HAWAI'I GARDENS
Crown flowers nourish future butterflies
By Heidi Bornhorst
Q. I'm making a small butterfly garden in my back yard. What plants do I need to grow/plant to attract the butterflies? Are the plants/seeds readily available in any nursery on O'ahu?
— Roy, 'Ewa
A. Crown flowers are a good start. The caterpillars of monarch butterflies feed on the leaves of this and other "milk weeds."
The flowers are white or purple and are great for making a lei. Plus, crown flower is an excellent, drought-tolerant and tough landscaping plant.
They are available at most garden shops and nurseries. Plant them in full sun in well-drained soil. The soil can be junky or sandy, as long as it drains well.
Crown flower is known in Latin as Calotropis and is native to India. It was brought into Hawai'i fairly early on and was highly favored.
Many kinds of nectar-filled plants, flowering plants, will attract and feed the adult monarch butterflies. The crown flowers, however, are the best for raising caterpillars into butterflies.
Swallowtail butterflies like to feed on citrus. These butterflies will lay eggs and the larvae will eat the citrus leaves. If you have big, strong robust trees this is no problem, but if it's just a seedling, pick off the caterpillars and feed them to the guppies.
Our native Hawaiian pulelehua, or Kamehameha butterfly, feeds on the leaves of mamaki. Mamaki, a native stingless nettle, is a medicinal and useful plant. It is a pretty, large shrub or small tree, in a rain forest or mauka garden. It will do well in 'Ewa, maybe, if you really mulch and amend the soil so it is more forest like.
You would have to water mamaki a lot to get it to thrive in 'Ewa.
Did you notice ...
I saw an attractive display in a Manoa garden the other day.
Silvery kalanchoe, which is common in many dryland and rock gardens, looks great in combo with native Hawaiian 'akia, Wikstroemia uva-ursi. They have similar yet complementary colors and shapes.
The red-orange berries of 'akia complement the orange and pink highlights at the edges of the scalloped leaves of the kalanchoes.
Both plants need minimal water and horticultural oversight. They look great left alone.
One finessing touch would be to top-dress with cinder or rock in a contrasting color. Shapely boulders also look good in a design vignette.
Heidi Bornhorst is a sustainable landscape consultant. Submit questions to islandlife@honoluluadvertiser.com or Island Life, The Advertiser, P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu, HI 96802. Letters may be published or distributed in print, electronic or other forms.
