About Butterfly Nursery Inc.
Butterfly Nursery, Inc (formally Butterflies & Blueberries, Inc.) is a culmination of the agricultural and environmental visions that Bill and his Dad had for his parents’ farm. Founded in late 1998, our company focuses on:
- Bringing the beauty and wonder of live butterflies to special occasions through butterfly releases.
- Providing the opportunity for children of all ages to see the miracle of metamorphosis right before their eyes.
- Excellent customer service. We provide the very best service and GUARANTEE our butterflies, butterfly larvae, chrysalises and growing kits to our customers.
Butterfly Nursery, Inc. adheres to the strict Code of Ethics set by the Board of Directors of the International Butterfly Breeders and the USDA . All of our butterflies are raised under sanitary conditions and with a special diet that insure that our butterflies “grow-up” healthy and beautiful.
The butterflies for release are raised for each individual order, then fed and exercised before carefully being packaged and shipped via FedEx over-night to be delivered to our customers the day before their release.
We developed our Butterfly Nursery & Net Castle so that people everywhere can watch one of nature’s most fascinating miracles …metamorphosis.
Butterflies represent re-birth and new beginnings. For this reason we wanted to be able to bring this joy not only to children, but also to senior citizens in retirement homes and seriously ill patients of all ages. We are committed to developing products that can be easily used in traditional classroom and home schooling environments.
About the Owners: Bill & Laurel
Butterfly Nursery, Inc. (formally Butterflies & Blueberries, Inc) represents the next evolutionary step for Bill and Laurel Howatt. The idea for the corporation was inspired by and conceived in Aruba on vacation. There, they had the opportunity to visit a butterfly farm and fell in love with the idea of bringing that excitement and joy to other people.
Bill and Laurel met in High School in a suburb of Worcester, MA in the early 70’s and worked together at the local hospital kitchen through high school. “We had a lot of friends in common. Bill was a great guy and a lot of fun to be with but definitely a wild spirit”, says Laurel. They each went their own ways after graduating, Bill, to University of Idaho and Laurel to the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
Over the next 20 years, Laurel earned her BS in Marketing and Management, got married, had two children and divorced. She moved with her children to a wonderful small town community in NH in early 1990s. “We didn’t know a single person. However, it did not take long for the kids to get involved in sports and school activities. The community embraced us, the schools were top notch and we were very happy in Milford, NH”, she said.
Bill fell in love with Idaho remaining there for a few years after getting his degree in Forestry. He also knew his father had always dreamed of farming the 140-acre farm where Bill grew up and decided to return to Massachusetts to help his father achieve his dream. They developed the plan that gave birth to Spring Ledge Tree Farm. He chose to live a very simple life in a small house on a pond in a neighboring town and managed to maintain his cherished “bachelor status”.
Over the next 24 years, Bill and his Dad cleared over 17 acres of forest where they planted, nurtured, and sold thousands of Christmas trees. “When I first started I didn’t even have a chain-saw.” he said, shaking his head, “I started clearing the land with an ax: Paul Bunyan style!” Bill has been selling Christmas trees, wreaths, and garland in Holden MA. for 40 years.
Update: September 2021 Bill, Laurel and the corporation moved to Concord, NH to be closer to their grandchildren. January 1, 2022, they re-incorporated in NH as Butterfly Nursery, Inc.
In 1995, Bill called Laurel and asked her out to dinner. She was very busy with her children and their activities, but Bill persisted, and they agreed to meet. (It had been 23 years since they had last seen each other.) They did “car-pool duty” to soccer practice on their way to dinner and then had to leave their meals in the middle of dinner to pick up the kids, returning to the restaurant an hour later to finish their dinner! “It was my first introduction to life with children” and it never slowed down after that.” Bill laughs, “I asked her to work with me on the tree farm that fall and to help me sell the trees at Christmas and I quickly fell in love with Laurel and her children.”
Planting and maintaining thousands of Christmas trees year after year was beginning to take a toll on Bill physically and he began looking for his next “farming” opportunity. During a Aruba vacation in Jan 1998, they visited a butterfly farm. Bill came back excited to “farm” butterflies. In 2001 they formed the corporation, (formally know as Butterflies & Blueberries, Inc.)
Looking for direction and inspiration for his new venture, Bill reflected back to the various enterprises he had embarked upon during the years of tree farming and found a product he had developed 15 years previously. “After a few modifications, I developed Bill’s Butterfly Nursery, which in turn, inspired all the other educational butterfly raising products we have to offer,” he explained. Bill started breeding beautiful Painted Lady butterflies so that he would be able to supply the entire line of butterfly raising kits with larvae. “We have had a tremendous amount of positive feedback from parents, children, teachers and students, alike, from all over the country.”
Butterfly Nursery, Inc. soon began to offer beautiful live Painted Lady butterflies for release at weddings, memorial services, fundraisers, graduations, and other life celebrations across the continental United States.
In July 2001, Bill & Laurel moved back to Bill’s home on the pond. “The kids were in college. We were ready for the move back to Bill’s house. We are excited to be back in the area where we grew up”, says Laurel. On a beautiful, sunny, autumn day in October 2002 they were married on the pond’s edge. “Of course, we had to release beautiful Butterflies to celebrate”, Bill smiled. “Everyone expected it!”