Costa Rica Butterfly Garden

Bill’s been working a lot. Me, I spend most of my time happily walking around in awe and wonder at the simple beauty surrounding me. I find myself contently staring at the shape and colors of a single flower, or gazing at the dramatic coastline.

One of my proud landscaping successes has been the butterfly and hummingbird garden in front of the cabins. My original thought was that cabin guests could sit on their balcony and watch the exotic hummingbirds and butterflies. It worked better than I could imagine. Dozens of fluttering butterflies and a few colorful hummingbirds drift in and out of the garden all day.



The two plants contribute the most to our butterfly habitat in Costa Rica are Latana camara and Stachytarpheta frantzii, or Porterweed, both from the Verbenaceace family. Porterweed is especially effective at attracting butterflies. It is a 2 to 3 meter bush with spiky purple flowers.

I was so pleased with the performance of these two plants that I bought more and expanded Solrisa’s butterfly garden. I planted seven more plants today, just before the thunderous tropical rainstorm that’s pounding on our roof right now started.

There is a dichotomy between power and comfort in a tropical rainstorm. The power is obvious in the amount of water that pours from the sky and the cannons of thunder. The comfort comes from being warm and dry while blanketing sheets of water fall around you. You're surrounded by a misty fog and the rain drowns out most jungle sounds. How idyllic for me, at the moment.

Poor Bill isn’t experiencing any comfort right now. He’s out in the downpour shoveling ditches of slippery, sticky, goopy red dirt to keep our roads from eroding. Good thing the rain is warm here.