Raising Butterflies and Moths in the Garden 

By Brenda Dziedzic 

• Publisher: Firefly Books, Second Edition,  2023 

• Paperback‏:‎ 400 pages 

• ISBN-10: 0228104203 

• Dimensions: 6” X 9” 

• Price: $23.44 (Amazon.ca – currently a 22% discount); $22.46 (Amazon.com – currently a 25% discount) 

Another great publication from Firefly Books. After publishing my own book with Firefly, I am much more keenly aware of what it takes to put a book like this together, and Brenda Dziedzic and Firefly Books have done a great job with Raising Butterflies and Moths in the Garden. 

This book is pretty much 400 pages of beautiful photos of butterflies and moths, their caterpillars, eggs and the plants they feed on. And every butterfly/moth page has a clear North American range map for the species.  

The introduction starts out with descriptions on the differences between butterflies and moths then goes into detail about their life cycle, and it does this with minimal technical jargon and in a clear, readable fashion. It wraps up the intro with a section on the various Butterfly and Moth families – which is how the insects are sorted within the body of the book. 

The introduction is followed by a short (4 page) chapter on Butterfly and Moth Gardening Essentials, and by an even shorter (2 page) chapter on Raising Butterflies and Moths. There are lots of excellent photos throughout, helping to clarify the text. (I didn’t notice any unnecessary or superfluous images as sometimes get thrown into a book like this.) 

By page 24 we are already into the meat of the book – starting with the Black Swallowtail. The butterflies are grouped by family and within the families, the butterflies are sorted alphabetically by common name. (Fortunately, it would seem, there is not the same issue with multiple common names as is the case with native plants.) 

Each butterfly is given anywhere from 6 to 10 photograph filled pages. In addition to the range maps, there are photos of adults (both upper and lower sides of their wings, eggs, caterpillars (in various stages or instars), chrysalises/cocoons and plants – host plants for the caterpillars and nectar plants for the adults.  

The text for each species includes information on Family, Flight Period, Wingspan, Larval Host Plant(s), and Adult Food. These last two are critical information if you want to garden for butterflies and moths. 

At the back of the book is a Glossary (pretty important for anyone new just learning about butterflies and moths), a list of Useful Websites, and a Bibliography (or as I tend to think of it – a wish list of books for my collection).  

There are 2 separate indexes. The first one (my favourite) is a 6-page Host/Larval Food Plants Index. The second is an index of the moths and butterflies in the book. Both indexes list both common and scientific names. 

My complaints about this book are minor and seem quite trivial in light of all the wonderful aspects of the book. The first is that the first page for each butterfly/moth contains a small colour bar in the upper left corner of the page. However, nowhere did I find a matching chart to explain the different colour codes (ideally this should have been in the intro where the author discussed things like range maps). As a result, this was a slightly confusing aspect until I finally worked out that the different colours represented the different families.  

The other issue, which is actually a strength of the book as well as a drawback, is that the book covers all of North America, not just a particular region where a common group of butterflies/moths might be found. The range maps tell you at a glance if the butterfly or moth is to be found where you live, but I would really have liked a more regional coverage. However, of the 36 butterflies, only 7 are not native to the southern Great Lakes region where I am. And of the 13 moths covered, 8 are native here, 2 are native to the southern US and one (Spongy Moth) is an invasive species. For this last species, the clear photos of the adults, caterpillars and cocoons will help when we have to decide if that is a friend or foe in the garden. 

Summary 

I have to say – I love this book. The photos are top quality, all the information is relevant, clear and readable. If, like me, you are gardening for the insects and other critters, then this book should be on your bookshelf. 

Happy native plant growing (and butterfly watching). 

Native Plants for the Short Season Yard: Best Picks for the Chinook and Canadian Prairie Zones 

By Lyndon Penner 

• Publisher: ‎Brush Education, (2016) 
• Paperback‏:‎ 272 pages 
• ISBN-10: ‏155059640 
• Dimensions: 6” X 9” 
• Price: $9.99 (Amazon.ca – Kindle Edition); $10.49 (Amazon.com – Kindle Edition)  

– note: at the time of writing, this book appears to be no longer available in print form except as atrociously priced used copies, though you may be able to find it cheaper somewhere other than Amazon. 

Note: This review is adapted and expanded from the one I posted to Amazon after purchasing the book in 2022. I subsequently returned the book as it did not meet my expectations. 

