A gentle flutter in your balcony

To watch caterpillars grow, molt, pupate and butterflies emerge and take flight, is a rewarding experience your garden can easily provide you.

A Lime butterfly on a Lemon plant.

My first encounter with an army of caterpillars was many years back when I had just ventured into gardening. A dozen caterpillars were happily munching away the leaves of the Curry Leaf plant to their hearts content. It was a young plant, and I was worried that it would get destroyed. In an impulse, I snipped the branches and threw them away. A few weeks later, I saw a bright green caterpillar on the Crepe Jasmine plant. It too was devouring leaf after leaf, and its droppings covered the ground. It froze the moment I touched the branch, its haunting blue eyes stared back at me and vanished into the wrinkle of its head. The guilt of throwing away the caterpillars from the Curry Leaf was already tormenting me. I decided to leave them alone and learn more about it.

A Very Hungry Oleander Hawk Moth Caterpillar

A few days later the skin of the caterpillar starts changing to brown.

Internet informed me that the caterpillar was called an Oleander Hawk Moth and it prefers the Oleander or the Crepe Jasmine to lay its egg. The caterpillars feed on the leaves, and when it was time to pupate, the skin turns into a combination of black and orangish brown. It then reaches the ground and starts to pupate among the dry leaves. I kept observing the caterpillar for the next few days until it changed colour. I was at peace that I didn’t break the branch away.

In the final stages of being a caterpillar.

A stunning Oleander Hawk Moth resting on the ground, freshly emerged from its pupa.

The next time I saw a green caterpillar on the Curry Leaf plant, I left it alone. I knew from experience that the leaves would spring back to life in a matter of days.

Most butterflies are attracted to colorful flowers. However surprisingly some prefer overripe and rotting fruits, bird droppings, animal dung, or even dead animals. But for a caterpillar to grow and satiate its voracious hunger, butterflies lay their eggs on specific plants called food plants or host plants.

A baron butterfly absorbing nutrients from a Guava fruit half eaten by birds.

In order to attract butterflies I also needed grow food plants. I started with Ixora, Pentas, Lantana, Hamelia Patens, Marigold, Cosmos, Periwinkles, Porcelain flower etc. These are sunlight requiring plants. The butterflies not only feed on the nectar they also bask on them to receive sunlight.

The crowning moment of growing a garden happened when I watched three butterflies emerge out of their pupa on consecutive days: the male and female of the Common Mormon Swallowtail and a Common Rose. Watch a lime butterfly emerge from its chrysalis.

A Lime plant in the backyard regularly hosts the Common Mormon caterpillars. But the Common Rose required the plant of genus Aristolochia for its larvae to feed. A retired professor, whom I had met serendipitously during one of my walks, gave me the seed pods of the Aristolochia Grandiflora vine to me.

Aristolachia Grandiflora

Aristolochia Grandiflora is a perennial vine that spreads across compound walls and fences. The duck or pelican shaped flower stink, and so do its seeds. Growing a vine is a bit tricky. As you already know, not all seeds turn into plants, and after a series of trial and error, a sapling showed up. Four months later the vine outgrew the small trellis, and quick enough a couple of Common Rose Caterpillars appeared on the vine. I was thrilled. At first, there were about eight of them. Over the days the numbers dwindled, and only one of them reached the pupal stage. I love how a caterpillar looks like a zombie the day before it starts building the pupa.

A spiky Common Rose butterfly caterpillar clinging to the black metal trellis.

The next morning I found a pink pupa, suspended by a silk girdle. As the days drew near for the butterfly to emerge, the pupa started turning transparent. Nineteen days later, on a sunny morning, the colourful Common Rose flew out.

Comparison of two butterflies.

