Butterfly garden and identification symposium to be at the S.C. Botanical Garden

Published: August 18, 2011

CLEMSON — If you’ve dreamed of building a butterfly garden or just want to learn the difference between a swallowtail and fritillary, there’s an all-day symposium you won’t want to miss at the South Carolina Botanical Garden at Clemson University.

From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Aug. 27, the Carolina Butterfly Society and the Garden will offer short tours and lectures on topics ranging from what’s flying in the backyard to building a butterfly garden from the ground up. The symposium will meet at the Hayden Conference Center in the Garden and is open to the public. Attendance is limited to 60 people, so pre-registration is required. There is a $25 fee, which includes lunch.

“This is the second year for our butterfly garden in its new location near the children’s garden,” said Lisa Wagner, Garden education director. “The area is irrigated, so we can expect a good showing of butterflies.”

Join butterfly enthusiasts and novices to learn about South Carolina’s native butterflies, their host and nectar plants, and how to create a biodiverse and successful butterfly garden.

The Carolina Butterfly Society emphasizes identifying and watching butterflies in the field and garden rather than collecting them. Every season it organizes several butterflying field trips to the various biogeographic regions of the Carolinas. The group offers advice on butterfly gardening, encourages photography and recordkeeping, provides fact sheets for outdoor educators, sponsors gardening workshops and collects data for conservation use.

Symposium agenda:

• "Nature on the move – reclaiming our place in the world" — keynote by Patrick McMillan, naturalist, host of the ETV nature show “Expeditions with Patrick McMillan” and interim director of the Garden
• "Who’s that flying around my backyard?" — Joe Culin, former chairman of the Clemson entomology department
• "Best native perennials for butterflies" — Christi Brunner, owner of the Carolina Wild Native Plant Nursery in Anderson
• Butterflying and tours of the Butterfly Garden and Children’s Garden — John and Carolyn Turner, Master Gardeners and Botanical Garden volunteers, with Lisa Wagner, garden education director
• "Building a butterfly garden from the ground up: How the SCBG Butterfly Garden was developed" — John and Carolyn Turner
• "Beyond milkweed: increasing biodiversity in your butterfly garden" — Lisa Wagner
• Sunday morning field trip (optional)
• Woodland butterfly-watching excursion to Clemson Experimental Forest — Dennis Forsyth of the Carolina Butterfly Society

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