Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

Notes: Butter and Eggs is a European import from settlement days, now naturalized in Minnesota. Eloise Butler's Garden Log notes she acquired some plants as early as 1911 and later, such as 24 roots from Glenwood Park on September 8, 1917, and from the Riverview Heights area of the cities on October 15, 1923. Eloise had difficulty establishing the plant in what is now the Woodland Garden. Her expression was that she "could not acclimatize them but would try once more." When back in Malden, MA during the winter of 1932-33, Eloise sent a clump to her friend Gertrude Cram with instructions to heel them in until spring. Unfortunately, Ms. Butler passed away soon after her return to the Garden the following Spring and Mrs. Cram wrote to new curator Martha Crone at the Garden that she had those plants plus a yard full of them, from which Eloise "might have had an armful." (Letter of Gertrude Cram to Martha Crone, April 23, 1933.) Martha herself, planted 125 of them on 2 dates in 1945, more in 1952 and seeds in 1954.

Butter and Eggs does survive in the less moist Upland Garden and most people who know the plant have probably seen extensive outcrops of them in the waste areas, street right-of-ways and pathways where it can get sun exposure. It is an invasive plant, listed on the Minnesota Invasive Plant List (and by a number of other states). It is a problem in prairie restoration if it becomes established. Unfortunately, it is still sold as an ornamental plant. The population in the Garden is kept under control and the plant is tolerated as an educational specimen.

In Minnesota, Butter and Eggs is found in about 2/3rds of the counties, most absences being in the southwest quadrant. In North America it has been found in all states and provinces. In large concentrations, frequent mowing weakens the plant, 2,4-D broadleaf herbicide works, but not recommended and there are two known European beetles that feed on the buds.

Eloise Butler wrote: "Some naturalized plant citizens, with attractive flowers, one might like to have in the garden, if they were not so aggressive. But, if admitted, they would selfishly shoulder out the weaker and possible more desirable inmates. The place for such vagrants is, therefore, the roadside where they will thrive on a hard bed and a crust of earth. Bouncing Bet and Butter ‘n’ eggs may be cited as examples. A blue ribbon should be awarded them for certain sterling qualities. During protracted droughts, when other vegetation has succumbed and even the grass blades have shriveled, they alone put out their blossoms and brighten what would otherwise be a bare and desert waste. The pale and the deep yellow colors of the flowers of Linaria vulgaris, so well set off by the slender, sage green leaves, are aptly characterized by the rustic name, Butter ‘n’ eggs. The nectar held in the sharp pointed spur lures the humble bee to the lips of the blossom, stubbornly closed, as in the related snapdragon, to other insect rovers." Published Aug. 6, 1911 Minneapolis Sunday Tribune.