It is a rewarding experience, to watch caterpillars grow, molt, pupate, before the butterflies emerge and take flight. In the last few years, apart from growing food plants like Lime, Curry leaf, and Crepe Jasmine, I’ve also grown Passiflora, Kalanchoe, Ginger Lilies, and Custard plant which are the host butterflies such as Tawny Coaster, Red Pierrot, Grass Demon, and Tailed Jay. Bamboos attract skippers and browns. The Common Baron hosts on the mango tree while it feeds on the ripe fruits of Guava. We have now seen nearly eighty varieties of butterflies flutter through the garden.

A garden is not just a collection of plants. It is an ecosystem which also attracts birds, bees, wasps, insects, and moths. The choice of the plants depends on the choice of colours you see and the sounds you want to hear.

Until Next time

Cheers from Hydrangeas This article first appeared in Deccan Herald on 22 November 2020. Pictures added here are mine.

The right kind of sunlight

Urban gardening can be tricky if you do not understand your plants and their needs

“I bought this colorful plant with so many buds. It was lively for a few days and then it stopped blooming.”

“It was the brightest spot in the room. I watered it every day. Now it has all turned yellow”

“I am a serial plant killer. Every plant I’ve cared for has died”

“Do they deliberately sell plants that will survive for just two weeks?”

I am often asked these questions by exasperated souls. Urban gardening can be tricky when you are beginning to garden without a good knowledge of plants and their needs. Once you understand, gardening becomes an interesting and addictive activity.

Though soil, water, wind, temperature, nutrients are all important for the growth of a plant, the one paramount requirement is sunlight. Different plants require a different amount of sunlight. If you’ve been to rose gardens, you will notice them in open areas with no trees in the immediate periphery. Rose plants require ample sunlight, about six to eight hours in a day. So if you buy a rose plant and place it in a partial shade, it will have poor growth and will yield fewer flowers. On the other hand, African violets are indoor flowering plants which require indirect sunlight. If you place them in the bright sun, they will wilt in a day.

You must be knowing that the sun doesn’t rise exactly in the East and West. It happens only on two days in a year, on the Spring and Fall equinox. The intensity of sunlight and the shadows it casts keep changing throughout the year. Gardening in crowded cities is a tad bit difficult because of this. Also because of closely-knit buildings and apartments you mostly get partial shade.

So as part of your garden planning, you must note down how much sunlight your balcony/apartment/house/terrace receives during the day and in a year. If you plan to start a garden in the terrace and it gets six to eight hours of uninterrupted sunlight you are good to go. If it is your back or front yard, again, note the amount of sunshine including nooks and corners. If you plan the garden in your balcony which doesn’t have ample sunlight, you have succulents and houseplants to choose from.

Now that you have an idea about the sunlight, let’s head to a nursery. Whichever nursery you visit, observe how plants are arranged there. My favourite place in Bangalore is the Lalbagh garden and nursery. Once you enter the nursery, the left side is a long stretch with roses and other plants under direct sunlight.

On the right, beneath the shade of huge trees are plants that require much lesser sunlight. As you walk around, the description boards give you the name of plants and the light required: shade, semi-shade etc. Not all nurseries have display boards but most of them have these arrangements sorted out.

Once you know how much sunshine and shade your garden gets, you can select the plants accordingly. You should also know that if you have a mix of sun and shade requiring plants, You have to keep moving them between sunny and shaded areas as the season changes.

The saplings in the nurseries are grown in small containers or in plastic bags. They are just a few weeks to months old and their roots are young which makes them easily transferrable without damage. If it is in a bag cut open the bag with a scissors. If it is a pot, hold it in your hand and invert it. Holding the plant firmly between your fingers, gently tap it to free it from the container. If you are not confident of potting the samplings on your own, many nurseries offer potting services too.

If you do not want to start from saplings but from seeds you are in for a lot of joy. Nothing can match the jubilation of watching the tender green seedling pop its head from that small crack on the surface of the earth and take shape.

Next time we will look at plants that can make up your garden.

Happy Gardening and cheers from the Campsis Radicans, they’ve begun to bloom you know. This article first appeared in Deccan Herald 25th October 2020.