I always suggest that people add at least some native plant
species to their landscapes. I think native plants are good for
several reasons. They are generally better adapted to the
conditions of the local environment so they shouldn’t need as
much care, water and fertilizer as other plants might. One of
the other reasons that I recommend native plants is that they
are usually the best choices for providing food for local
wildlife. But then I started thinking about butterflies. You may
already know that butterflies all have specific plants that they
use for their host plants. Host plants are the plants on which
butterflies lay their eggs and caterpillars dine while they are
getting big enough to go to chrysalis, before hatching into
butterflies. Some of my favorite butterflies – those of the
swallowtail family – dine on dill, parsley and fennel. In fact,
I often end up spending ridiculous amounts of money on these
plants to make sure that my gluttonous caterpillars don’t run
out of food. And to the best of my