Bringing Butterflies to Your Garden: High Country Gardens, Drought Tolerant Plants, Xeriscape Perennials

Bringing Butterflies to Your Garden

With a finely tuned sense of smell, butterflies can identify their favorite nectar plants for miles around. The key to any butterfly garden...

Item # 52346	Gaillardia 'Oranges and Lemons' (PPAF) Oranges and Lemons Blanket Flower each $7.99 3 to 6 plants $7.79 7 or more plants $7.59 Qty:

Item # 76750	Dalea purpureum Purple Prairie Clover each $5.49 3 to 6 plants $5.29 7 or more $4.99 Qty:

Item # 23514	Aster ericoides 'Snow Flurry' Snow Flurry Aster each $5.49 3 to 6 plants $5.29 7 or more $4.99 Qty:

Item # 70992	Monarda 'Violet Queen' Violet Queen Bee Balm each $7.99 3 to 6 plants $7.79 7 or more $7.59 Qty:

Item # 11813	Agastache neomexicana New Mexico Hummingbird Mint each $7.99 3 to 6 plants $7.79 7 or more $7.59 Qty:

Item # 27105	Buddleia alternifolia Spring Blooming Butterfly Bush each $7.99 3 or more $7.79 Qty:

Item # 89285	Sedum 'Autumn Joy' Showy Stonecrop each $7.99 3 to 6 plants $7.79 7 or more $7.59 Qty:

Topic: Butterfly Gardening
Author: Cindy Bellinger, updated by Patrice LeBovit
Keywords: butterfly, butterflies, butterfly garden, flowers, nectar, pollinators
Date: May 2008

With a finely tuned sense of smell, butterflies can identify their favorite nectar plants for miles around. The key to any butterfly garden (and this includes window boxes) is making the right selection of flowers. High Country Gardens carries dozens of different plants designated for attracting butterflies. It’s easy to plan for butterflies and if you have favorite kinds, it’s even possible to plant specifically for them because each butterfly species has its favorite flower.

For example, the nectar of the Butterfly Bush (Buddleia) attracts the Giant Swallowtails and the Painted Ladies. Asters (Asters) attract the Common Sulphur and Buckeye.

With even more careful selection, you can provide for butterflies’ full life cycle—from egg, to caterpillar, to chrysalis, and finally to the emergence of a full-fledged butterfly. For some species the process only takes a few weeks. Eggs are laid on specific food plants so that when the caterpillars emerge, they can begin to feed. Food source plants are often different from nectar sources. The Monarch butterfly is a good example of this. They only lay eggs on Milkweed, and then the plant becomes the food source for the caterpillar. As an adult, the Monarch sips from the Milkweed but also likes other flowers as well.

Milkweed nectar attracts a number of different butterflies like the Giant Swallowtail, Cabbage White, Fiery Skippers. But these other species all lay eggs on other types of plants. To ensure the availability of nectar sources throughout the summer, long-blooming annuals such as cosmos, verbena, lantana, penta, strawflower and heliotrope can be planted between the perennials or in potted container gardens.

Though flower nectar is the chief food source for most butterflies, a few butterfly species prefer to feast on rotting fruit (Mourning Cloaks especially) and all will hang around mud holes, a characteristic called ‘puddling.’ Mud is a source of essential mineral salts.

The relationship between plants and butterflies is tight and complex. They are flowers’ greatest pollinators. Human development is diminishing their habitats, but with gardens that favor butterflies we contribute to their safety. When we create a garden for butterflies we also participate in their conservation. By creating a natural habitat for them, we are ensuring their future.

Plants that butterflies like include: