In the first third of the book, Woodward explains the life cycle of a butterfly and stresses the importance of plants for eggs and larva as well as nectar-producing plants for adults. She makes suggestions for garden designs especially ones with varying heights of foliage to be more hospitable to butterflies.

The second third is a beautiful collection of photos of butterflies common to the Pacific Northwest.

Finally, she addresses plants for butterflies. She has a climate chart for British Colombia, Washington, and Northern Idaho. It is followed by lists of larval host plants and the larva which use the plant, food sources for adult butterflies, herbaceous plants: annual, biennial, or perennial, and sketches of plants. She ends with a resource guide for plants and seeds for British Columbia, Alberta, Alaska,

Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and California.

I thought the book to be too basic for most members of WBA, but it would be a good introduction for beginning butterfly gardeners. Also I was surprised by the price of the book.. Originally, I thought the price on the back cover of the book was Canadian dollars. A similar book, The Butterfly Gardener’s Guide, an all-region guide edited by Claire Hagen Dole and published by the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, is 120 pages and sells for only $9.95 US. Woodward’s book is $19.95 US. This book will be available at Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com and wherever else books are sold. It is published by White Cap Books of North Vancouver, British Columbia.

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