Butterfly Gardening

"Create a Butterfly Garden"

Butterflies are some of the most beautiful and interesting creatures on Earth. By planting a butterfly garden with all of the right kinds of plants and flowers that butterflies love to feed on and lay eggs on, you will certainly have a yard full of butterflies throughout the growing season. Butterfly gardens can be any size - a window box, part of your landscaped yard, or even a wild untended area on your property.

Creating a butterfly garden should start with some serious research to learn which kinds of butterflies are native to your area. You can learn that from our article “Butterfly Gardening by Area”. Make a list of all of the different kinds of butterflies you would like to attract, and then learn which flowers and plants they both feed on and lay eggs on. All of the plants will certainly be native to your area and therefore easy to grow with the right conditions and care. Adult butterflies will visit for a longer period if they find plants to lay their eggs on. These are called ‘Host Plants’ and you can read about them in our article on “Butterfly Host Plants.”

Once you have done your research and know which kinds of plants you need, you should learn about the plants and flowers. What do they look like? How tall do they grow? What conditions do they thrive in? Perhaps print small pictures from the internet of each plant and flower so that you can begin to plan your butterfly garden by placing the pictures in the order in which you will want to plant them. In this way you can get a very good estimate of how much room you will need, and what your finished butterfly garden will look like.

Check with a local greenhouse about getting these plants and flowers. Find out which ones are annuals and which are perennials. You may want to plant the annuals in the front of the garden or away from garden fencing because they will need to be replaced each year. Perennials will come back year after year so these should be near the back of the butterfly garden and left alone to grow and thrive. If your local greenhouse cannot get you the plants you need, check in catalogs that sell bulbs or online and order them. Be sure to learn when and how to best plant them, especially if you must purchase bulbs and start the plants from scratch.

You can add some butterfly garden accessories like a Butterfly House, which has slots the ideal size for keeping birds out while giving butterflies protection from the wind and weather, and are beautiful garden decorations. You could offer an additional nectar source close by to supplement your flowers. By providing both the food and shelter butterflies need you can prolong the butterfly's stay in your garden and draw in others.

Once you have designed and started your butterfly garden, you can be proud that you have made a habitat for butterflies in your own yard, which helps with the conservation of the many species of quickly disappearing butterflies today. You will certainly want to place your favorite outdoor furniture near so that you can enjoy all of your visitors day after day.

Butterfly Garden Necessities

• Plant native flowering plants - Because many butterflies and native flowering plants have co-evolved over time and depend on each other for survival and reproduction, it is particularly important to install native flowering plants local to your geographic area. Native plants provide butterflies with the nectar or foliage they need as adults and caterpillars. The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center has lists of recommended native plants by region and state.
• Plant type and color is important - Adult butterflies are attracted to red, yellow, orange, pink and purple blossoms that are flat-topped or clustered and have short flower tubes.
• Plant good nectar sources in the sun - Your key butterfly nectar source plants should receive full sun from mid-morning to mid-afternoon. Butterfly adults generally feed only in the sun. If sun is limited in your landscape, try adding butterfly nectar sources to the vegetable garden.
• Plant for continuous bloom - Butterflies need nectar throughout the adult phase of their life span. Try to plant so that when one plant stops blooming, another begins.
• Say no to insecticides - Insecticides such as malathion, Sevin, and diazinon are marketed to kill insects. Don't use these materials in or near the butterfly garden or better, anywhere on your property. Even "benign" insecticides, such as Bacillus thuringiensis, are lethal to butterflies (while caterpillars).
• Feed butterfly caterpillars - If you don't "grow" caterpillars, there will be no adults. Bringing caterpillar foods into your garden can greatly increase your chances of attracting unusual and uncommon butterflies, while giving you yet another reason to plant an increasing variety of native plants. In many cases, caterpillars of a species feed on only a very limited variety of plants. Most butterfly caterpillars never cause the leaf damage we associate with some moth caterpillars such as bagworms, tent caterpillars, or gypsy moths.
• Provide a place for butterflies to rest - Butterflies need sun for orientation and to warm their wings for flight. Place flat stones in your garden to provide space for butterflies to rest and bask in the sun.
• Give them a place for puddling - Butterflies often congregate on wet sand and mud to partake in "puddling," drinking water and extracting minerals from damp puddles. Place coarse sand in a shallow pan and then insert the pan in the soil of your habitat. Make sure to keep the sand moist.

