Well it was a good month for blue butterflies in wild gardens.
I spotted 2 common blue butterflies enjoying the flowers of a Gaura that I planted for some late flower interest. It turns out that this plant - admittingly a non-native - is also known as “whirling butterflies”!
Nearby, a neighbour, Jane, has wilded her front garden and last week she caught sight of a Long Tailed butterfly or Pea Blue. This is what she told me:
“ They are from the Mediterranean where they are sometimes regarded as a pest, because they lay eggs on peas, so sometimes known as the Pea Butterfly. They like the wild Everlasting Pea, but I don't have any in my garden, although Bird's Foot Trefoil is in the same family. They are long distance migrants and each year a few make it to the UK, normally the south coast, so I feel very lucky to have had them in my garden.”
