Thrive
Wings take flight: butterflies at the Green Thumb Festival
Barry Edwards has operated a tent at the annual event for more than 25 years.
Political pollster and consultant Barry Edwards has always had an appreciation for nature. Especially butterflies.
In fact, he has operated a tent at the Green Thumb Festival, at the St. Petersburg-based Walter Fuller Park, for more than 25 years. Edwards brought 400 butterflies to the event Saturday and Sunday (April 25 and 26).
“If you want to be an environmentalist, you really need to learn how the whole system works,” he said. “Butterflies are kind of the apex. If you use poisons and pesticides, there’s no butterflies.”
This idea ultimately led Edwards to open a booth at the annual gathering. It became a family affair. Edwards’s parents and sisters began to attend and help. Even neighbors have lent a hand.
For Edwards, it’s all about impacting local families. Particularly, children.
Every year, he places a variety of host plants inside the tent for the butterflies to lay eggs on. Milkweeds are among the most common. Edwards provides extra plants to the young guests at the festival.
He explained that planting can teach youth responsibility, empowerment and accountability. For the plants to thrive, they need to be watered frequently. Healthy vegetation can attract butterflies.
Edwards’ butterflies include monarchs, painted ladies, swallowtails and zebra longwings.
Parents, who once attended the festival as children themselves, are now bringing their sons and daughters to see the butterflies. This especially makes Edwards smile.
Gardening, he believes, can not only help individuals feel more connected to nature. It can provide a sense of relaxation and peace.
“People can make their own yards into parks if they plant,” Edwards said. Greenery and butterflies “can calm you down.”
All of the Green Thumb Festival butterflies are grown in Florida. This year’s group was from Bradenton. They include monarchs, painted ladies, swallowtails and zebra longwings. He explained that the creatures were initially placed in “little clear envelopes.” Edwards released them into the tent Friday prior to the festival’s opening. Following the event, he moved the insects to plants around the city so that they can reproduce.
Butterflies have short lifespans. They usually only live for a couple of weeks.
“The parents may or may not be into gardening, but once the kids get excited, the parents have to get into gardening,” he said. “It makes environmentalists out people who never thought about being environmentalists.”
This encourages individuals to think about their impact on the local ecosystem, Edwards added. It’s not expensive to start butterfly gardening. All people have to do is purchase plants such as milkweeds.
“If you have a lot of butterflies, you have a good healthy environment,” he explained. “If you don’t have any butterflies, you’re probably using too many chemicals and you need to be worried. It’s not about them, it’s about you. If we have all of these chemicals in the world and butterflies can’t survive, it’s probably not good for us either.”
