Butterfly Garden
Create a Butterfly Garden
Butterflies love flowers and a few easy steps create a butterfly garden. We people can enjoy the flowers that attract the butterflies.
And enjoy the beautiful butterflies by creating a butterfly habitat.
BUTTERFLY GARDEN REQUIREMENTS
A Sunny Area
The butterfly flowers require sun for proper growth and butterflies need the sun to keep warm. The butterflies need to warm up in the mornings and they like to sit on a rock to absorb the sun’s warmth. So mix a rock or two into your flower planting where they will get the morning sun.
Shelter
Butterflies need some protection from bad weather. You probably already have shelter in your yard in the form of trees, shrubs, or hedges. There is no need to add more if you already have existing landscape plants.
Water
Butterflies don’t drink out of open water, but if pond water comes up to the edges and makes the edges wet, you will see butterflies drinking there.You don’t have to have a pond, just fill a potted plant saucer with sand and keep it damp for the butterflies. These Sulphurs are puddling to get minerals from wet soil.
Caterpillar Food Sources
A lot of native plants are food sources for caterpillars. Parsley, dill, butterfly weed, and milk weed are caterpillar food, too. If you live in Florida, the Zebra Longwings like passion vines. Check with your local extension service to find out exactly what butterfly garden flowers are good for the caterpillars in your area.
Nectar Flowers
This is the fun part; these are some flowers that attract butterflies. These butterfly flowers provide food for the butterflies and we get to enjoy the beauty of the flowers and the butterflies. I think it goes without saying, do not use any pesticides in your butterfly garden. We don’t want to kill what we are attracting to our butterfly garden. If you have any rotting fruit the butterflies would enjoy that. They also enjoy cut fruit such as oranges or mangoes.
Plant some easy care flowers, too.
PLANTS AND FLOWERS
THAT ATTRACT BUTTERFLIES
Asters perennial, 6 inches to 3 feet plants depending on variety, flowers in shades of blue, lavender, purple, pink and red in summer and fall, plant in full sun, most soilsBlack-eyed Susan, Gloriosa Daisy, Rudbeckia hirta, biennial or short lived perennial, sometimes used as an annual, 3 to 4 feet (shorter varieties available) with daisy flowers 2 to 7 inches yellow, orange or mahogany with dark centers, mid summer to fall, full sun, easy to grow, good cut flowers. I like daisies and
I enjoy painting them.
Butterfly Bush, Buddleia davidii, deciduous or semi-evergreen shrub, fast growth to 3 to 10 feet, 6 to 12 inch spikes of small fragrant flowers in mid summer, white, pink, lilac, purple with and orange center, freezes to the ground in the winter and grows from roots in the spring, needs good drainage, the butterfly bush is easy to care for and it really attracts the butterflies making it great for any butterfly garden
Butterfly Milkweed, Asclepias tuberosa, perennial, clusters of bright orange flowers midsummer to frost on plant stems to 3 feet, requires good drainage, little water
Milkweeds are favorites for the Monarch Butterfly.
There is a reason why these two plants the Butterfly Bush and the Butterfly Milkweed (also called Butterfly Weed) have the word 'butterfly' in their names. The plants are not so beautiful in the eyes of people, but to butterflies they are gorgeous. When I went to a plant store today out of all the flowers available, guess where the butterflies were? At the Butterfly Weed, the Butterfly Bushes weren't in bloom yet or they would have been there, also. Find a place for these two plants in your butterfly garden. The butterflies will thank you.Coreopsis, Coreopsis lanceolata, perennial, 1 to 2 feet , golden yellow daisy flowers 1 ½ to 2 inches, excellent cut flower, remove spent flowers and it will bloom all summer until frost, once established drought tolerant Lantana, Lantana, perennial in warm areas used as an annual in cooler areas, 1-3 feet, flowers all summer until frost, white, yellow, orange, pinks, red, lavender, visited by butterflies and hummingbirds both, one of my favorites, so easy, fast growing
Marigolds, Tagetes various species, annual, 6 inches to 4 feet, full sun, easy to grow from seed, white, yellow, gold, orange, maroon 1 ½ to 5 inches, good cut flowers, all summer until frostPenta, Pentas lanceolata, perennial grown as an annual, 2 to 3 feet, tight 4 inch wide cluster of star shaped flowers, white, pink, lilac, or red, full sun, good water, remove spent flowers and it will bloom all summer. Butterflies love pentas and they are readily available at most garden centers. Purple Coneflower, Echinacea purpurea, perennial, 4 to 5 feet, 2 to 4 inch daisy-like flowers normally pink, but white, coral, and crimson varieties exist, full sun, most soils, divide clumps in spring or fall Verbena, Verbena hybrida or peruviana,, short lived perennial many times used as an annual ground cover, 6 to 12 inches tall, flower clusters 2 to 3 inches white, pink, red, lavender, purple, sun with good air circulation, fast, easy, flowers summer until frost.
Hummingbirds like Verbena, too!
Zinnias, several species and varieties, annual, 8 inches to 3 feet, a hot weather plant, needs sun, blooms summer to fall, flowers 1 to 5 inches depending on variety, bright colors yellow, pink, coral, red, salmon, and white, easy growing from seed, water at the base of plant to prevent mildewHave fun planting flowers, vines and plants for the butterflies. Don’t forget some of the regular landscape plants that butterflies enjoy as much as we do. Up north the common lilac bushes, in the south the crape myrtle tree, both are enjoyed by butterflies and no matter where you live you could use daylilies, sedum, sweet alyssum, cosmos, lavender and azaleas. Planting flowers that attract butterflies and creating a butterfly garden is so rewarding, enjoy!
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