Butterfly Gardening

Butterflies are delightful living jewels that beautify any garden. With a little planning, you can create a garden that welcomes butterflies in all their life stages for enjoyment throughout the summer.

Host Plants

Planting flowers that supply adult butterflies with nectar will attract some butterflies to your garden, but to attract and keep many different species to enjoy, you'll have to include host plants also. What are host plants? They are the plants that female butterflies lay their eggs on, which hatch into caterpillars. Each species of butterfly has specific plants that nourish the growing caterpillar, and they cannot survive on any other plant.

Annual & Perennial Butterfly Host Plants

African Marigold, Alfalfa, Clover, Asters, Black-eyed Susan, Cabbage, Kale, Citrus, Common Milkweed, Dill, French Marigold, Hollyhock, Lupine, Parsley, Passionflower, Queen Anne's Lace, Rock Cress, Sedum spectabile, Showy Milkweed, Snapdragon, Sunflower, Swamp Milkweed, Sweet William, Violets

Tree and Shrub Butterfly Host Plants

Birch, Black willow, Boxelder, Elm, Hawthorn, Oak, PawPaw, Poplar, Spicebush, Sycamore, Wild Cherry

Butterfly Nectar Plants

Adult butterflies drink nectar from flowers, and having a selection of nectar plants that bloom in succession throughout the season will bring butterflies to your garden. Annuals tend to have longer bloom times than perennials.

Annual and Perennial Butterfly Nectar Plants

Achillea, African Marigold, Aster, Bee Balm, Black-eyed Susan, Blanketflower, Daylily, French Marigold, Gayfeather, Globe Thistle, Gloriosa Daisy, Goldenrod, Heliotrope, Joe Pye Weed, Lupine, Mallow, Mexican Sunflower, Milkweed, Mints, Mountain Bluet, Nasturtium, Oxeye Daisy

Tree and Shrub Butterfly Nectar Plants

Black Willow, Coralberry, Korean Lilac, Mock Orange, Plum, Cherry, Pussy Willow, Sweet Pepperbush, Butterfly Bush, Bluebeard, Tropical Hibiscus, Azalea

Other ways to attract butterflies

• Protect your butterfly garden from strong wind by creating it near a wall, fence or other windbreak.
• Provide a patch or pot of damp sand. Butterflies cannot drink from open water like birdbaths but can drink from very shallow puddles or damp areas.
• Provide basking stones. Butterflies are cold-blooded and need the sun's rays to warm up enough to fly on cool mornings.
• Leave some areas of your property "natural" if possible to provide wild host and nectar plants a place to grow.
• Make a butterfly feeder (a fun kid's project): Drill a small hole in the lid of a small jar. Plug the hole with cotton. Fill the jar with a solution of one part table sugar (not honey) to nine parts water.

Controlling Insect Pests in your Butterfly Garden

Wherever possible, avoid using pesticides in your butterfly garden. If other insects become a problem you must deal with, treat only the areas affected with insecticidal soaps or oils.

About Butterfly Houses...

Occasionally, a butterfly may take refuge in your butterfly house, but most will prefer to hide in natural areas, under loose tree bark, in tall unmowed grass and undisturbed brush piles.