It’s all going on behind the butterfly scenes

I promised that today’s blog would be a butterfly blog, but what a strange time to do it – there’s hardly a butterfly to be seen at the moment.

The reason is that we’re in the ‘June lull’. The spring butterflies are largely over, and the summer ones are yet to emerge.

But of course, while the adults may be nowhere to be seen, the butterflies are still out there, only in less obvious forms – eggs, caterpillars and, for many of them by now, chrysalises.

And there lies one of the big challenges of gardening for butterflies. If all you do is provide nectar for the adults, then you are relying on some other garden or part of the countryside to be the breeding ground. Yes, you're leaving success in someone else's hands!

Actually producing some home-grown butterflies is the gold medal performance – but requires more skill than just providing nectar plants.

So here’s one plant for almost* all gardens to try and get butterflies breeding – Hop Humulus lupulus   This is a main foodplant of Comma caterpillars. It’s easy to grow, and will scramble vigorously up a high trellis or into a tree happily in a season, before dying down to ground level for the winter. It's also easy to grow from tip cuttings, so you can share it with neighbours and friends.

The result?

This (note designed to look like a bird dropping - cunning!).

And then this.

Glorious!

(*Sorry, Scotland - Commas are still rather rare up in your neck of the woods)