Gardening Basics

Creating a Butterfly Garden

Posted by Lee Dobbins

You can grow a butterfly garden anywhere in the United States. Butterfly gardens are designed to contain specific plants and flowers that attract butterflies. The garden can encompass several acres to just a few containers. You want to particularly focus on nectar producing plants.

Butterfly gardens should contain nectar plants, get a lot of sun, already have a local native butterfly source and fauna, be pesticide free, and contain host plants. North America contains many butterfly attractive plants that are native. These plants don’t need any special treatment and will thrive with only a small amount of attention. The best time to plant your garden is the spring. This will give the plants time to be in full power the next year.

It is important to have more than one nectar source in your garden. Planting many nectar source will encourage many butterflies to visit your garden and will also give the butterflies many places to lay eggs. Butterfly eggs tend to hatch about 3 to 6 days after they are laid and it will take the caterpillars about 6 weeks to emerge as full butterflies.

The following plants are popular butterfly attractants; Black-Eyed Susan, Butterfly Weed, Ironweed, Lantana, New England Aster, Swamp Milkweed, Vervain, Azalea, Butterfly Bush, Egyptian Star Flower, Joe-Pye Weed, French Marigold, Purple Coneflower, Blazing Star and Zinnia.

You should plant your butterfly plants in full sun areas, as the plants need the sun to grow and produce nectar. Butterflies also need the sun so that they can warm up their body. Butterflies are attracted to strong scents and color. You want to use nectar producing plants as well as colorful plants. Butterflies can see color and they prefer dark pink, purple, yellow, orange and red. The color encourages the butterflies to stick around.

Butterflies like to meet and gather around small puddles of liquid. You can use stale beer, sweet drinks and water and create your own small permanent puddle places. You can also attract them by placing puddles and food areas close together. It is very easy to hang a butterfly feeder by a small liquid puddle and this should be included in your design.

Host plants need to be planted besides nectar producing plants. These plants are where the butterflies will lay their eggs and once the caterpillars emerge they will feed on the host plant. Your garden should also be pesticide free, as most pesticides will kill the butterflies. Some natural plants that repel pests and are not harmful to butterflies are mint, herbs, petunias and marigolds.

Depending on the butterflies in your area you should plant the correct host plants accordingly. The Black Cherry attracts the Tiger Swallowtail, the Spicebush attracts the Spicebush Swallowtail, the Senna attracts the Cloudless Sulphur, the Milkweed attracts the Monarch, the Willow attracts the Red Spotted Purple, the Pawpaw attracts the Zebra Swallowtail, the Hop Tree attracts the Giant Swallowtail, and the Fennel attracts the Black Swallowtail.

You can find information on butterfly houses and butterflies from garden centers and nurseries, libraries, butterfly gardens, botanical gardens, butterfly houses, and on the Internet.

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