Draw butterflies to your garden
By Tim Kimball
Butterfly gardening has grown in popularity in the last few years. Introducing these winged beauties to a garden already brimming with flowers is something you won’t soon forget.
With proper planning, you can not only attract adult butterflies, you can observe the entire life cycle.
First the eggs are laid, followed by caterpillars that devour the host plants. (They just happen to love certain herbs, such as fennel and parsley!) Then, before long, your garden is ablaze with butterflies of various colors, sizes, and shapes.
Butterfly gardening requires four things:
- Good placement: This is the key element to a successful butterfly garden. Full sun is recommended since the butterfly’s favorite flowers need it. Also, the butterflies like to sun themselves, so consider placing a stone for them to rest on.
- Protected from wind: Keep in mind that the garden should be placed somewhere that’s not windy. Placing large plants and shrubs around the perimeter of the garden is a good means of blocking wind.
- Good drainage: A site with good drainage is usually preferable, but many butterfly plants also grow well in wet/boggy conditions.
- A nectar source: This is supplied by flowers. Plan on having plants that will be blooming throughout the growing season in order to attract the most types of butterflies.
Your butterfly garden can be as small as a container, or as large as you want. Be sure to check your plants’ growth rates before planting.
With the right sites, butterflies will be drawn to your home.
The following list will get you started:
Spring
- Sweet William (Dianthus )
- Larkspur(Consolida)
- Bachelor’s Buttons (Centaurea)
- Hollyhock (Alcea)
- Alyssum
- Wallflowers(Cheiranthus)
Summer
- Lantana
- Pentas (Egyptian Starflower)
- Yarrow (Achillea)
- Verbenas
- Salvias
- any plant in the Daisy family
- Cleome(Spider Flower)
These are good for summer, and most keep blooming till late fall.
Fall
- Anemone
- Eupatorium (Joe-Pye-Weed)
- Ornamental Grasses
- Goldenrod (Solidago)
- Salvia leucantha (Autumn Sage)
- Perovskia (Russian Sage)
plus many more.
Winter
There are some butterflies that winter over in our area, and these will be discussed in a later article.
Host Plants
The following list of plants will encourage your butterflies to lay eggs, and in a few weeks you’ll have even more winged beauties about.
Herbaceous Plants
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| Shrubs and Trees
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