Flowers for a Butterfly Garden
Flowers, Home Improvement, Landscaping & Design, Lawn and Garden, Slideshows by Julie Day
A butterfly garden is an easy way to bring some beauty and fun to your garden. Many species of plants and flowers attract butterflies – some provide nectar for the adults, and some provide nutritious leaves for the larvae to feed upon. As a bonus, many butterfly-attracting plants are low-maintenance, hardy, and quite possibly native to your area, which means that your butterfly garden may be the easiest patch of flowers you’ll ever grow.
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For a longer list of butterfly garden plants, view our Butterfly Plant List (PDF).
Butterfly Garden Tips
- Butterfly gardens should be planted in full sun.
- In addition to nectar-producing flowers, consider plants that caterpillars like to munch such as fennel and milkweed, and keep in mind that some butterflies lay their eggs in trees.
- Mass-plant single varieties for visual appeal and more butterflies.
- Stagger bloom times to ensure butterfly attraction throughout the warm seasons.
- Keep your garden free of pesticides!
- Butterflies love to sunbathe, so include a few flat, dark stones in your garden.
- Butterflies also need water, and they take minerals from the soil by “puddling,” or sipping from wet soil. Bury a dish of coarse sand (kept wet), or include dishes of water with pebbles or sticks for perching.
- Learn your local butterflies – plant larval host plants to attract your common species.
