Butterflies are Important Pollinators
Invite the majestic presence of swallowtails, skippers, monarchs, and more into your garden with these butterfly-attracting tips. Using plants with ample nectar-rich blooms as well as providing necessary shelter will bring in many species of winged visitors. Not to mention beautify your garden over a long, fruitful season.
Attract Butterflies to Your Garden with these Tips
- Butterflies like a lot of sunlight, so locate your garden in a sunny area.
- If you live in a windy location, plant your butterfly-attracting plants near a building, fence, or hedge to protect them.
- Plant a variety of nectar-rich plants, as well as shrubs and evergreens for shelter.
- Butterflies and native flowering plants have co-evolved: put in plants that are native to your area. The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center provides lists of plants native to states and regions.
- Certain colors are attractive to butterflies like red, yellow, pink, purple, or orange.
- Avoid using pesticides, especially around nectar-producing plants.
- Provide a shallow source of water – try a birdbath with pebbles lining the bowl.
- Place a rock in a sunny spot for butterfly basking and resting.
- Create a “puddling area” by digging a shallow hole filled with compost or manure. This is where rainwater will collect and release essential salts and minerals.
- If you want butterflies to breed in your garden, put in some caterpillar food plants, such as parsley, milkweeds, asters, thistles, violets, clover, grasses, and Queen Anne’s Lace.
- Since butterflies need nectar throughout the entire adult phase of their lives, try to create a design that will allow for a continuous bloom – when one stops blooming, another starts.
In addition to their beauty, butterflies are beneficial insects. Follow these tips to invite and keep these important pollinators in your garden
