v~ Buddleia and The SuffolkArgus
Spring2005
Butterflies at PriorsOak by TrudieWillis Priors Oak lies adjacent to North Warren, where I have a very large 10-acre garden and still had loads of plants flowering well into autumn. My Buddleiawalkhas over 10 varieties and after the initial flowering we cut them back about two foot all round and this brings on a full second bloom that is still coveringseveralof the bushes. It is interesting to see that regardless of the position of the sun on them, the pale blue and double white seem to attract all the late butterflies and on 1st October 2004, I counted ten Red Admirals, six Commas and a Painted Lady on the blue one, whereas the rest of the garden appeared to be just whites, Speckled Woods and the odd remaining Small Copper.
SmallCopper by DouglasHammersley
RedAdmiral byDouglasHammersley I was saddened to read an article decrying the "rather boring Buddleia" recently. For those of you wishing to add one of these prime butterfly bushes please take time to look around as there are now around 30 varieties available! The flowering ranges from whites, yellows to bright orange, all shades of pink and blues and finally to Black Knight (as its name indicates a deep purple bordering on black). Size and shape vary again from very large and spreading scale down to weeping, standards and small bushes so there really is something for every garden regardlessof their size. The earliest to flower is the yellow flowered Globosa and suangely it is the small yellow flowered Weyeriana that is the last to flower and willcontinue until frosts arrive. So you see the choice is endless and Buddleia does not have to conjure up the thought of a rather spindly tree with uninteresting mauve flowers, and please remember a summer prune will produce a second flowering. I think it is well worth encouraging people to do this summer pruning to get the most of the late nectar. I had another fun sighting that same autumn day. The young hazels we planted in the wildlife area to coppice appeared to be heavily defoliated and I feared a Muntjac, only to see a host of large Lobster moth larvae, they really are weird and interesting caterpillars.
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10th July,Downe Bank & West Kent Golf Course
about11 o'clockto the highestpoint on the clumpand he'snestledin there."
Speaker 2 (having repeated the instructions The wgency which had marked our entry into carefully to himself and now sounding Newtye Hurst Wood the previous day was jubilant): evident again this morning; prompted now by a "Fantastic, I'vegot him now,eversoclearthroughthe desire to benefit fully from the sunny binoculars,thanks." Then in deflatedand dejected conditions. Amidst the rough grass, scrub & tones: "Oh, oh no, it'sjust a hairstreak.~ are brambles of the meadow through which we initially passed butterflies were quite talkingaboutthe sametreearen'twe?... " numerous, with Holly Blue, Comma & Red A few of us descended through the lower reaches of Admiralparticularly eye-catching amongst the the wood, shortly emerging into a meadow where ubiquitous browns. Presently, we followed a trefoils, knapweeds, thistles and countless grasses track through some trees and descended to vied for position from every square centimetre of Downe Bank,pausing at the entrance to repel a stout Labrador, which had evinced great turf, and the air above resounded to the endeavour of a thousands-strong orchestra of grasshoppers. interest in our proceedings from the outset. Butterfly sightings now came quickly along Meadow Brown~and Ringlets bobbed dark above this hidden little ribbon of chalk grassland on the the colourful sward, whilst the three golden southern extremity of administrative London; a skippers of the Weald were frequent amongst the Marbled White alighted obligingly on low foliage, grass stems. Deploying the morning's a Brimstone flew strongly across open ground, and identification techniques, male Small Skippers were quickly differentiated from their Essex a little way along the path some of our group were hurriedly focussing binoculars upon dark counterparts, although by now verbose butterflies spinning around the boughs of a Wych descriptions of the sex brands had been distilled down to the simple expression, "straightEssex, Elm. Eventually, one settled in a prominent position and we passed an engrossing few minutes kinky Small''. observing a White-letter Hairstreak walking This mantra rather stuck in my mind as we methodically over the elm leaves; proboscis fully walked back through this little fragment of old uncoiled to sample aphid honey-dew from the England, and only the news from the rest of the rough surfaces. This was a rare insight into the group that the Purple Emperor had descended arboreal habits of this species, partly facilitated by onto quite low and prominent boughs during our the canopy of the elm being broadly at the same absence was sufficient to dislodge it. A few of us lingered now, and with the Purple Emperor's height as our vantage point. Dark Green Fritillaries were evident about position only known to one of us at any one time the open grassland, their dashing flight and there were ample opportunities for further turmeric spice ground colours in contrast to the imaginative descriptions of various parts of trees. dark, introvert hairstreaks we had just observed. Eventually however, it settled openly on a distant Of particular note was a fritillary flying in a rather Sweet Chesmut; wings set squarely towards the studious manner just above the sward. Upon early evening sun. landing, she angled back her wings and began to ButterflyList: Large Skipper, Small Skipper, Essex enter, in a fashion which brought the word "tunnelling"strongly to mind, a dense clump of Skipper, Small White, Purple Hairstreak, Dark vegetation; another interesting insight into Green Fritillary, White Admiral, Purple Emperor, butterfly behaviour which we mused upon during Comma, Small Tortoiseshell, Meadow Brown, the minutes which she took to deposit her eggs Ringlet, Small Heath, Gatekeeper. safely amongst the leaves of an unseen violet. AI,
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