I really wanted to like this little book. It is a good book for northern gardeners, and would be a great read to help you get through the long winter, but as a useful guide it is lacking. For starters, it is very text heavy – it takes a lot of reading to find out what you might need to know for any particular plant. In addition, the photos are very small and not all that helpful. 

I did appreciate that the plants were listed in alphabetic order by scientific name, but they are grouped by shade tolerance. This is problematic for several reasons. For one, many native plants often do OK in a large range of shade. Aquilegia (columbine), for instance, is listed in the full sun category in this book, though in many other books it is listed as part shade (and in one book that I recently read it was listed as part shade to full shade). In my own garden, it thrives in all three shade categories. As a result, it is difficult to decide where I should start looking for a particular plant. 

Another complaint I have is the index – under Aquilegia, it says to see Columbine. Why would you not just put the page number beside Aquilegia? And this is how ALL the scientific names are handled. It just means you need to take an extra step if you happen to know the scientific name rather than the common name (and I have discussed at length, elsewhere, the problems with common names). 

My biggest beef with the book, though, is that with the title Native Plants for the Short Season Yard, even though the author talks about the importance of native plants, he says “sometimes, hybrid or garden forms are better choices” and then goes on to add “Don’t be a purist”. There is lots of research now available that indicates that hybrids (sometimes referred to as nativars – for native cultivar) do NOT provide the same benefits to insects that the pure strains do. Yet the author does not discuss this aspect of using cultivars.  

Despite the flaws, there are some other good things the author has done. For one, there is a section called Potential Threats to Native Plants, that includes, among other things, a discussion on invasive species. He also talks about the use of natural alternatives to pesticides. In addition, he spends some time discussing how to ethically and responsibly grow native plants from seeds and cuttings and why we shouldn’t dig plants from the wild (unless, of course, the land is slated for development). 

Given the paucity of books on native plant gardening for northern climates, this might be a great starting point if you’re looking for something to read this winter, but I was quite disappointed in the book overall, despite wanting to like it (for the very reason that there ARE very few books on the subject). It really is aimed at gardeners in the Canadian prairies (and perhaps the northern-most Midwest States) but the like any good gardening book, there is probably lots that other gardeners can get from this little volume. 

If you’re looking for a good winter’s read, and you don’t mind reading the kindle version, then this would be a good little book for a northern gardener. But in the end, I only gave 3 stars out of 5. 

Happy Native Plant Gardening. 

© The Native Plant Gardener 2024 

By Miriam Goldberger 

• Publisher: ‎St. Lynn’s Press, 2014 
• Paperback‏:‎ 208 pages 
• ISBN-10: ‏0985562269 
• Dimensions: 8.5” X 8.5” 
• Price: $25.99 (Indigo.ca); $18.89 (Amazon.com) – hardcover 

Note: This review is adapted from the one I posted to Amazon after purchasing the book in 2020. 

There are a lot of things to like about this award winning book (The Garden Writers Association Silver Award of Achievement). The book seems to be geared primarily to introducing new gardeners to the joy of growing “wildflowers”, but it can be confusing in places for the newbie. I’ll start with what I like about it, and wrap up with the flaws, as I see them. (I will say up front that, after publishing my own book on the topic, I now have a greater appreciation for what it takes to put a book like this together – including the challenges of working with a publisher and an editor.) 

First off, the pictures, for the most part, are fabulous. Not only does Goldberger have clear pictures of the flower, but also shows a picture of what the baby plant looks like. Although not really necessary for a new gardener, once your garden is established this will really help you figure out which emerging plants in the spring are weeds, and which are supposed to be there.  

She also goes into fairly good detail in the front of the book on the importance of “wildflowers” (I will explain later why I continue to put this word in quotation marks) with a discussion about pollinators, birds and the connection to our own health. (On this subject – the best book I have read to date is Doug Tallamy’s book Bringing Nature Home).  

Each flower has its own page – there are 60 of her favourite “wildflowers” (which includes some grasses) – with excellent descriptions on height, colour, light, soil and moisture needs, a germination code for when you want to start your own from seed, and some of its key strengths and weaknesses (e.g. deer resistance, suitability for containers, salt tolerance, edibility, etc.) And finally it indicates which states and provinces the plant is native to (more on this later, too).  

