Butterflies…Delightful Visitors in your Garden!
There is no more delightful decoration for a garden than nature’s own–butterflies. On a warm sunny day these visitors provide color and motion that doubles the pleasure of gardening. How fortunate for the gardener that it takes very little effort to make the yard attractive to butterflies!
Butterflies will visit, and possibly stay to lay eggs, wherever there is a variety of plants for food and shelter, some moisture, and an absence of pesticides. While there are typically more species in warm climates than in cooler ones, there are butterflies almost everywhere in the country. Their appearance in your backyard ultimately depends on whether their favorite plants are growing there–certain ones to support their larvae, many others to support adult butterflies.
The Best Butterfly Blooms Are:
- composites, umbels, and panicles, whose clusters of small florets provide many sips plus a place to pause.
- brightly colored in lavender, purple, red, orange and yellow.
- single-flowered types where the nectar is more accessible.
- flat or tubular in varied lengths.
- planted in drifts and clusters for efficient grazing.
- fragrant.
Flowering Plants that Attract Butterflies….
- Aster, New England
- Beebalm
- Black-eyed Susan
- Blanket flower
- Blazing star
- Butterfly bush
- Butterfly weed
- Candytuft
- Cardinal Flower
- Catmint
- Coneflower
- Daisy, Ox
- Gas plant
- Goldenrod
- Globe thistle
- Hyssop, Anise
- Joe-pye weed
- Jupiter’s beard
- Lantana
- Lavender
- Lupine
- Milkweed, Swamp
- Milkweed, Common
- Mountain bluet
- Pentas
- Phlox, Garden
- Sneezeweed
- Sage, Scarlet
- Tickseed
- Turtlehead
- Verbena
- Yarrow
- Zinnia
Learn more about butterflies from our NGB members…
- Attracting Butterflies, Hummingbirds and Other Pollinators
- Native Pollinator Favorites
- Butterfly Reservoir Feeder
“This post is provided as an educational/inspirational service of the National Garden Bureau and our members. Please credit and link to National Garden Bureau and author member if applicable when using all or parts of this article.”
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