Create a Butterfly Garden

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Create a Butterfly Garden

Butterflies play a vital role in our natural ecosystem by pollinating plants. Here's how to keep your garden alive with these delicate creatures all summer long.

1. Pick your spot To turn your garden into desirable real estate for these lovely creatures, you'll need to provide their favorite features:

Full sun for at least half the day Butterflies are cold-blooded, so they need to bask in the sun to generate enough heat to fly. Add some flat rocks where they can perch.

Protection from the wind A thicket of bushes and tall plants keeps butterflies safe from wind, bad weather, and predators.

Moisture Butterflies will often gather in large numbers at the edge of sand or mud puddles to drink and absorb mineral salts.

2. Select nectar plants To attract butterflies to your garden, add nectar plants for them to feed on. Single plants won't do; you'll need big clumps of them. Some of our favorites are asters, butterfly bush, butterfly weed, marigolds, purple coneflowers, and zinnias. Include early- and late-blooming varieties, so the butterflies will have a supply of food throughout the growing season.

3. Add host plants Butterflies lay eggs on everything from passionflower vines to parsley and poplar trees, all of which will provide food for caterpillars when they hatch. Various species of butterflies require specific host plants, so you should aim to attract those butterflies that occur naturally in your area by providing their favorite hosts (for more information, see below).

Where to get help and learn more:

North American Butterfly Association
4 Delaware Road
Morristown, NJ 07960
973-285-0907
Free butterfly gardening brochures can be downloaded from North American Butterfly Association. You can order the introductory brochure and one regional brochure (specify your region) for $7.50.

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
4801 La Crosse Avenue
Austin, TX 78739-1702
512-292-4200
The center is an excellent resource for learning about native plants.

These books are also extremely helpful:

Attracting Butterflies and Hummingbirds to Your Backyard, by Sally Roth (Rodale)

Butterfly Gardening: Creating Summer Magic in Your Garden, by the Xerces Society and the Smithsonian Institution (Sierra Club Books)

Butterfly Gardening for the South, by Geyata Ajilvsgi (Taylor Publishing)

The National Wildlife Federation's Guide to Gardening for Wildlife, by Craig Tufts and Paul Loewer (Rodale Press)

Stokes Butterfly Book, by Donald and Lillian Stokes and Ernest Williams (Little, Brown)

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