Blooming brilliant! Gold award for the Tropical Butterfly House

The Tropical Butterfly House are a flutter with excitement after winning the BIAZA Gold Horticulture award for their new Butterfly House, which opened its doors on the 1^st of April 2023. The award recognises their dedication to creating an accessible energy-efficient and ecologically friendly thriving habitat for butterflies and tropical plants.

This amazing achievement follows on from their success in 2023, winning the silver award for the beautifully planted outdoor seating area at Lottie’s Coffee Lounge. The ethos behind the planting scheme was to support pollinating insects all year round.

This latest award, for the new indoor tropical house, follows months of planning by Head Gardener Rachel, of ‘I want A Beautiful Garden’, and Assistant Gardener Maddy. The planting was carefully designed to showcase the significant horticultural relationships between butterflies and their environment, ultimately developing a sustained habitat in which butterflies can thrive.   The first step was to select the plants that would provide nectar sources, breeding grounds, and shelter for butterflies and to group them accordingly: caterpillar host plants, nectar sources and tropical species. Different species of butterflies feed on different plants, therefore the positioning of the planting was carefully structured to mirror their natural environment with  95% grown from seeds and cuttings of stock plants, and only a small portion obtained from other butterfly houses.

Head Gardener Rachel, who was involved in the project from the start says “We are absolutely thrilled to have won this award. It is so rewarding to have our work acknowledged and showcase how The Tropical Butterfly House serves as a vital resource for the community, providing a beautiful space to connect with nature and learn about the importance of pollinators. It is a wonderful place to work”.

With a central pond, stepping stones and accessible wide paths, expect to see an array of butterfly species including Blue Morpho, Monarch, Flame, Postman, Zebra, Malachite and the Owl butterfly flying around, landing on various plants to feed on the nectar. If you’re lucky one may even land on you! Did you know, the spectacular Blue Morpho is one of the largest butterflies in the world, measuring around six inches long and with wing spans of up to 20 centimetres.

As visitors walk through the doors they are immediately immersed in the sights, sounds and smells of the tropics. With an amazing display of the world’s most colourful butterflies, half of which are sourced from the Mariposario del Bosque Nuevo, project (Butterflies of the New Forest). This project supports the reforestation and rewilding of this ex-plantation in Costa Rica.

The Tropical Butterfly House is open daily over the summer 10am – 5pm see www.butterflyhouse.co.uk