Welcome to your butterfly garden! The garden needs you to take care of it. Here are a few easy ways to care for your garden:

• Because many plants are poisonous, never taste or eat any plant part.
• Do not walk among the plants or step on plants. A broken branch wounds the plant.
• Please let the flowers remain for the butterflies and other students to enjoy; do not pick them.
• If you find an uprooted plant that a dog or other animal has dug up, please replant it. Always set plants in the soil at the same depth as before.
• Please remove paper trash that might blow into the garden.
• The better you care for your garden, the prettier it will be.
• If you see a caterpillar on a plant, don't disturb it. The plant is its food. The caterpillar will molt its skin as it grows into a larger caterpillar, and then molt again when it enters the pupal phase (an inactive stage). After a period of time, a winged adult butterfly or moth will emerge from the pupa.

A good book to help you identify the butterflies in your garden is The National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Butterflies by Robert M. Pyle (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995).

Enjoy!