What could be more relaxing then sitting in you Adirondack chair next summer looking at all the beautiful flowers and butterflies in your butterfly garden. It isn’t hard to create a garden that will attract butterflies and if planned properly you can have butterflies all summer long. You want to have the right plants to attract your native butterflies and to keep them around. Butterflies need full sun, plants that provide nectar, plants to act as hosts for the larva and an environment free of pesticides.
The first step is planning your butterfly garden. Find out what type of native butterflies you want to attract. Then determine what type of nectar plants these butterflies prefer. Butterflies are attracted to bright colored flowers with strong scents and drink the sweet nectar for energy. They seem to prefer orange, red, yellow, purple and dark pink flowers. A multi-colored garden will be easy for them to find.
You must also plant host plants for the caterpillars to lay their eggs on. The caterpillars will eat all the leaves on the host plants which make them unattractive to look at. Plant the host plants behind or out of view of the nectar plants if you don’t want to look at them. This can be accomplished by planting the host plants behind taller nectar plants. Make sure you choose the type of host plants that the butterfly species likes to eat. If the caterpillars don’t like the leaves of the host plant they won’t eat them and they will die. Make sure the host plants are in fairly close proximity to the nectar plants to ensure the butterflies will lay their eggs on them.
You can probably get the plants you have chosen at your local greenhouse. Some will be annuals and some will be perennials. Perennials come back every year so these should be planted behind the annuals. If you want to see all of your flowers plant the taller ones behind the shorter ones.
Some butterflies like more than one nectar plant. If you want to attract butterflies all through the gardening season plant several different types of nectar plants. Late summer and early fall are when you will have the most butterflies in your garden so be sure and plan to have several types of nectar plants in bloom at that time.
Your butterfly garden will also attract hummingbirds and other birds so sit back and enjoy nature in front of you in the natural habitat you have created for these creatures and for your enjoyment.
