Festival of Butterflies 2012!

The Festival of Butterflies 2012 will display many new tropical butterflies in the Conservatory so is sure to be a crowd pleaser. Three species of spectacular Owl Butterflies, 2 new Morpho species added to even more popular and friendly Blue Morphos and a bunch of other colorful species are sure to entertain and challenge the visitor with butterfly identification skills.

Here a Giant Owl (Caligo memnon) drinks from a mango at one our butterfly feeding stations.  Many of the new butterflies in the Conservatory don't feed on flower nectar but prefer over-ripe fruit.

Here is a closeup of the butterfly's head so you can clearly see his straw-like proboscis bending into the fruit.
Owl butterflies have amazing markings upon close inspection!

Owl butterflies rarely open their wings but when they do it is a photo opportunity!  Our Receptionist and photographer Roland Thibault was there to capture this moment too when the Giant Owl opened his wings to show his amazing creamy-tan and smoky blue coloration.  Owl butterflies are CREPUSCULAR -- that means they are most active at dawn and dusk.

Though Owl butterflies look pretty similar with their big "owl" eyes, they are clearly different when they open their wings.  This is the Forest Mort Blue Owl (Caligo eurilochus) with gorgeous slate-blue to iridescent blue -- you have to see it in person as the camera just can't capture its intriguing colors.  Owl butterflies are BIG too, one third larger than the morphos!


Here's how the Owl butterfly chrysalises or chysalids look when they arrive packed in a cotton-like material to keep them cool and undisturbed.  Can you guess what they mimic?  Turn this image upside down and that will help -- they mimic hanging bats, complete with silvery fake eyes that glow in the dark shadows of the rain forest where these butterflies originate.  From the back they mimic a dead leaf complete with all the leaf veins.  Of course, all our tropical butterflies are farm raised in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Columbia or Ecuador.  We have USDA permits to have and display these imported creatures.

Stephanie Acers our Youth Education Coordinator is one of several staff trained and authorized to unpack and mount the chrysalises so they can emerge as butterflies.  Yes, we actually glue the chrysalises to dowels that are placed in USDA approved emergence cases.

Donna Covell, Greenhouse Horticulturist, laughs while watering flowers (marigolds) for the Festival of Butterflies.  This greenhouse has a cool cell in the back (the big brown rectangles behind her) that keep it cooler towards the back.  Most of our butterfly plants must be watered twice a day in these extreme conditions.


Most of the flowers we grow to feed our butterflies are outdoors where Mother Nature does a great job of pest control.  These are various Pentas which have very nectar rich flowers.  We cannot use any pesticides which kill butterflies!


We have received 60 fresh Atlas cocoons from Malaysia and they have been emerging and this is one of our huge females which measures 12" across.  Atlas Moths are considered one of the 3 largest moths on Earth.


This is a male Atlas Moth and males are much smaller as they do not have an abdomen full of 100's of eggs.  You will see these up close during the festival but if you participate in our Moths and Milkshakes evening event you will get an even closer encounter.

The native butterflies like this male Monarch are not faring so well with this season's drought.  We conducted our annual North American Butterfly Association official butterfly count here on Saturday and found the fewest number of Monarchs in 10 years.  There still will be plenty of Monarchs on display in the Caterpillar petting zoo and Monarch Watch tent during the Festival.   How can you help the wild Monarchs? (see below)


We will have 2 types of tropical milkweed (Asclepias curassavica), 'Silky Gold' (pictured) and 'Silky Red' (off to the left and back in this image) for sale during the Festival.  Tropical Milkweed are great nectar sources for migrating Monarchs and also good food for this season's last generation of caterpillars.  As most native milkweeds have gone dormant or are struggling in the heat, these plants are lush and in bloom and will provide the perfect food for migrating Monarchs.  Just plant them near where you can readily water them or put them in containers on your porch or patio and enjoy the butterflies they attract.  We will also have various colors of butterfly bush for sale which is a great nectar source for Monarchs and almost all other butterflies as well.


Here's another one of our new butterflies: one of the forms of the Postman Heliconian.  The Festival of Butterflies opens Friday, August 3rd at 9 a.m. and we hope to see you here to celebrate butterflies, one of the most beautiful creatures one can find in a garden.

What's Up With the Oaks?

Isn't this heat wave getting old?  That's a pretty poor question for what is at stake for the region as we now are classified as SEVERE drought.  EXTREME drought is the next category that Western Kansas and Southeastern Missouri are now experiencing.  It's painful to watch the important agricultural crops wither all around.  We are able to water most of the horticultural crops at Powell Gardens and our gardens are holding up well thanks to a hard working and committed horticulture staff.  Kudos to them!

I am surprised by how one group of native trees is handling the situation.  Oak trees are not withering but putting on NEW growth!

I first noticed the new growth on the two Bur Oaks (Quercus macrocarpa) on either side of the Horticulture Cabin where my office is.  See the bright new growth  in the above photo.  Bur Oak is pretty much the king of oak trees in Greater Kansas City growing to nearly 100 feet tall and wide but with very strong branches that laughed off the ice load of 2002's catastrophic ice storm.  It also produces large, almost golf ball sized acorns.

Then I noticed that virtually all the oaks in the Parking Lot Arboretum on the other side of the garden were doing the same thing.  See the bright yellow-green new foliage adorning this Chinkapin Oak (Quercus muhlenbergii).  Chinkapin oak I consider to be the quintessential oak of Kansas City as it once graced the regions bluffs including where downtown now stands.  Lewis & Clark described it there and you can see it in the magnificent mural of their described scene at the Anita Gorman Discovery Center.

