As 1998 is Gardens and Butterflies Year, now is a good time to plan a warm welcome for them with a border banquet of scented and nectar-rich plants. Geoff Stebbings has some suggestions. Butterflies, with their delicate, jewelled wings, are the kind of insects that everyone loves. They're welcome in the garden - with the exception of the dreaded cabbage white - because they bring colour and movement on a sunny day. But they're under threat. Of the 59 species of butterfly in the UK, more than half have seen their population decline. In fact, the large blue became extinct in Britain in 1979, but it has since been re-introduced to six sites.
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