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How to attract butterflies to your garden

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Back in 2002/2003 when my husband and I landscaped our backyard and created our raised bed garden I’d wanted to grow plants that would attract butterflies and birds to the garden. I spent the winter researching plants that would thrive in my area and that would attract butterflies. If they happened to have scent that was just a bonus!

Butterflies sip from the nectar of many flowers and their larvae eat the leaves of plants such as milkweed, so when planning a garden meant to attract butterflies you should keep all of their life stages in mind.

It’s also important that your butterfly garden be organic. You can’t use pesticides that kill a wide variety of insects as you’ll likely end up killing the butterflies that you desire.

Habitual zones and places where areas of the landscape meet with the tree lines are favorite safe places for them. They also search for areas that can shelter them from high winds, summer storms and rains. Shrubs and trees are good choices for plants that will provide them protective shelter. It is also helpful to find out what kinds of butterflies are native to your area so you can find appropriate plants for them.

Some plants that attract Anise Swallowtail and the Black swallowtail butterflies are fennel, parsley and dill.

Lupine flowers are a favorite with Fritillary butterfly and Snapdragons are a great choice of attracting butterflies that are native to your own area.

Gardens that offer a safe haven for butterflies will not only attract passing butterflies but likely encourage them to stay longer or to return frequently. Most butterflies are active in the mid to late summer, so it is important that you also have plants available to them during that time.

A home made butterfly feeding station might also be a great idea. You can make a feeder by using a small jar, a lid with a small hole drilled in the center and a piece of cotton to plug the hole in the lid. The nectar is made with 9 parts water and one part sugar. Very similar to hummingbird nectar actually. In fact if you have hummingbird feeders in your garden they might suffice as an additional area for butterflies as well.

Butterflies do not drink water from birdbaths, however they will drink water that puddles on large rocks or from areas where water has gathered on the soil after a rain storm.

As your plants mature you’ll likely see more and more butterflies visiting your garden each year. I know that’s been the case with our garden. We have quite the variety of wildlife that seek out our garden.

Here’s a list of plants that attract butterflies:

Annual Plants and Flowers

  • Anethum graveolens dill
  • Bidens alba shepherd’s needles
  • Coreopsis tinctoria calliopsis
  • Coriandrum sativum coriander
  • Cosmos bipinnatus cosmos
  • Cosmos sulphureus orange cosmos
  • Foeniculum vulgare Florence fennel
  • Gomphrena globosa globe amaranth
  • Helianthus annuus common sunflower
  • Petroselinum crispum parsley
  • Phaseolus vulgaris common bean
  • Tithonia rotundiflora Mexican sunflower
  • Zinnia elegans zinnia
  • Zinnia haageana Mexican zinnia

Perennial Plants

  • Achillea millefolium common yarrow
  • Allium tuberosum garlic chives
  • Asclepias curassavica scarlet milkweed
  • Asclepias tuberosa butterfly weed
  • Aster tataricus Tatarian aster
  • Clerodendrum indicum tubeflower
  • Conoclinium coelestinum mistflower
  • Coreopsis verticillata whorled coreopsis
  • Coreopsis grandiflora coreopsis
  • Cuphea hyssopifolia Mexican false heather
  • Cuphea ignea cigar plant
  • Cuphea micropetala tall cigar plant
  • Echinacea purpurea purple coneflower
  • Echinops ritro small globe thistle
  • Erythrina herbacea coral bean
  • Eupatorium fistulosum Joe Pye weed
  • Gaillardia pulchella blanket flower
  • Gamolepis chrysanthemoides African bush-daisy
  • Glandularia puchella moss verbena
  • Hedychium coronarium ginger lily
  • Helianthus angustifolius narrow-leaved sunflower
  • Helianthus tuberosus Jerusalem artichoke
  • Heliopsis helianthoides oxeye sunflower
  • Lycoris squamigera surprise lily
  • Melissa officinalis lemon balm
  • Monarda didyma beebalm
  • Monarda punctata spotted horsemint
  • Narcissus spp. daffodil
  • Pentas lanceolata pentas
  • Phlox paniculata garden phlox
  • Pycnanthemum floridanum Florida mountainmint
  • Rudbeckia fulgida var. sullivantii orange coneflower
  • Rudbeckia hirta black-eyed Susan
  • Ruellia brittoniana Mexican petunia
  • Russelia equisetiformis firecracker plant
  • Salvia lyrata lyreleaf sage
  • Salvia coccinea scarlet sage
  • Salvia guaranitica blue anise sage
  • Salvia ‘Indigo Spires’ Indigo Spires sage
  • Salvia leucantha Mexican bush sage
  • Scabiosa columbaria butterfly blue
  • Sedum spectabile showy sedum
  • Tagetes lemmonii mountain marigold
  • Verbena bonariensis purpletop verbena