Powell Gardens Parking Lot Arboretum contains 96 oak trees comprising 16 of Missouri and Kansas's 21 species of native oaks and virtually all of them are not just enduring the heat and drought but putting on new growth.    I noticed that the River Birches (Betula nigra) were shedding leaves to conserve water.

Does this mean anything?  Was it caused by conditions earlier in the season or do they know something we do not?  I would love to be an optimist and that they fortell a change in the weather pattern that would bring a monsoon flow and returning rains to the region.  Time will tell.  I can say that oaks are one tough tree once they are established so no wonder that they were the dominant tree in the region when the settlers first came here.

My friend Leah Berg said this reminds her of a talk by America's tree expert, Guy Sternberg on a recent talk for Gardener's Connect / Garden Center Association.  Guy explained a need to plant more heat resistant trees as our climate warms.  He recommended oaks for such and I sincerely concur.

The Value of Trees

We are now in the throws of a HEAT WAVE with temperatures flirting with 100F or more with a forecast for it to last at least a week.  Heat waves near the summer solstice are especially brutal on us and plants because the days are so long.  Trees have enormous value to us in times like this as their shade is the cheapest air conditioner available!

This image is the woodland walk from the Marjory Powell Allen Chapel to the trolley stop at Powell Gardens.  On days like today it is a respite compared to the full sun of the garden's  open prairie landscapes.

It is noticeably cooler in summertime when you enter this walk (and noticeably milder in winter too). But what is the real value of a tree during the year? 



Last week Powell Gardens' Director, Eric Tschanz and I attended the American Public Garden Association's (APGA) national conference in Columbus, OH.  I visited the Chadwick Arboretum on the Ohio State University Campus and was thrilled to see this sign that gave an actual dollar value of a shade tree!  This particular Hackberry (Celtis occidentalis) was given a value of $265.09 per year.  It's energy value in terms of cooling summertime and trapping a bit of warmth in the winter was given as over $80 per year of that value.  I was disappointed no value was given to it hosting 5 species of butterflies and providing fruit for winter birds -- many things just can't be assigned dollar values!



Here's an image of a tree that helped inspire Powell Gardens.  We call it Marjory's Oak and it stands in front of the Chapel.  It's a maturing Shingle Oak (Quercus imbricaria) and it survived the catastrophic ice storm of 2002.  The image was taken from INSIDE the chapel today.  The late Marjory Powell Allen was a leading human force that helped create Powell Gardens and her spirit is still present here as she inspired many and left a lasting legacy.  As most trees live for many human generations they leave a lasting legacy of the past that is impossible to assign a value.

This young oak also has significance at Powell Gardens as it was planted on Arbor Day 1990 to honor Chuck Brasher, local tree expert and friend of Marjory.  We are sad to announce that Chuck passed away Tuesday at age 90 and his knowledge of trees and his charity and altruism will be greatly missed.  This Swamp White Oak (Quercus bicolor) graces the old (deliveries and staff) entrance to Powell Gardens and is a constant reminder of Chuck and his love for and expertise with trees.  He maintained the list of Champion Trees of Greater Kansas City and I had the pleasure of spending many days with him measuring and scouting for champion trees.  Chuck wrote a list of the value of trees along with the champions: 

Think Trees... Your future depends on their survival!

*TREES supply the oxygen we need to breathe.

*TREES keep our air supply fresh by absorbing carbon dioxide that we exhale and also that which we emmitted by factories and engines.

*TREES are natural air conditioners.  They lower air temperatures by evaporating water in their leaves.

*TREES cut down on noise pollution by acting as sound barriers.

*TREES trap and filter out dust and pollen on their hairy leaf surfaces.

*TREES shelter us from direct sunlight on hot sunny days.

*TREES roots stabilize the soil and prevent erosion.

*TREES camouflage unsightly scenes and break the monotony of endless highways, sidwalks and lawns.

*TREES slow down strong winds.

*TREES give us privacy.

And lastly Chuck included: A country without children would be hopeless... a country without trees would be almost as hopeless! 

Trees leave a lasting legacy to the future as well -- a Swamp White Oak can easily live 300 years or older.

See Champion Trees of Greater Kansas City at http://www.countryclubtreeservice.com/.

This large shade tree is a White Ash (Fraxinus americana) in front of the Chapel.  White Ash are threatened by an imported exotic pest, the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) which is ravaging ash trees in the eastern Midwest and is spreading our way.  I learned at our APGA conference last week that with treatment as EAB arrives and for several years thereafter, your ash trees can be saved and their appreciating value retained.  Good News as I thought there was no hope for ash trees and the over 400 species of insects and other creatures besides ourselves who need them for their livlihood. Powell Gardens will be spreading the word of what local communities and landowners should do as part of The Sentinel Plant Network that APGA and the United States Department of Agriculture have set up to monitor and advise about threatening pests and diseases.

Just remember from tiny acorns mighty oak trees grow.  This is one of our seedling sof the extirpated (locally extinct) Arkansas population of Bigleaf Magnolia (Magnolia macrophylla).  Powell Gardens was given 5 seedlings of these important trees by Dick Figlar as part of our North American Plant Collection Consortium Magnolia collection where part of Powell Gardens' responsibility is to preserve and protect the native magnolias found west of the Mississippi in Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma.  These magnolias were once found on Crowley's Ridge just 8 miles south of the Missouri border and their importance is that as the western most population by many, many miles; they probably offer improved drought resistance.  Bigleaf magnolia has the largest leaf of any North American tree and takes about 15 years to bloom.  Some day this tree will really inspire visitors with its 3 foot leaves and 12 inch fragrant blossoms!  How does one assign a value to the beauty of trees?  I hope you all are inspired to visit Powell Gardens and its extensive collection of trees and to plant a tree yourself for their appreciating dollar value AND for their value beyond human currency designations.