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Gardening

Plants for caterpillars

(4 Posts)
Tegan Fri 17-Jun-16 17:31:37

There was a wonderful programme on BBC4 the other night called Natural World; Butterflies, A Very British Obsession. It was absolutely fascinating [and still on iplayer].

joannapiano Fri 17-Jun-16 16:01:29

We grow a clump of nettles at the end of our garden, as butterflies like to lay their eggs on them.

rosesarered Fri 17-Jun-16 14:51:06

They seem to like cabbages!

AlieOxon Fri 17-Jun-16 14:08:59

I just read in my gardening mag an article about the importance of food plants for caterpillars, in order to protect butterflies. Some caterpillars only eat a very restricted range of plants.
There#s a list on here www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/foodplants.php.
There must be others too, as it doesn't include comfrey, which I've found has cinnabar moth caterpillars on - which I never had until I planted comfrey! So I let it get eaten.