I originally thought I liked that she has arranged the plants based on the season they come into bloom – spring, late spring-early summer, summer, and fall – but that makes it a bit more challenging to go directly to a plant’s page in the book if you are unsure of its flowering time. At the end of the book there are great instructions, based on years of her own experience, for starting your own plants from seed, on ecosystem gardening, on composting, and more. She concludes the book with a two-page spread indicating which are the best wildflowers to grow, based on your soil type. All in all, this is a wonderful, fact and picture filled book that would be a great addition to any gardener’s library. 

Despite all these great things, I was bothered by the fact that Goldberger has a very loose definition of a wildflower. At one point, she equates wildflowers with native plants, but I don’t believe that is what most people think of when they hear the term. She even talks about her first attempt to plant a meadow by buying a package of “Northeastern Wildflower Meadow Mix” that was mostly non-native species, and the frustration that resulted. (This is EXACTLY how I got started into native plants, so I can relate.) She also has an entire section, set up in the same format as the native plant descriptions, of 19 non-natives like Chinese basil, scarlet runner beans, Mexican sunflower and zinnias. Not only are these non-natives, but it’s hard to even picture most of them as “wildflowers”.  

The second serious issue I have is that the plants are listed in alphabetic order by common name within the respective season of blooming sections. The big issue with this is that common names vary considerably by region. In the book, she calls Asclepias incarnata Red Milkweed. I’ve only ever called it Swamp Milkweed and didn’t know where for look (till I looked in the index). Slightly less annoying (till I learned to consult the index first) is that if you don’t actually know the bloom period for a plant, you can’t easily find it in the book. 

After that, my issues with the book get a little bit nit-pickier – listing the state or province the plants are native to is fine when you have small states, but Canadian provinces are HUGE, and plants native to southern Ontario, for instance, may not be (and probably aren’t) native to most of the rest of the province. A native-range map would have been far more helpful in determining if one of these flowers would survive in your garden.  

Goldberger also includes a section on cut-flower arrangements and includes a section of photos showing off her arrangements. There is even a section of wedding photos, some of which include images of her bouquets in action. Definitely not something that interested me. This is her business, after all, but it felt more like an advertisement than a book on growing wildflowers.  

My overall summary – this is still a great book for a new, or even experienced, gardener who wants to grow more native plants, despite what I see as its flaws. But if you really want to grow native plants – for all their benefits – use this book as a general guide, then check out the web to find out if that plant is actually native where you live or somewhere far away. 

© The Native Plant Gardener 2024 

By Dave Williams 

• Publisher: ‎University od Iowa Press, 2010 
• Paperback‏:‎ 140 pages 
• ISBN-10: 1609384091 
• Dimensions: 6” X 9” 
• Price: $55.24 (Amazon.ca – note, this book is available on Kindle for $16.99); $17.00 (Amazon.com) 

This book is not available from Amazon.ca, directly, but through a 3^rd party vendor – hence the absolutely ridiculous price on Amazon.ca. But if you’re happy with the Kindle version, or you have an American address you can order from Amazon.com, then this book is worth considering. 

An excellent guide to identifying many native prairie plants in seed. A great addition to The Tallgrass Prairie Center Guide to Seed and Seedling Identification in the Upper Midwest (see my previous review of this excellent book by the same author at https://nativeplantgardener.ca/book-review-the-tallgrass-prairie-center-guide-to-seed-and-seedling-identification-in-the-upper-midwest/).  

Clearly laid out in sections defined by the shape of the plant in seed (e.g.solitary seed heads, seeds in follicles, etc.) with clear outline sketches of the typical shape shown at the beginning of each section. 

Each plant is first identified in flower, with a clear photo, then in seed, also with a clear photo, and finally a description of the best seed harvesting technique is given for each plant. There is also a photo with a scale bar of the seed. 

At the back of the book are clear sketches of leaf arrangements, shapes and margins as definitions. There are also 3 extremely useful tables at the back of the book that elaborate on the information for each plant (with both the scientific and common names given): Table 1 is Initial Flowering and Ripening Times indicating early, mid or late part of each month that you can expect flowers, then ripe seeds; Table 2 indicates Initial Ripening Time and Duration after Ripening; and Table 3 describes the Average Number of Seeds per Stalk. 

The book is so well done that my only complaint is that there are only 73 species identified. I sincerely hope the author is working on volume 2 to cover another 80 species or so. And although the book covers plants of the US Midwest, many of the plants are also found here in the southern Great Lakes region.