Shrubs

  • Buddleja davidii butterfly bush
  • Caesalpinia pulcherrima peacock flower
  • Cephalanthus occidentalis buttonbush
  • Cestrum nocturnum night blooming jasmine
  • Choisya ternata Mexican orange
  • Clethra alnifolia sweet pepperbush
  • Duranta erecta golden dewdrop
  • Hamelia patens firebush
  • Heliotropium arborsecens common heliotrope
  • Hibiscus Rosa-sinensis Chinese hibiscus
  • Hypericum frondosum golden St. John’s wort
  • Justicia brandegeana shrimp plant
  • Lantana camara lantana
  • Lantana montevidensis trailing lantana
  • Leonotus leonurus lion’s ear
  • Malvaviscus penduliflorus Turk’s cap
  • Odontonema strictum firespike
  • Pittosporum tobira Japanese mockorange
  • Plumbago auriculata leadwort
  • Prunus angustifolia Chickasaw plum
  • Rhododendron austrinum Florida flame azalea
  • Rhododendron canescens pinxter azalea
  • Rosa laevigata Cherokee rose
  • Salvia elegans pineapple sage
  • Salvia greggii Autumn Sage
  • Salvia mexicana Mexican sage
  • Senna pendula Cassia bicapsularis

Trees

  • Cassia roxburghii Ceylon senna
  • Citrus meyeri Meyers lemon
  • Citrus sinensis sweet orange
  • Coccoloba uvifera sea grape
  • Fortunella spp kumquat
  • Jatropha integerrima peregrina
  • Sassafras albidum sassafras
  • Vitex agnus-castus hemp tree
  • X Citrofortunella microcarpa calamondin

Vines

  • Antigonon leptopus Mexican creeper
  • Aristolochia elegans Calico flower
  • Campsis radicans trumpet creeper
  • Clerodendrum splendens flaming glorybower
  • Cuscuta spp dodder
  • Dolichos lablab hyacinth bean
  • Helianthus debilis beach sunflower
  • Ipomoea quamoclit cypress vine
  • Lonicera japonica Japanese honeysuckle
  • Lonicera sempervirens coral honeysuckle
  • Passiflora caerulea blue passionflower
  • Passiflora incarnata maypop
  • Passiflora racemosa red passionflower
  • Phaseolus coccineus runner bean
  • Pseudogynoxys chenopodioides Mexican Flame Vine

It’s certainly not to late in most areas to start a few of these plants or perhaps buy some seedlings or potted plants from a nursery.

Get started on your butterfly garden now.






Hard to believe spring will ever come

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Join Green Thumb Sunday
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It’s hard to believe that in only a month and a half or so I’ll be looking at scenes like this in my front yard. The picture above is of tulips in bloom beside the previous autumns dried up Sedum flower heads. I’d neglected to remove the dried Sedum flowers in the fall and frankly I tend not to remove them as I think they look nice in the winter garden, however I was behind last spring as I’ve usually removed them by the time the tulips are in full bloom! The greenery behind the flowers are clumps of day lilies, not yet blooming, in my planted boulevard garden.

So why am I finding it so hard to believe that Spring will ever arrive? Well look at this:

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I spent at least four hours shoveling snow yesterday and I’m just about to go outside to shovel again. I’ll probably be out there for at least an hour as the snow plows have gone by twice since I last shoveled and the sidewalk plow went by once as well! Groan. My back is aching! At least I’m getting some exercise!

Worse of all is the fact that we’re the second house from the corner and our stupid neighbor always parks his car on the street – especially during big snow storms. So the plow takes all the snow as it passes the side street, our neighbors and our house and then has to swerve out into the middle of the street to avoid our neighbors car. This ends up dumping a ton of snow right at the end of our driveway.

See the right side of the photo? See how the one snow bank leads far out into the street? Yeah … I shoveled that and it reaches almost to the center of the street thanks to our rude neighbor.

My husband out of town this weekend. So I shoveled our driveway and then I even went over to the neighbors and asked him if he’d like to park his car in our driveway so that the plows could clear the street properly. He said no as he thinks his car is too big for our small driveway … but his car is the same size or smaller. Grrr

I think I’ll send him my chiropractor bill as I’m sure I’ll have to go after all this shoveling! LOL

Here’s another look at all our snow from our driveway. We got over 30 cm in the last 24 hours and so far this winter we’re close to breaking the record for most snowfall in Toronto ever!

The snow banks on either side of our driveway are close to six feet tall.

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Hurry up Spring!!!

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Fading sedum flowers

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Wordless Wednesday

sedum

This is a photo of my Sedum of unknown name in my backyard. The plant came with the house and must be one of the older varieties. It’s quite floppy, especially when well watered.

I took this photo at the beginning of October when the flowers were just starting to die down. The bumble bee’s were out and were especially enjoying the New York Asters but they like visiting the Sedum plants as well.

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