's smock flowers by Brett Westwood

Orange-tip butterflies by Brett Westwood

One April day, I noticed a  dark spot on the chrysalis and I thought it had been attacked by a fungus. But this was an eye-spot of the wing showing through the chrysalis skin and I made sure I was there to see the butterfly emerge. Over two hours , its wings slowly unrumpled as their veins were pumped with fluid and the orange-tip –this was a female without the orange wing-tips -  made its first short flight to feed from a nearby lady’s smock flower. However many times we read about the transformation from caterpillar to butterfly, it is still a wonderful sight when it happens on your doorstep and all you have to do is provide it with the plants it needs.

Now each  April and May I’m refreshed  by orange-tips in my garden. They lay their tiny orange eggs  on the garlic mustard flower-buds and in June  I find the green caterpillars beautifully disguised as they lie along a mustard seed-pod. Later I look for the striking chrysalises attached to the dead stems and if I remember not to tidy up too much, even in the depths of winter I can dream of the warm April day when the adult butterfly will struggle free: the true spirit of springtime.

As I write, I'm waiting with anticipation to see my first orange-tip of the year.

 

Brett Westwood is a naturalist who lives in a Victorian terrace near the centre of Stourbridge. His garden is small  and urban, but he is constantly surprised by the wildlife that  turns up on the doorstep.
Listen to Brett's Spring Audio Diary on BBC Radio 4's Open Country.

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