Butterfly garden
Butterfly gardens are very popular because they attract an assortment of butterflies. The key to attracting butterflies is to provide them with plants where they can lay their eggs and feed on the nectar. They are attracted to the nectar by smell as well as to the color of the flower. Flowers that are red, yellow, orange, pink and purple tend to be their favorite. Butterflies also prefer flat topped, small clusters of flowers like lantana and flowers with short tubes (Azalea) for easy feeding.
If you would like to attract these elusive visitors to your garden here is a list of plants you can grow.
- Plants for nectar:
Anise Hyssop (Agastache)
Aster spp.
Azalea(Rhododendron spp.)
Bee Balm (Monarda)
Butterfly bush (Buddleia davidii) *
Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa)*
Cardinal Flower (Lobelia)
Cosmos
Dianthus, pinks, sweet william
Egyptian star flower (Pentas)
Fernleaf yarrow (Achillea filipendulina)
Foxglove (Digitalis)
Garden phlox (Phlox paniculata)
Heliotrope (Heliotropium arborescens)
Honeysuckle vine (Lonicera)
Hybrid delphinium (Delphinium spp.)
Lantana (Lantana camara)
Lavender (Lavendula)
Marigold
Orange, lemon,lime (Citrus spp.)
Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
Queen Ann”s Lace (Daucus carota)
Rudbeckia , gloriosa daisy
Sedum (Hylotelephium spectabile)
Snapdragon (Antirrhinum)
Spike gayfeather (Liatris spicata)
Summersweet (Clethra alnifolia)
Tickseed (Coreoposis lanceolata)
Verbena
Yarrow
Zinnia -
Plants for Larval Food
Black Cherry
Carrot
Clover
Dill
Elm
Fennel
Flowering crabapple
Hollyhock mallow (Malva alcea)
Milkweed (Asclepias)
Parsley (Petroselinum crispum)
Passion flower (Passiflora spp.)
Rose
Salvia
Spice bush (Lindera benzoin)
Tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipfera)
Turtlehead (Chelone lyonii)
Violet, Pansy
Willow (Salix spp.)
Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
Hi there, I was planning on digging up my dahlias to store them for winter, and before I could get to it, my mother thought she would be helpful and dug them up first. She also dug up my stargazer lilies thinking they were dahlias. I put the bulbs in a box with peat moss and stored them in the basement, should I go ahead and replant them back into the garden and hope for the best, or should I keep them in the basement until spring? What should I be doing for them to keep the bulbs alive??
I started a butterfly garden two years ago and this year the milkweed did sprout and grow.
I have two butterfly bushes that are wonderful; one pink and one purple. Are they really a bush since they seem to want to grow tall like a small tree. When is the best time to prune the butterfly bush if at all? Spring or Fall?
Our county sprays for mosquitoes and gypsy moths. We have fewer butterflies and lightening bugs now and it makes me wonder if the spray is the reason.
Jan from Michigan
I planted a butterfly bush this year in my flower bed. And they told me to cut it back low to the ground in early spring. And it will grow rapidly in early summer.
This is a really cool list. I would love too have some more butterflies in my garden:) Thanks
I grew Snapdragons for the first time this summer. Now that fall has come and I am cleaning up the flower beds I noticed the snapdragons have a bulb like root. My question is can this root be saved for the winter and replanted next summer and if so how do I store it?
hi my class is going to start to do a court yard and we get to design it i was wondering if you have any thing that we might need to do so the flowers will stay alive for a long time we are doing an, asian and butterfly theme to it . i need to now what are the things that i need so we can do it right because i want it to look nice for the spring
I have Sweetwilliams from seeds there are 2 Years old and have nice leaves but no flowers and there are in a container, what can I do? Thanks very much……
pic: Butterfly garden
Do you cut back Purple Coneflower in the fall for winter protection? If so, how? Any other tips for winterizing Purple Coneflower?
I have 2 mini sunflower plants in my flower bed and the blooms seem to dying off and new ones are about to open. Do I need to remove the dead heads?
I planted 12 Liatris bulbs this spring. Only two matured enough (very tall – height to about 30″) and bloomed. The other 10 grew to a height of about five inches and did not bloom. They are all in the same area. What happened?