In October, Taylor Morrison unveiled a butterfly garden in the community of Palm Winds in Hudson, Florida, roughly an hour north of Tampa. Loaded with milkweed, the garden specifically serves as an attractive home for monarch butterflies, though other species will also find it welcoming.
“I think it brings a deeper sense of home and a sort of natural whimsy,” Corrin Godlevske, Taylor Morrison’s community management manager for the Tampa region, told Homes.com. “It resonates with all ages, which is why I think it’s such a hit.”
The Arizona-based national homebuilder partnered with the National Wildlife Federation in 2019 to build butterfly gardens and other natural habitats in new communities. The NWF certifies the gardens as meeting specific criteria. “We get a really cool plaque that goes with it," Godlevske said.
For the conservation nonprofit, it’s a partnership that speaks directly to the mission, as people like NWF Chief Naturalist David Mizejewski joined for.
“It’s that kind of commitment that we want to encourage,” Mizejewski said. “Taylor Morrison is showing leadership in their industry. We wish every developer would do this.”
But this kind of conservation isn’t only the responsibility of major developers, he argues. “Anybody anywhere can do this,” he said. “If you can plant something, you can restore habitat for butterflies and other wildlife.”
Butterfly gardens need native plants
Butterfly gardens involve planting flowers, bushes, and trees that are native to the area. When homebuilders develop a tract of land, they often destroy a significant amount of native vegetation, only to replace it with water-intensive grasses and ornamentals from various regions of the world.
The author of the book "Attracting Birds, Butterflies & Other Backyard Wildlife," Mizejewski said the loss of native plants equals the loss of native wildlife. “Plants are habitats,” he said. “Plants are the foundation of the food web that supports all wildlife.”
Native plants are especially important to the propagation of butterflies. Plants develop toxins to prevent insects from eating their leaves, so caterpillars develop an immunity to the specific toxins in their area.
“Every species has a different set of plants that they can eat,” Mizejewski said. “It’s usually pretty limited. In the case of monarchs, they can only eat one plant, and that’s milkweed.”
North American monarch butterflies are unique for their long migration from near Mexico City up to southern Canada and back. The journey spans multiple generations, so the butterflies need corridors throughout the continent where they can get nectar and lay eggs.
One aspect of Taylor Morrison’s efforts that Mizejewski appreciates is that the firm has committed to using 80% native plants in its butterfly gardens and 100% native plants in their open spaces. With communities in 11 states, Taylor Morrison developments and their gardens will help connect pathways on the monarch sojourn.
The monarch migration supports a whole host of ecosystems along the way. “They are helping pollinate the plants they [get nectar from], and that is a whole host of blooming plants,” Mizejewski said. “There isn’t another butterfly species that is migrating these distances [in America] over the course of multiple generations.”
Use less water, no poisons
All butterfly gardens need two components, according to Mizejewski: plants that provide nectar and host plants for caterpillars. For monarchs, milkweed checks both boxes; however, homeowners considering a garden installation should also consider adding other supporting plants.
“You also would want to think about seasonality,” he said. “What else is blooming when the monarchs reach you?”
Mizejewski, who lives in New Jersey, said that he sees the monarchs in the late summer as they head south. “I would plant late-blooming perennials like asters and goldenrod,” he said. “Both are really important nectar sources for the southward migration.”
The National Wildlife Federation offers a guide to native host plants by ecological region on its website. There, gardeners can identify the plants they want, as well as when and how to plant them.
And don’t forget to add native trees, Mizejewski said. “Oak trees … are the caterpillar host plants for [hundreds] of different butterfly species,” he said. Birches, willows and others can support a wide array of insects and other animals.
The maintenance on the gardens is light as well, Mizejewski said. Native plants have evolved to live in the conditions of their region, so their water requirements shouldn’t be more than what is naturally available through rain and humidity. They also grow in concert with most of the other local plants, so weeding is less intensive than in a typical garden.
The only thing one can’t do with these gardens is spray them with pesticides. “These are insects, and insecticide will kill them,” Mizejewski said. Pests have to be treated with natural methods, such as filling in mosquito breeding puddles.
Similarly, weed killer may not always accurately identify weeds. “If you’re out there spraying ... and killing all the native plants that are naturally growing, you’re going to be wiping out the plants that butterflies need,” Mizejewski said.
One needn’t have a yard to support the butterflies. In cities, Mizejewski recommends putting out container gardens. If a property owner in a rural area owns a lot of acreage, Mizejewski suggests letting some of the land grow fallow and form meadows.
“We have the choice of if we do things the way we have for 80 years or so with suburbia, where we come in and destroy everything and replace it with nonnative plants,” Mizejewski said. “Or we can choose to create a living landscape that brings beauty and joy. That’s up to us.”