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By Mom Unplugged, August 2, 2007 1:04 pm

We just came back from a wonderful day at the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY. If you are in the area with (or even without) children, you MUST see this museum! This is our fourth time there. We make it an annual trip each summer when we come to my hometown in Upstate New York.

The kids had a choice: the lovely sandy beach at Sodus Point or what we call simply: “The Museum.” No question, “The Museum” was the unanimous choice. Even the baby had fun. All downstairs exhibits are “hands on” and really entertaining and educational for even the littlest visitors. Upstairs contains a fascinating display of thousands of toys arranged by vintage. Grownups will also enjoy finding the toys from their childhood, and the popular ones are all there!

This year we were able to visit the new Dancing Wings Butterfly Garden that had just opened in a new wing last summer and was too mobbed to get into then. It is the largest indoor butterfly garden in New York and was truly was amazing! Tickets are limited in number and are for a specific reserved time so as to insure that only a small number of visitors are in there at once. There were probably about ten or so in our group.

Visitors wander around the tall glass atrium-like structure through pathways carved out between the lush flowers and vegetation. Soothing music plays in the background and mist emanates from vents placed high up (to maintain the proper level of humidity). A huge variety of butterflies, large and small flit happily to and fro. Many pause to sip nectar from flowers or bird baths filled with fruit. Some also enjoy hanging off loofah-sponges that have been soaked in a divine (to a butterfly) mixture of Gatorade, honey and sugar water. They even seemed to enjoy landing for a little rest on our heads. If you are a butterfly, this is the place to be!!

There is also a window that looks into “the nursery” in which hundreds of different lucky cocoons hang suspended from rows of rods. Some cocoons are small and green, others large and brown and look exactly like curled up dry leaves. There were even shiny gilt cocoons that seemed to have been made of pure gold! If you are fortunate, you might see a beautiful creature emerge from one of these odd-looking chrysalises.

Apparently the museum purchases most of its cocoons (or perhaps larvae?) from suppliers worldwide. However, at least one species reproduces happily within the environment as evidenced by the giant green caterpillar in the last photo below.

This fascinating experience reminds me of an amazing unplugged activity for children: a Butterfly Garden kit. This kit comes with all you need to raise butterflies in your home. There is a mail-away certificate for five larvae that come in a jar complete with all the food they will need.

We did this last summer and it is truly incredible to see how quickly these little thread-sized creatures grow into long, fat caterpillars! We would check them at night before bedtime and then by the morning, they would already have visibly grown. When ready, the caterpillars cocoon hanging upside down off the lid of the cup. After a few days of seeming inactivity (I think maybe 5?), the cocoons start moving and breaking open to reveal their miraculous contents. We were fortunate enough to have all five of our larvae emerge as healthy butterflies.

Summer is the time to do this so that you can release your newly hatched butterflies into your garden. Being an animal (and insect, and any living creature) freak, I checked beforehand that the variety of butterfly that comes with the kit (The Painted Lady, vanessa cardui) was in fact native to, and could survive in my area. The Painted Lady is a tough butterfly that is common over the whole US and is even found on every continent except for Antarctica!

I must be in some sort of butterfly mode at the moment, because the other day I also picked up a wonderful book at Tuesday Morning called Garden Butterflies of North America: A Gallery of Garden Butterflies & How to Attract Them. I have to boast: I bought it for $5.99 and at Amazon the same edition is $15.56!

If you get REALLY into this butterfly thing as we did, then please see my April post entitled The Children’s Garden for more information on how to create your own backyard butterfly garden.

The “Nursery”

A very large, fat and happy caterpillar on a plant!

Comments (11)

By Mom Unplugged, April 10, 2007 10:05 pm

I never would have thought it possible, but kids really can take care of a small garden, and enjoy it too! See my post Kids and Gardens and Spring, for a personal story.

Here are some tips that I have found helpful for gardening with my two oldest children (ages 4 and 6):

• Give them just a small area each and start with a small number of flowers. We did six flowers each. Anything more might be overwhelming.
• Annuals are great because they provide immediate and long lasting flowers, and you have the fun of choosing new varieties each year. Seeds take a long time for short attention spans, and perennials often don’t have a long flowering season, plus they don’t always look their best the first year.
• Kids love gear. Get them their own little kid-sized gardening gloves and they will be in heaven.
• For older children, or for a family project, you could try a themed garden. Here are some ideas:

1. Butterfly Garden - There are lots of resources on the web regarding what to plant to attract butterflies (check out The Butterfly Site - Gardening or The Garden Helper) . Choreopsis, Butterfly Bush, and Cosmos are some good ones to start with. If you can, and you really want to get into it, try to identify butterflies that are native to your area and also include plants that those species of caterpillar like to eat. Make sure your garden is in a sunny spot as butterflies only feed in the sun. Also provide a flat rock for warmth (the butterflies will sit on it and keep warm). You could even raise some butterflies to release in your garden. We did that last year and I was just as fascinated (if not more) than my kids! Check out a Live Butterfly Garden to get all you need to raise some Painted Lady butterflies, including mail-away certificate for larvae.
2. Scented Garden - Choose plants that have nice smells. Herbs, lavender, mint, and scented geraniums are good ones to start with. Be careful with the mint as it can be very invasive. If you don’t want it to take over your garden, then plant it in a pot. Just make a big enough hole, and stick in the plant, pot and all. It will look normal from the surface, but it won’t be able to spread. By the way, you can really have fun with scented geraniums. There are some that smell just like lemon, and even a variety that smells like chocolate (check out Scented Pelargoniums or Mountain Valley Growers for more info!).
3. Fairy Garden - Pick fanciful flowers: I like snapdragons (show your kids how the flowers can open and close like bunny mouths) and pansies (they look like they have faces). Anything small, and dainty, and lacy is nice too. Queen Anne’s Lace, Alyssum, Lilly of the Valley. Your kids can decorate the garden with little fairy houses made of sticks and rocks, with perhaps some acorn cap bowls of water for the fairies to drink!
4. Colored Gardens - Pick your child’s favorite color and plan a garden using all that color. You may or may not want to include white flowers or green foliage for contrast.
5. Night Time Gardens - White gardens really stand out at night. Plus some flowers only open at night. Night Gardening, The Evening Garden, and Moon Garden Flowers are good resources.
   
6. An Edible Flower Garden - Herbs are an obvious choice here, but also include Nasturtium, Borage and other edible flowers (research this carefully first since some flowers can be toxic if eaten!).

The possibilities are endless, so just have fun!

Of course, as with any garden, the key to success is two-fold: 1 - Speaking from experience, I know it is easy to go overboard at the nursery. Do not take on more than you and your kids can handle (making a list ahead of time and STICKING TO IT helps). 2 - Whatever you decide to do, be sure to pick plants that will do well in your climate and yard/soil conditions. For example, don’t pick shade-loving plants for a sunny spot, or sun-loving plants for a flowerbed in the shade. You will just set your family up for failure and disappointment. A local nursery or a book such as my favorite, Right Plant, Right Place: Over 1400 Plants for Every Situation in the Garden, can help with this.

Thanks to morguefile.com and photographer puravida.