© Janet Davis
Question: What’s new at Niagara Falls?
Answer: Blackjack and butterflies.
So
what’s the difference?
Speaking from personal experience, at the Niagara casino downtown, I saw my hundred bucks fly away faster at the roulette wheel than the croupier could mutter, “No more bets.”
Whereas as the magnificent new Niagara Parks Commission Butterfly Conservatory, located just north of the Falls along the Niagara Parkway in the Botanical Garden, I kept what was left of my money – after the admission fee – and watched beautiful butterflies flying away instead.
Since it opened in December 1996, the Butterfly Conservatory has been a stunning success, attracting thousands of visitors each week.
Inside the majestic glass and granite building,
more than 2,000 butterflies representing 50 species flutter elegantly through
an 11,000 square-foot tropical rain forest, complete with waterfall. They stop to sup on the blooms of hibiscus,
ixora, boronia, heliconia, lantana 
and
yellow ginger plants, some soaring to the tops of the banana and ceiling wax
palms until the reach the netting under the vaulted glass roof.
Butterflies fly trustingly along the stone pathways, unruffled by the tourists, who are asked in a preliminary video presentation not to run or make loud noises that would frighten the beautiful creatures. In fact, visitors dressed in bright t-shirts are often startled to find they’ve become landing pads from friendly Blue Morpho butterflies checking to see if that Fruit-of-the-Loom shirt might really be a nectar-rich bloom. To supplement their plant-based diets, species such as the Owl (named for its big “eyes” on its wings) also dine on over-ripe fruits and protein-enhanced sugar water placed on shallow saucers.
The Conservatory imports about 1,000 butterfly pupae each week at an average cost of $2.50 each from farms in the Philippines, Costa Rica and elsewhere. In the adjacent greenhouses and rearing facilitiy, wehre staff raise some species in-house, special food plants are grown to accept the eggs of the adult butterflies and feed the resulting larval caterpillars. For the striped Zebra Longwing, that means lots of passionflower vines; for Monarchs, it’s milkweed. The entire process from egg to caterpillar to chrysalis to winged flight takes about three weeks.
Outside the Conservatory, a butterfly garden designed by Janet Rosenberg & Associates attracts native butterflies. Purple coneflower, butterfly milkweed, zinnias, butterfly bush, spicebush, sedum, liatris, yarrow, lavender and other nectar plants attract species such as the Eastern Swallowtail, Admiral, Skipper, Viceroy and Monarch.
· To learn about how you can enjoy butterflies at home, read Attracting Butterflies to your Garden.
· And for more on the beautiful Monarch Butterfly, read Is the Monarch in Jeopardy?
The Niagara Butterfly Conservatory is located at 2405 Niagara River Parkway, Niagara Falls, Ontario. It is open daily, except Christmas day, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission fee. For more information see their website or call 905-356-8119.
Adapted from a column that appeared originally in the Toronto Sun