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Spring has sprung, so long as you’re staying indoors in Saskatoon this weekend.
Gardenscape at Prairieland Park is back, running until 5 p.m. today, featuring booths dedicated to gardening, outdoor living, landscaping and even insects, particularly butterflies.
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People lined up for a chance to enter an inflatable structure at the back of the exhibit hall, where passing through two mesh-zipper doors brought them into The Butterfly Encounter, run by Wildlife Adventures.
The company runs interactive animal exhibits and travelled from Orlando, Florida to be here for the weekend event, according to one of its wildlife experts, Jim DeBerry.
In its Gardenscape exhibit were roughly 250 to 300 live butterflies, DeBerry said, alongside rows of plants and lights.
People could buy feeding sticks in the hopes that a butterfly would land in front of them, although others got lucky by having the winged-insect take a rest on their arms or shoes.
Jim DeBerry with Wildlife Adventures said the team travelled from Orlando, Florida, coming to Saskatoon for the first time, “in a long time.” (Marija Robinson/650 CKOM)
How the butterflies got here
The butterflies were brought from Florida by air, and DeBerry says Wildlife Adventures flies to many locations.
In terms of how they get so many butterflies, the company has a space for raising them.
“We grow the butterflies in-house and then we bring them for exhibits for people to see and learn,” he said, adding how the goal is to provide a “natural-like environment” for visitors to experience.
“Every pupa, which is like an egg, we grow every one of those,” until they hatch into butterflies, he said.
It’s a process that DeBerry said takes between 30 or 60 days.
The success of the end result, though, doesn’t last long.
“Butterflies have a very short life expectancy. They only live about 14 days as a butterfly,” DeBerry said.
So, the hundreds seen in Saskatoon this weekend were specifically raised so that their “butterfly journey” would finish at Gardenscape, he said.
While it’s not a long life, these insects gave people a glimpse at spring that would otherwise be near-impossible this time of year.
“You can’t see butterflies in this weather,” DeBerry said. “They wouldn’t survive. In fact, there’s not a whole lot of plant life outside and a natural environment for them to see.”
With more snow in the forecast, the Butterfly Encounter was a much-needed reprieve from winter.
Angele and Gabriel Cossette stand in front of a giant inflatable butterfly at Gradenscape. When asked how many butterflies they think they saw in the Butterfly Encounter, Angele said 50 while Gabriel guessed it was around 70. (Marija Robinson/650 CKOM)
“It makes it look like spring and I love spring,” young exhibit-goer Angele Cossette said.
When asked what her favourite thing about the encounter was, Cossette said she enjoyed seeing the flowers and the butterflies.
It’s an experience that’s somewhat universal, according to DeBerry.
“A butterfly is an insect animal that everybody loves. It doesn’t matter if you’re six-months-old or if you’re 99 years old. You want to see the butterfly,” he said.
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