Home About me

Garden Knowledge
E-Books

Your Garden

The Premier
Gardeners Guide

Attracting Butterflies to your Garden

When planning a butterfly garden, create a large patch of different  flowers to attract and keep butterflies . Choose flowers that bloom at different times in the summer when butterflies are searching for food. Be aware that some plants are considered invasive weeds so check with your local extension service to be sure. Carefully check out your site and read all available information before deciding to plant or keep any plants in your garden.

You can lure more butterflies to your garden by providing the proper setting.  Food plants are most important to both the caterpillars and the adults .Butterflies prefer some shelter from windy areas , but  also like open, sunny areas. Windbreak plantings or other means of protecting the butterfly garden can help provide a suitable area for butterflies.

Male butterflies often like to gather on  moist sand or around  mud puddles where they feed. The reason for this is not fully understood, but many  people think that the water contains dissolved minerals needed by the insects. Maintaining a damp, slightly salty area in the yard may attract groups of these butterflies.

Adult female butterflies search for food plants needed by caterpillars . Most butterflies have specific plants on which they feed and lay eggs. For example, caterpillars of the monarch butterfly will only feed on milkweed, and  the black swallowtail will only feed on  parsley, dill or closely related plants. When females find the proper plant, they may lay eggs on it.

Providing the necessary food plants for caterpillars can create a "native" population that can be observed in all stages of development, although many will fly away as adult butterflies.

Most adult butterflies feed on the nectar from flowers, which gives them energy. Some flowers contain more nectar, and are more attractive to butterflies than others. There are also certain types of flowers and flower colors attract more butterflies. Some butterflies feed on  the honeydew made by aphids, others will feed on plant sap, rotting fruit and even bird droppings.

Below is a list of  the various flowers, trees, and shrubs to help attract these beautiful creatures to your garden!

Birch
Boxelder 
Butterfly Bush
Buttonbush
Cherry 
Coralberry 
Dogwoods 
Hackberry 
Honeysuckle
Hoptree 
Lilac 
Maple
Oak 
Poplar 
Plum 
Spicebush 
Spireas
Sumacs 
Sweet mockorange
Weigela
Willow 


Annual Flowers
Cosmos
Flowering tobacco
Four o'clocks
Globe amaranth
Heliotrope
Lantana
Marigold 
Mexican sunflower
Nasturtium 
Petunia
Salvia
Snapdragon
Statice
Verbena
Zinnia

Herbs and Vegetables
Anise 
Alfalfa 
Broccoli 
Cabbage 
Carrot 
Celery 
Dill 
Garden pea 
Parsley 
Parsnip 
Rosemary


 Perennials
Aster
Bee balm
Black-eyed Susan
Blanketflower
Butterfly weed
Cardinal flower
Centaureas "Batchelor Buttons"
Columbine
Common evening primrose
Daisy, feverfew
Dame's rocket
Daylily
False indigo 
Fireweed
Fleabane
Garden phlox
Gayfeather, Blazing star
Gentian
Globe thistle
Goldenrod
Heliopsis
Hibiscus 
Hollyhock 
Hyssop
Joe-Pye weed
Leadplant
Lily
Mallow 
Milkweed
Obedient plant
Pearly everlasting
Penstemon
Peppermint and spearmint
Pincushion flower
Purple coneflower
Rock-cress 
Selfheal
Stonecrop 
Sunflowers 
Sweet William, Pinks 
  Sweet pea
 Thyme
Tickseed sunflower
Turtlehead
Verbena
Violets 
Yarrow
 
Weeds
Burdock
Cinquefoil
Common milkweed 
Dandelion
Grasses 
Ironweed
Knapweed 
Clovers 
Mullen
Mustard 
Nettles 
Queen Anne's Lace 
Sedge 
Thistles 
Vetch

Garden Knowledge
E-Books