Butterfly Gardens

Butterfly weeds and Queen Anne's lace
provide beauty and butterfly nourishment.

They look like beautiful flower gardens, but on closer examination there's so much more going on. Butterflies flutter splashes of color. Voracious caterpillars and peaceful pupa mingle in gardens with inviting habitats. Nectar flowers and puddles of water beckon to adult butterflies, and specific host plants feed their hungry babies. Nature-friendly gardening practices encourage the garden to flourish without poisoning its guests. A butterfly garden is more than just a pretty face.

  Starting with a sunny location, a single lantana plant in a pot or in the ground becomes the simplest butterfly garden. Other nectar flowers include annual cosmos, gomphrena, impatiens, vinca, pentas, zinnias, and tithonia. Single blossoms rather than double, ruffled ones offer a better perch for feeding butterflies. For the perennial gardener, purple coneflower, butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa), Joe Pye weed, verbenas (such as "Homestead Purple" or V. bonariensis), hardy lantana, and sedums (such as "Brilliant" or "Autumn Joy") have nectar, and some provide birdseed, too. Rising above the flower-beds, shrubs and trees offer butterflies nectar, too. Abelia, butterfly bush (Buddleia), chaste tree (Vitex), and glory bower tree (Clerodendrum) are some of the most popular.

  Puddles or birdbaths partially filled with sand or stones create a shallow water source from which butterflies can sip dissolved minerals as well as water. To support baby butterflies (those hungry caterpillars), specific plants must be available for the female to deposit her eggs. The caterpillars emerge from the eggs and begin to devour the plant they are on. Black swallowtails lay their eggs on plants in the carrot family such as fennel, parsley, and dill. Monarchs prefer the milkweed family. Remember, plants DO recover from caterpillars feeding on them.

  Garden accommodations for butterflies help replace native habitats endangered by development, pollution, and pesticides. Migratory species need food and shelter all along their route to ensure their survival, so our garden spaces provide bed and breakfast for butterflies on the go. In exchange, butterflies transform a horticultural still life into a technicolor motion picture with movement and magic and metamorphosis.