Butterfly Gardening for the South

Beautiful book with terrific color photography. For quick reference, there are descriptive charts listing food and nectar plants with perspective butterflies and/or larvae. The appendices is filled with useful information such as how to photograph butterflies, seed and plant sources, and more. An illuminating book for reading and learning.

This is a buy now book for the southern gardener who wants to encourage flocks of butterflies into their garden or who wants to know more about native plants with a butterflies view in mind. The author has extensive color pictures of the butterflies and their habits as well as cultural information about the food plants of the larvae and nector plants of the adults. She has taken beautiful pictures of the plants, butterflies, catapillar, and egg stage of almost all the butterflies she details. The information is invaluable. Many butterfly plants are so common as to be considered weeds well many of them are weeds but if you want to grow them and collect them it helps to have a color picture to identify them and cultural information about growing them. She includes layouts for garden design in each of the southern zones covered and gives alot of good organic practical gardening advice. I especially like the part where she shares her experience on how to take pictures of butterflies. Great stuff for someone who does not know alot about SLR cameras and wants an insiders advice on how to take pictures of butterflies. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in gardening with native trees and plants as well as adapted non natives who wishes to encourage butterflies in their garden.