BUTTERFLY	CATERPILLAR HOST PLANT	BUTTERFLY NECTAR SOURCE
American Painted Lady	Everlasting, Daisy, Burdock	Aster, Dogbane, Goldenrod, Mallow, Privet, Vetch
American Snout	Hackberry	Aster, Dogbane, Dogwood, Goldenrod, Pepperbush
Anise Swallowtail	Queen Anne's Lace	Buddleia, Joe Pye Weed
Baltimore Checkerspot	Turtlehead, False Foxglove, Plantain	Milkweed, Viburnum, Wild Rose
Black Swallowtail	Parsley, Dill, Fennel	Aster, Buddleia, Joe Pye Weed, Alfalfa
Clouded Sulphur	Clover	Goldenrod, Grape Hyacinth, Marigold
Cloudless Sulphur	Cassia, Apple, Clover	Zinnia, Butterfly Bush, Cosmos, Cushion Mum
Comma	Elm, Hops, Nettle	Butterfly Bush, Dandelion
Common Buckeye	Snapdragon, Loosestrife	Carpetweed
Common Checkered Skipper	Mallow/Hollyhock	Shepherd's needles, Fleabane, Aster, Red Clover
Common Sulphur	Vetch	Aster, Dogbane, Goldenrod
Common Wood-nymph	Purpletop Grass	Purple Coneflower
Eastern Pygmy Blue	Glasswort	Salt Bush
Eastern Tailed Blue	Clover, Peas	Dogbane
Falcate Orangetip	Rock Cress, Mustard	Mustard, Strawberry, Chickweed, Violet
Giant Swallowtail	Citrus	Joe Pye Weed, Buddleia
Gorgone Checkerspot	Sunflower	Sunflower, Goldenrod
Gray Hairstreak	Mallow/Hollyhock, Clover, Alfalfa	Thistle, Ice Plant
Great Spangled Fritillary	Violet	Thiste, Black-eyed Susan, Milkweed, Ironweed
Greater Fritillary	Violet	Joe Pye Weed
Gulf Fritillary	Pentas, Passion-vine	Joe Pye Weed
Hackberry Emperor	Hackberry	Sap, Rotting fruit, Dung, Carrion
Little Glassywing	Purpletop Grass	Dogbane, Zinnia
Little Yellow	Cassia, Clover	Clover
Monarch	Milkweed	Dogbane, Buddleia
Mourning Cloak	Willow, Elm, Poplar, Birch, Nettle, Wild Rose	Butterfly Bush, Milkweed, Shasta Daisy, Dogbane
Orange Sulphur	Vetch. Alfalfa, Clover	Alfalfa, Aster, Clover, Verbena
Orange-barred Sulphur	Cassia	Many plants
Painted Lady	Thistle, Daisy, Mallow/Hollyhock, Burdock	Aster, Zinnia
Pearl Crescent	Aster	Dogbane
Pipevine Swallowtail	Dutchman's Pipe, Pipevine	Buddleia
Polydamus Swallowtail	Pipevine	Buddleia
Queen	Milkweed	Milkweed, Beggar-tick, Daisy
Question Mark	Hackberry, Elm, Nettle, Basswood	Aster, Milkweed, Sweet Pepperbush
Red Admiral	Nettle	Stonecrop, Clover, Aster, Dandelion, Goldenrod, Mallow
Red-spotted Purple	Black Cherry, Willow, Poplar	Privet, Poplar
Silver-spotted Skipper	Black Locust, Wisteria	Dogbane, Privet, Clover, Thistle, Winter Cress
Silvery Checkerspot	Sunflower	Cosmos, Blanket Flower, Marigold, Phlox, Zinnia
Sleepy Orange	Cassia, Clover	Blue Porter, Beggar Tick, Aster
Spicebush Swallowtail	Spicebush, Sassafras	Dogbane, Joe Pye Weed, Buddleia
Spring Azure	Dogwood, Viburnum, Blueberry, Spirea, Apple	Blackberry, Cherry, Dogwood, Forget-me-not, Holly
Tawny Emperor	Hackberry	Tree sap, Rotting fruit, Dung, Carrion
Tiger Swallowtail	Black Cherry, Birch, Poplar, Willow	Joe Pye Weed, Buddleia
Variegated Fritillary	Violet, Passion Vine	Joe Pye Weed
Viceroy	Willow, Poplar, Fruit Trees	Thistle, Beggar-tick, Goldenrod, Milkweed
Western Tailed Blue	Clover, Peas	Legumes
White Admiral	Birch, Willow, Poplar, Honeysuckle	Aphid Honeydew, Bramble Blossom
Zabulon Skipper	Purpletop Grass	Blackberry, Vetch, Milkweed, Buttonbush,Thistle
Zebra Longwing	Passion-vine	Verbena, Lantana, Shepard's Needle
Zebra Swallowtail	Pawpaw	Dogbane, Joe Pye Weed, Buddleia, Privet, Blueberry