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Butterflies need two types of plants to survive: the host plant and the food plant. Attracting butterflies to your garden takes more than just planting a few flowers for nectar because most people only focus on this one thing. One of their worst mistakes is planting alien, non-native plants that are often promoted as being good for butterflies when they actually aren’t! To have beautiful, healthy butterfly populations again in North America we need to replace our lost native host plants with species like buddleia bushes – it’s all about providing what these amazing insects need!
If you are interested in a garden and plants that attract monarch butterfly, click here.
Butterflies lay their eggs only on the plant species to which their larvae are adapted. Their larvae only feed on the plants that are appropriate for them as caterpillars. Caterpillars, in turn, become either a new moth or butterfly, or a source of food for birds.
Here are some plants you can use to attract butterflies. Willows attract viceroys; black cherry trees attract tiger swallowtails. Viola feed fritillary butterflies. Virginia Creeper enables the Pandora sphinx to reproduce. Oaks provide food for the polyphemus moth and others. Flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) and any of our native Viburnums hosts the spring azure (Celastrina ladon), an early spring butterfly.
Pollination is essential to plant life, and only about ten percent of plants are self-pollinating. All the rest need butterflies, bees and other pollinators to help them reproduce. As pollinator populations fall, we are more and more at risk of losing entire species of plants.
Without butterflies and other pollinators, many food crops, flowers, and wild plants would be at risk of dying out. Losing these plants would negatively affect people and the natural world. [source]
In addition to helping plants pollinate, butterflies also help ensure the genetic strength and diversity of plants because they travel long distances in the course of their lives.
They carry pollen from one population of plants to another, and this helps plants to better resist disease. When plants are strong and healthy, they also resist pests, so butterflies are instrumental in helping control plant pest populations.
Although some butterflies (e.g., Monarch butterfly) are bad tasting and poisonous when ingested, many are important sources of food for birds and other beneficial wildlife.
When butterfly populations drop, so do the populations of animals that eat them. Negative impacts on plant and animal populations have a domino effect throughout the food chain and can cause the complete collapse of ecosystems.
It’s easy to see that butterflies are more than just a pretty face. When you select plants especially to attract these useful insects, you beautify your immediate environment and benefit the environment as a whole.
Here are 17 of the best plants you can choose to create a stunning butterfly garden.
Butterfly Bush is aptly named. This fast-growing, easy-to-care-for shrub attracts masses of butterflies throughout the summer with sweet smelling white, blue or purple blossoms. These bushes can grow huge, but it’s easy to control their size by just cutting them back to the ground late in the autumn or very early in the springtime.
Phlox has pretty, sweet-smelling blossoms in white, pink, lavender, salmon, or red all summer long. Be sure to seek out varieties developed especially for disease resistance as this plant can be subject to powdery mildew.
Anise Hyssop is a beautiful, rugged, drought-tolerant plant that does very well in hot climates. It produces lovely blue blooms toward the end of summer that are highly attractive to butterflies, yet they are also deer and rabbit resistant. The flowers are sturdy and long-lasting and make excellent cut flowers.
Butterfly Weed (aka Milkweed) is an excellent choice if you want to attract Monarchs. Adult butterflies enjoy the flowers’ nectar and lay eggs on the leaves of the plant. Caterpillars eat the leaves and make their cocoons on the plants’ stems. The most popular variety has orange flowers, but there are many milkweed varieties.
Look for Swamp Milkweed and Annual Blood-Flower to add variety to your milkweed patch. Not all types appeal to all butterflies, but a good mix will help ensure a meal for a wide variety of butterflies.
The aromatic Aster plant is a wonderful choice to add color and attraction to your butterfly garden in the autumn. Create a riot of color with abundant blossoms in white, pink, blue, red and purple. Pearl Crescent caterpillars, which grow up to be pretty little orange and black butterflies, are especially fond of these plants.
Purple coneflower is a hardy, pretty, useful plant that grows well in a bright, sunny butterfly garden. The plant is drought and heat tolerant and produces lovely purplish-pink blooms all summer long. Butterflies enjoy the nectar, and you can enjoy the benefits of the plant as a dried herb useful for making immune-boosting tea.
The flowers are long-lasting in arrangements, and Echinacea is also available in a wide variety of colors and bloom types that are equally attractive to butterflies and gardeners.
May Night or Meadow Sage is a vigorous salvia cultivar that produces abundant spikes of purple flowers throughout the summer. This heat-tolerant, drought-resistant plant is easy to grow and well-loved by butterflies. There are other salvia varieties available in pink, red and orange.
Bushes of Lantana flowers abundantly throughout the summer with pretty white, cream-colored, yellow, orange, red, pink and lavender blossoms. This plant is excellent in the garden or as a container plant. It is a good choice mixed into the flower bed or trained along a border.
Pentas produce pretty clusters of white, pink and red star-shaped blossoms even in hot, dry conditions. This easy-to-grow plant is a sure hit with hummingbirds and butterflies.
Passion flower is an exotic, hardy climbing vine which a wide variety of butterflies love. The pretty blue flowers produce lots of tasty nectar, and the vegetation provides good habitat for the caterpillars.
Mexican sunflower boasts big orange flowers throughout the summer. Butterflies love the flowers, and the plants are fast growing and easy to take care of.
South American Verbena is also a lovely butterfly garden plant on its own. The pretty purple flowers make nice bouquets, and they grow back almost as fast as you can cut them.
Zinnias are perky and popular with people and butterflies, alike. Available in a wide range of colors and varieties, it’s easy to create an interesting, varied garden with just a collection of pretty zinnias.
Joe Pye Weed is a big, vigorously growing plant that butterflies love. Some varieties grow to be six feet tall, but there are cultivars (e.g., Little Joe) that stay smaller. The plant produces billowing clusters of dusty pink blooms late in the summer and into the autumn.
Black-Eyed Susan is a daisy-like perennial that is heat and drought resistant and lovely in bouquets. Blossoms appear late in the summer and provide a tasty meal for butterflies and bees.
Bronze fennel is an edible plant that adds texture and interest to your butterfly garden. Swallowtail butterflies love it, and their caterpillars eat the leaves and make their cocoons on the stems. Fennel is self-seeding and vigorous, so it’s wise to trim the flowers back just before they go to seed to prevent having it become invasive. [source]
Coreopsis has pretty yellow blossoms and deep green, fernlike foliage. The plant blooms all summer long and can be encouraged to bloom even more with vigorous deadheading. In fact, trimming it back with the hedge clippers is a good way to get it to produce blossoms in abundance.
Crossandra pretty apricot-salmon colored flowers with a deep green, “Gardenia-like” foliage. The plant blooms April through October. Deadheading with encourages more growth and blooms.
Butterflies may come for the flowers, but if other conditions are not right, they may not have a successful visit. Here are ten things you can do to be sure your garden is safe for butterflies and conducive to butterfly reproduction.
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