I have no idea what most of these are but they sure are pretty!!

This one is my favorite one of all though!!


The Northern Nicholas !!

i love them rita, thanks for sharing. and you are right, that northern nicholas looks like it is just perfect

Nice job on the pictures ,Rita! I finally got mine uploaded , took forever! It's amazing to me how many butterflies you got pictures of that I didn't even see!

This is what the inside of the atrium part looks like. There are little winding paths through it and the sides and top are all glass:


There is also a small pond with giant goldfish or whatever they are:

Nice pictures. Thank you.
When I go to butterfly houses. I have to leave Ted outside. There is something in there (pollen?) that makes his eyes swell shut in minutes. He has no hayfever symptoms anytime else. He also does not like it when butterflies land on him.
I'm glad you had a good time.

That's too bad, Tina. A lot of the kids get a little freaked out in there at first, but they soon learn that the butterflies don't want to be on them, just fly away. I would think that Ted's allergy problem would have something to do with the butterflies themselves, some secretion or something. If he doesn't have symptoms just being outdoors, I doubt it's the pollen.

They had this bowl of rotting bananas out , I only saw this particular kind of butterfly in it.



I took this picture because it reminded me of Loz!


I think Rita got a picture of this one too, the blue color on it was just beyond real!

Beautiful shots, both of you!!!

Those giant goldfish are called KOI. They are from Japan and like to be petted just like a dog or cat. You can also hand feed them and they LOVE oranges! ask Cindy. She LOVES Koi!

Nice pictures Mel..you didn't show any of you either!

I forgot to snap a shot of that one with orange spots!! That one was sooo Pretty!! You were lucky I couldn't reach or Zoom enough to get some of the shots that You did!

Great pictures of what must have been a fun time!
I miss the butterfly place in Florida - but there, the butterflies DID land on us, and one stayed on Amy for the longest time! It had a second story the you could climb up winding stairs to get to also, and had a very nice view of the atrium with all the flowers and fluttering.

Yep - those are KOI fish, and if all works out well here this summer, I'll be getting a few to put in the new pond. I'll have to get the very young small ones, because they are quite expensive when grown. Our local nursery recently sold 2, at $15,000 EACH!!!

So glad you were able to spend this fun day together Mel and Rita! Any plans to meet up again?

Just love these pics...how fun that must have been for you both! It is awesome:-)

Ok, All of the butterflies are beautiful....I expecially like the black and blue ones and the black one with the vibrant orange spots is Awesome.....
What I want to know is do the butterflies ever leave the atrium or do the live and eventually die there? I would love to see any of these butterfliea on my flowers this Summer. Do you have to plant specific flowers to attract the different varieties of butterflies?

Thanks for sharing your beautiful butterfly photos......do you have any more? lol

Kratz7

I understand Bee Balm and Butterfly Bush are effective in attracting butterflies. I have good luck with Sunflowers and Zinnias, too.

Most of the ones there were exotic ones... They had a lot of hybiscus ... they live in the atrium all year round..

They did have a few that you could buy the crystalis SP? and release in the spring when they hatched!

Kratz, there are lists and lists of plants you can try for butterflies! Another thing you need to think of is host plants for the caterpillar stage. That will attract more butterflies too as the females want to lay there eggs on or near the host plant for her babies and the males will come to attract the females for mating, well, you get the picture.

Some butterflies and caterpillars eat very specific things, for example the Black Swallowtail caterpillar will only feed on members of the carrot family, specifically parsley, dill, Queen Anne's lace, monarch caterpillars only eat milkweed plants, others will eat clover, violets, etc. So you need that food and nectar for the adult butterfly, liatris, garden phlox, black-eyed susans, purple coneflower, asters, joe pye weed, coreopsis,lantana and the flowers that Thorny has mentioned and many, many more!

The butterflies at The Butterfly Place as far as I know are not released and live their entire life cycle inside.

Rita, I think you'd be surprised at how many of those "exotic" looking butterflies we have living here in the summer! You posted pics of the spicebush swallowtail which can be found up here, I raise (or try to anyway) Black Swallowtails, you also posted a pic of a question mark butterfly in the anglewing class which I caught a beautiful pic of one in my garden last summer.



I have had frittilaries, metalmarks, skippers, painted ladies, monarchs, all sorts of butterflies in my back yard!!! Another thing to keep in mind is the use of any chemicals, I do not use them ............

Awsome pictures!!!

I just loved the blue and black one...so pretty!!!!