Trunkline Magazine (Louisville Zoo) June 2018 | Page 15
Every Butterfly Needs a Bloom
We have the perfect blooms to delight and sustain our
colorful-winged friends. Here are just a few nectar and
host plants you'll see inside and outside our exhibit.
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Blazing star
Pale purple coneflower
Whorled milkweed
Wild blue indigo
Asters
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Lantana
Annabelle hydrangea
Zinnia
Verbena
Butterfly Weed
Presented by
Flutter Fest! Our High Flying Event!
Brought to you in partnership with Idlewild Butterfly Farm
Join us on Saturday, Sept. 22, 2018 for the return of Flutter Fest! To
celebrate the end of this season’s butterfly adventure, we will tag and
release over 1,000 monarch butterflies coinciding with the annual
migration of monarch butterflies. "Bug out" while you participate in
fun education activities before the release.
Summer Gardens Take Flight
By Matt Lahm, Asst. Curator of Conservation Education
Did you visit the popular But-
terflies n’ Blooms exhibit last year?
The exhibit has returned for 2018,
bringing with it many beautiful
plants loved by people and butter-
flies alike.
Below we’ll tell you about one
of our vibrant plants from last year
and one popular plant returning
for a second year that you can use
as inspiration to create backyard
habitat for native North American
butterflies and other pollinators.
We’ll also showcase a new plant
species we’ll be introducing to the
exhibit this year.
St. John’s wort ‘Deppe’ Sunny
Boulevard™, Hypericum kalmianum
was our exhibit last year. This is a
small, densely growing, deciduous,
native shrub that produces showy,
yellow flowers in late summer. It
is easily grown to a mound about
2 – 3 feet tall and 2 – 4 feet wide in
full sun to partial shade. This plant
prefers moist, rich loams but will
tolerate poor soils. With St. John’s
wort being a native species, it is a
low maintenance plant that is typi-
cally used as a low hedge, border,
in rock gardens, as wooded area
margins, on rocky slopes, and in
wild gardens, naturalized areas or
pond peripheries. This plant is very
popular with pollinators and does
not experience serious insect or
disease problems.
Another plant native of eastern
North America that is located out-
side of the butterfly exhibit in our
Spicebush
official Monarch Way Station: Spice-
bush, Lindera benzoin. Spicebush is
a medium-sized, deciduous, under-
story shrub that grows 6 – 12 feet
tall and wide. The leaves produce
a spicy fragrance when crushed.
It prefers well-drained soils in full
sun to part shade, but will toler-
ate full shade and clay soils. This
C ontinued on next page
Louisville Zoo Trunkline • Summer 2018 • 15