Bring on the butterflies!

Many flowering plants will attract butterflies to your location, but not all flowers are created equally in the eyes of a butterfly.

Your Goal is to select plants that will feed butterflies and encourage them to stick around long enough to lay eggs.

In order to do this you will need to choose nectar plants that will provide adult butterflies with energy and plants that will feed caterpillars.

Choosing Nectar Plants:

While shopping for garden plants, you will encounter many plants labeled “butterfly friendly.

These usually are colorful blooming nectar plants that feed adult butterflies.

Here is a list of the most popular nectar plants:

• Aster

• Black-Eyed Susan

• Blazing Stars

• Butterfly Milkweed

• Buttonbush

• Cardinal Flower

• Common Milkweed

• Coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea)

• Coreopsis

• Cosmos

• Dianthus

• Lantana

• Marigold

• Mexican Sunflowers

• Petunia

• Salvia

• Shasta Daisy

• Sunflower

• Swamp Milkweed

• Swamp Verbena

• Tall Verbena

• Thistle

• Violet

• Woodland Stonecrop

• Yarrow

• Zinnia

• Butterfly Bush

• Passion Vine

While mature female butterflies can travel long distances, their larvae (caterpillars) cannot.

So, when creating gardens to attract butterflies, expand your palette beyond plants that only provide nectar for mature butterflies. There’s another type of plant, called larval host plants, that any well-rounded butterfly garden needs.

Here’s a list of popular host plants:

• Valley Oak

• Narrowleaf Milkweed

• California Pipeline

• Passionvine

• Aster (Aster spp.)

• Black-Eyed Susan

• Butterfly Milkweed

• Common Milkweed

• Coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea)

• False Nettle

• Hollyhock

• Indian Paintbrush

• Mallow

• Nasturtium

• Rue

• Ruellia

• Shasta Daisy

• Silver Brocade

• Snapdragon

• Spider flower

• Sunflower

• Swamp Milkweed

• Swamp Verbena

• Violet

• Water Dock

• Wild Senna

• Dill

• Fennel

• Parsley

• Little Bluestem Grass

• Orchard Grass

• Panic Grass

• Coontie

• False Indigo

• Spicebush

• Passion Flowers

• Aspen Tree

• Common HopTree

• Elm Tree

• Flowering Dogwood

• Prickly Ash

• Sassafras

• Sweet Bay

• Willow

Host plants are the nurseries of the garden. If you keep an eye out you’ll see the female as she flits around the plant, gently laying her next brood’s eggs, sometimes on the top of leaves but usually on the bottom, hidden from predators. Then, in 10 to 14 days, the tiny larvae, less than an eighth inch long, emerge and begin eating the plant. It’s a fascinating process as they munch away, growing larger everyday. Equally fascinating is watching the caterpillar leave the plant to form a chrysalis.

Find out how to create a Bee Garden here: BUZZ WORTHY GARDENS