Male butterflies have some disgusting diets. This dead deer is a tasty lunch for three Gulf Fritillary butterflies in this photo.

Learn more about butterflies and butterfly gardening by visiting our website. Over 250 pages are informational, not designed for selling products. Some of those pages are listed here.

Butterflies are my passion. We enjoy sharing the fun (and not-so-fun) information we learn with others.

Butterfly Host and Nectar Plants

We've been working hard on our plant list and it is nearly finished. Not all of these plants will be available in early spring. Some will be grown to order only.

If you can't find info on our site about the plant that catches your interest, please send us an email!

~Edith


Australian Violet Viola hederacea

Aster Symphyotrichum sp

Autumn Sage Salvia greggii

Batface Cuphea llaeva

Bay Persea sp.

Black Cherry Prunus serotina

Blue Pea Vine Clitoria sp

Butterfly Bush Buddleia sp

Button Bush

Calico Vine Aristolochia elegans

Candlestick Cassia Cassia alata

Candy Corn Cuphea milvillea

Canna Lily Canna sp.

Cape Honeysuckle Techmaria capensis

Christmas Cassia Cassia bicapsularis

Coontie Zamia pumila

Coral Honeysuckle Lonicera sempervirens

Creeping Indigo Indigofera spicata

Cudweed Gnaphalium sp.

Cypress Vine Ipomoea quamoclit

Deerberry vaccinium stamineum

False Nettle Bohemeria cylindrica

Fennel Foeniculum sp.

Firecracker - Upright Russelia sarmentosa

Firecracker - Weeping Russelia equisetiformis

Firespike Odontonema strictum

Frogfruit Phyla sp

Golden Dewdrop Duranta repens

Green Shrimp Blechum brownei

Hackberry Celtis sp

Heather Cuphea sp

Hercule's Cub Zanthoxylum clava herculis

Hibiscus Hibiscus sp

Hollyhock Alcea rosea

Hop Tree Ptelea trifoliata

Lemon Marigold Tagetes sp.

Liatris Liatris sp.

Loquat Eriobotrya japonica

Mexican/Summer Petunia Ruellia brittoniana

Mexican Sunflower Tithonia rotundiflolia

Mist Flower Ageratum sp.

Mock Bishop's Weed Ptilimnium capillaceum

Oleander Nerium oleander

Parsley Petroselunum sp.

Partridge Pea Cassia fasciculata

Passionvine, Blue Passiflora carula

Passionvine, Boomerang Passiflora biflora

Passionvine, Corky-stem Passiflora suberosa

Passionvine, Incense Passiflora incense

Passionvine, Lavender Lady Passiflora Lavender Lady

Passionvine, Maypop Passiflora incarnata

Passionvine, Running Pop Passiflora foetida

Pawpaw Asimina sp.

Pellitory Parietaria sp

Pepperweed Lepidium sp.

Philippine Violet Baleria sp.

Plumbago Plumbago sp.

Poplar Liriodendron tulipifera

Queen Anne's Lace Daucus carota

Rayless Sunflower Helianthus sp

Ribgrass Plantain Plantago lanceolata

Rosemary Rosemarinus officinalis

Rue Ruta graveolens

Saltbush Baccharis sp

Sassafras Sassafras albidum

Sensitive Plant Mimosa pudica

Shy Leaf Aeschynomene americana

Silky Gold Milkweed Asclepias curassavica, Silky Gold

Spicebush Lindera sp

St. Augustine Grass Stenatophrum secundatum

Stoke's Aster Stokesia laevis

Summer Farewell Dalea sp

Sweet Bay Magnolia virginiana

Sweet Gum Liquidambar styraciflua

Tansy Mustard Descurainia pinnata

Tropical Milkweed Asclepias curassavica

Tulip Poplar Liriodendron tulipifera

Turk's Cap Malvaviscus arboreus

Twinflower Dyschoriste sp.

Verbena Verbena sp

Violet Viola sp

Water Hyssop Bacopa monnieri

Wax Myrtle Myrica cerifera

Wedelia Wedelia sp.

White Vine Sarcostemma sp

Wild Lime Zanthoxylum fagara

Willow Salix sp

2008 is a Butterfly Year!

Butterflies in 2008 ... it's an exciting year for Shady Oak Butterfly Farm! Our website has a new look, we added dozens of butterfly informational pages to the site last year, and our newsletter Butterflies! has taken wings.

Searching for a bit of information on a website with over 300 pages was frustrating for our visitors. We were relieved to find a search feature that worked well. Now a visitor can simply enter a word or phrase in the search box and find pages with that information on the page.

Ask Edith is built on questions written to the farm about butterflies and butterfly gardening. Often a question is easy to answer but photos help tremendously. It takes so much time to answer some questions over and over, so we simply build a web page around a question we often receive. We enjoy sharing about butterflies; our passion for butterflies was what gave the farm it's roots and later, the newsletter was established.


We announce new pages on the site with our newsletter. After the newsletter has been published for four to six weeks, it is archived on the site where it can be accessed and read by anyone.

On January 14, the new issue will be published. In that issue is an interview with Judy Burris and Wayne Richards, brother-sister authors of 'Lifecycles of Butterflies'. Their book contains photos of the life cycle of 23 butterflies in the United States; egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, and adult. With additional interesting information (silk from the Question Mark caterpillar is pink) tucked in, it is a fascinating and educational book.



Also included in the next issue is information about how to tell a Soldier and Queen adult butterfly apart as well as Ceraunus Blue and Cassius Blue butterflies.




We were asked, "How can I protect my caterpillars from predators without bringing them inside?" That question is answered in January 14's issue of Butterflies!



One other item in the upcoming newsletter I'd like to mention is reattaching butterfly chrysalises. Sometimes a chrysalis falls and needs to be rehung for the butterfly to emerge. If its silk is attached, it is simple. But if the silk is not attached; it is easy but takes a minute more to reattach it with glue. Most of us glue only the tip of the chrysalis. We look at chrysalises (pupae) glued farther up its shell to see how it effects emerging.

The pages linked in this blog are older pages; new pages are announced in Butterflies! Subscribe today and don't miss an issue! Subscribers simply unsubscribe (if they wish to do so) at the click of a button in the newsletter.

Happy New Year! Edith, Stephen, and our family at Shady Oak