How toEncourage-Butterflies-Into Your Garden-Spring- Garden -

Attracting Butterflies

Looking to invite winged friends to your garden, be sure you're ready to make them comfortable,Like Any Good Host, butterfly gardeners provide a great atmosphere and refreshments for their guests. Attract butterflies successfully in your garden by following these hosting guidelines.

For ambiance, butterflies prefer
direct sunlight and heat. If you live in an exposed,
windy area, plant your butterfly garden near a fence,
building, or hedge that provides relief from the wind.

When not feeding, butterflies
like to lounge on flat, sun-warmed stones. Position
comfortable rocks in sunny spots.

Butterflies get thirsty.
Provide water in a shallow pan, or sink a plate into
your garden soil and fill it with liquid. Butterflies
also enjoy mud puddles.

Before selecting plants,
investigate the food preferences of butterfly species
that are native to your region. In general, butterflies
like wildflowers and rather ordinary annuals and
perennials in reds, oranges, yellows, and blues. Try
serving lavender (Lavandula spp.), day lilies
(Hemerocallis spp.), and daisylike flowers, such as
purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), yarrow
(Alcbillea spp.), and asters. Butterflies also like to
feast on shrubs, such as butterfly bush—Buddleia
davidii and Buddleia alternifolia are hardiest—
honeysuckle (Lonicera spp.), spice bush (Lindera
benzoin), and mock orange (Philadelphus spp.)

Although adult butterflies will
feed on a wide assortment of flowers, their kids
tend to be picky eaters. The monarch butterfly, for
instance, sips nectar from many flowers but lays its
eggs on milkweed (Asclepias spp.) because the

Nectar-producing flowers and shrubs top the list of dinner

favorites when you're hosting butterflies. Butterflies like to sip nectar from a lilac bush.

Aside from milkweed, caterpillars also like to munch on thistle (Cirsium spp.), Queen-Anne's-lace

(Anthriscussylvestris),

wild lupine (Lupinusperennis), wild aster, clover OTrifolium spp.), and wild grasses.

Herbs such as dill (Anethum spp.) and parsley (Petroselinum spp.) round out the menu

 Butterflies avoid manicured gardens and highly cultivated flowers such as floribunda roses.

They'll also avoid areas treated with chemical pesticides. So plant flowers in drifts and don't worry about keeping things tidy. A more natural garden will allow butterflies to bring you much joy as you watch them fluttering freely in you garden.

Aster                      Marigold

Borage                   Nasturtium

Butterfly Weed        Parsley

Chives                     Pearly Everlasting

Coreopsis               Purple Cornflower

Day lily                     Sedum

False Indigo             Sweet alyssum

Heliotrope                 White clover

Hollyhock                  Wild bergamont

Lantana

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