cool butterfly houses at the birding show

Last week in Atlanta, the Merchandise Mart hosted its annual gift show, with a whole floor dedicated to backyard birding. Spending a whole day there just wasn’t enough, I felt like a kid in a candy store and wanted everything!

Unfortunately, that’s far from possible, so the search was narrowed to very unique birding products, namely one, butterfly houses. Many of the standards were there, in cedar construction from small to large. A few recycled plastic (or poly lumber) butterfly houses were shown in some fab colors.

This one caught my eye however, likely because of the mod curved entrances. The copper accents were nice too, so I inquired. Upon learning these butterfly houses are hand crafted in solid cypress, and included the tall mounting poll, I was pretty much hooked.

At home I don’t have a butterfly house, but last summer there were tons of butterflies. Planting the host plant (milkweed) helped, but the leaf misters are what kept them around daily. Butterflies absolutely love the gentle spray from a leaf mister, whether they really use these houses or not…you can attract them with mist! By the way…Hummingbirds and others really love that mist during summer’s sweltering temperatures too!