"Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you."
-Nathaniel Hawthorne


I have some White-veined Dutchman's Pipe (Aristolochia fimbriata) seed if anyone is interested in sprouting some. It attracts the Pipevine Swallowtail (Battus philenor) butterfly:

White-veined Dutchman's Pipe

Pipevine Swallowtail

A. fimbriata makes for an interesting hanging pot specimen. For a dozen seeds, email me at socal.butterflies@gmail.com for my mailing address, and then send a self-addressed stamped envelope in which to send the seeds back to you with instructions for germinating and care. If you receive some, hold on to them until spring before planting, as they won't sprout until the weather warms back up a bit.

Two subscribers, Sue Sinclair and Marion Jacobs sent a link to an article in the New York Times about the decline in our Monarch butterfly, bee, and general insect populations:

The Year the Monarch Didn't Appear

It is a disturbing article that brings to light negative ramifications for our food sources and environment. Fortunately, we are armed with knowledge; and with wisdom, we can each individually help mitigate some of the effects we as a species have inflicted upon our precious gift, this earth we live on. "What can I do to help stem this?" you may ask.

For those of you who remember the Alta Laguna Park Butterfly Garden, just that small plot (in the grander scheme of things) of butterfly-centric garden space was an area that attracted, harbored, and helped to increase several local butterfly species populations. There were times in the summer up there when tennis games were temporarily halted due to flying Monarchs casually gliding about in the courts. The garden also drew in and supported other insects and various bird species, enticing them to linger instead of pass through.

Adding a couple of flower pots with butterflies in mind, or adding a flowering bush in the yard is possibly the best one can do for immediate benefit. Just like a bucket, one drop of water doth not constitute a pail, but a myriad of drops doth do does... er... um, definitely!

In a recent email conversation, Margot Norris and her husband Rowland notified me that they will be receiving some milkweed plants from their gardener to place on their own property. A few plants here; a few plants a couple of houses down; some two streets over; these all add up to a meaningful amount of habitat not only for the Monarch butterfly in terms of host plants for their larvae, but for butterflies in general, as the various milkweed species are also excellent sources of nectar.

A good place to start gleaning information on what plants and tactics are good butterfly attractors, one can start here and here.

"Other people might want a Ferrari, but I wanted a butterfly house. I built it together with a blacksmith. We designed it together."
-Andre Rieu


As stated in the introductory blog post, the garden space around my house is very meager, so the thought is of creating a butterfly garden using containers. Here are photos of the garden as it looks now. Over the course of the next few months I'll be chronicling the transformation of blah, into a bounteous bevy of budding and blooming butterfly bewitching beauties.

 The above photo is of the blah area just below the front porch. I began by removing the funky-looking drain pipe that ran to the street and stubbed it straight out between me and the neighbor's property on to a swale that parallels both properties flowing out on to the street.

This area at the back of the house will also be transformed into part of the butterfly garden. Right now, all I have there are some plants I'm slowly gathering over time to incorporate into the scheme.

This is Daphne, a neighbor across the street who was wondering what the heck I was doing taking photos of the side of the house for. I decided to take a picture of her watching me in bewilderment.

I very much enjoy the cacti in the garden. They are fascinating in form and brilliant to behold when they bloom during the spring and summer months! The gravel is great for keeping garden maintenance down to a minimum. Unfortunately, this type of landscape doesn't attract many butterflies.


Margot Norris, a resident of Laguna Beach, sent me this link regarding the collapse in population numbers of Monarchs overwintering in southern Mexico:

Monarch Butterfly Roosts May Occupy Only 1.25 Acres This Year

"When a small child, I thought that success spelled happiness. I was wrong, happiness is like a butterfly which appears and delights us for one brief moment, but soon flits away."
-Anna Pavlova

Most of you remember the Laguna Beach Butterfly and Habitat Update blog I published showcasing the butterfly garden I installed when employed as a Parks Gardener up at Alta Laguna Park in Laguna Beach, Calif.

Well, the Alta Laguna Park Butterfly Garden project is abandoned, derelict, kaput; orphaned by my untimely exit via early retirement after sustaining a rather severe shoulder injury at work.

Soooooo... what's this new blog all about? Still am enthralled by these beautiful creatures. In the words of Rocky Balboa from the 70's movie Rocky: "They remind me of flying candy." (remarking on the cage full of colorful parakeets his new girlfriend had in her apartment).

After a bit of  thought over the fact that living in an average mobile home park affords the least amount of real estate that can be transformed into a butterfly garden (or any type of garden for that matter), I wanted to at least put a few butterfly-specific plants out for them. The landscape was designed with minimal maintenance in mind featuring cacti, succulents, rock and gravel with an occasional piece of decorative driftwood tossed here and there as a garnish. Looking around the place, the realization came that there was a barren strip of property directly below the front porch and towards the back of the lot that was all gravel and nothing else and was pleading for some attention and a facelift.

Containers!!! I'll get a bunch of pots and bowls and planters and such and mass them together to create a dedicated butterfly garden. For the next few months I'll be purchasing and placing pots along the side of the house, while at the same time planting seed in seed trays for germinating. This way a whole lot of plants can be acquired on the cheap; not only that, but when perusing local seed racks and online seed sources, one can find an exhaustive array of offerings that just can't be found through local venues in the form of assorted-size containers, plus six paks, pony paks, color paks - whatever flower and veggie packs are called on your side of the tracks.


I also published a new butterfly web site called Attracting Butterflies in So Cal, thanks to Gayn Winters of Laguna Beach who through email correspondence regarding the plight of the Alta Laguna butterfly garden sparked a fire under my tail to create a new one. I took the old site that was primarily geared towards Alta Laguna Park, revamped, rewrote, and specifically tailored it for Southern California gardens . Much of the information though can be utilized in other parts of the country.

So, stay tuned as A Container Butterfly Garden chronicles the antics and shenanigans of a retired gardener and inveterate butterfly lover in his quest to create a little bit of Paradise here on earth.



-Le Raconteur des Papillons (Andrew Kliss)

Anna Pavlova

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/annapavlov402263.html#IESiHhFWJYLbgaAK.99wgt

When a small child, I thought that success spelled happiness. I was wrong, happiness is like a butterfly which appears and delights us for one brief moment, but soon flits away.

Anna Pavlova

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/annapavlov402263.html#IESiHhFWJYLbgaAK.99

When a small child, I thought that success spelled happiness. I was wrong, happiness is like a butterfly which appears and delights us for one brief moment, but soon flits away.

Anna Pavlova

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/annapavlov402263.html#IESiHhFWJYLbgaAK.99

When a small child, I thought that success spelled happiness. I was wrong, happiness is like a butterfly which appears and delights us for one brief moment, but soon flits away.

Anna Pavlova

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/annapavlov402263.html#IESiHhFWJYLbgaAK.99

When a small child, I thought that success spelled happiness. I was wrong, happiness is like a butterfly which appears and delights us for one brief moment, but soon flits away.

Anna Pavlova

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/annapavlov402263.html#IESiHhFWJYLbgaAK.99