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 Butterfly Tips

Attract more butterflies to your garden

Lure Butterflies to your yard with cottonwood, elm or willow trees, which provide food for larvae. Butterflies seek shade trees when they are too hot.

To attract butterflies, plant flowers that bloom in succession. Spring: Violets and Johnny jump-ups; Mid-Summer Purple coneflowers, Liatris and Bee balm; Late Summer: Asters and Sunflowers.

Feathery herbs, such as dill, fennel, and parsley are favorite host foods for larvae for black swallowtail butterflies. Include them in your herb garden.

Hollyhocks grown against a barn wall or fence will attract butterflies looking for nectar, and the wall will provide shelter from the wind.

If possible water your flowers by hand close to the ground rather than use a sprinkler. Butterflies are unable to feed while the sprinkler runs and water may dilute the flower nectar.

Flat stepping stones in your garden serve as ideal resting spots for butterflies to warm their wings for flight.

Grow many plants of one type together to create a solid block of color that butterflies can see easily. (red, purple, or yellow)

Include Lantana, Phlox, and Verbena in your butterfly garden. Nectar in these flowers is easily accessible because it is contained within short tubular flowers.

Native flowers, white clover, goldenrod and milkweed, are butterfly favorites. Milkweed is the only plant the monarch eats. Keep a milkweed - Grow a Monarch!

Not all butterfly species head south for the Winter. Some hibernate in leaf mulch and decaying trees. So do not rake all your leaves, save some for the butterflies.

Plants that Deer avoid in most Areas

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