Create Butterfly Gardens to attract Butterflies

Pre-Planned butterfly garden plans and layouts

Attracting butterflies to your garden is a rewarding experience. It is important to note, though, that you must abandon the use of pesticides as they are fatal to all stages of a butterfly's development.

There are four stages to a butterfly's life cycle: egg, larva, chrysalis (pupa), and adult. All stages of the life cycle require specific plants to ensure the attraction of butterflies. An adult butterfly lays its eggs on a host plant. The larva (second stage) emerges after about a week and immediately begins to feed on the host plant. When the larva is ready to begin the chrysalis stage, it moves from the host plant to a somewhat hidden location - out of harms way. The final stage is the adult butterfly. Butterflies like sunny locations and broad flowers.

To attract a wide variety of butterflies, try planting some of the following plants:

Copy / Paste Plant Name From Bleow List

Host plants (larval food): Birch tree Butterfly weed Daisy Elm tree Lilac Milkweed (favored by Monarch) Mallow Nettle Oak tree Plum Queen Anne's Lace Snapdragon Thistle

Nectar plant (adults): Ageratum Bee Balm Birch tree Butterfly bush Cherry tree Cinquefoil Coreopsis Cosmos Daylily Heliotrope Liatris Lilac Nasturtium Petunia Phlox Rudbeckia Russian olive Salvia Sedum Snapdragon Spirea Sunflower Viburnum