Build Your Own Butterfly Garden

Bring The Butterflies Home With These Shrubs

Butterflies need two types of plants: as adults, they need Nectar Plants: that is, plants with flowers. Below are some good nectar plants. Find the key to the photos on the link. They also need plants on which to lay their eggs for their caterpillars to feed. Those are called Host Plants.

Nectar plants don’t necessarily make good host plants: number 1, Butterfly Bush, for example, is great for butterflies but not a good host plant.  For more on host plants, see below. A good butterfly garden has both host and nectar plants, and emphasizes the use of plants native to the area.

1 – Butterfly Bush – long-blooming, fragrant, and available in several colors, these shrubs are definitely a good magnet for butterflies. Many new varieties offer a range of heights and plants with little to no seed production. Full sun, well-drained soil, and prune them back hard each March to freshen them up.

2 – Buttonbush – a native shrub common to wet areas that has white spherical flowers in midsummer. Popular with butterflies and other pollinators, they’re great for sunny areas with poor drainage. You can prune them back hard in March to freshen them up and control their size.

3 – Summersweet – another native shrub with sweetly fragrant flowers in midsummer in either creamy-white or light pink; leaves turn yellow in fall. Growing in sun or mostly shade, they also tolerate wetter conditions well, and come in dwarf and tall forms.

4 – New Jersey Tea – a compact native shrub with white flowers that serve as both a nectar source for many small butterflies and a food source for the Spring Azure butterfly. Full sun, well-drained soil; adaptable and has a good tolerance of drought and nitrogen-poor soils.

5 – Steeplebush – one of our native Spireas, this pink-plumed shrub is great for a mixed border or sunny meadow, where it may form a small colony. Full sun, well-drained soil.

6 – Milkweed – several forms are native to our area, and all are excellent nectar sources and food plants for Monarch butterflies. Full sun, well-drained soil (except Swamp Milkweed, which can grow next to ponds).

7 – Eupatorium (Joe-Pye Weed and others) – native wildflowers that bloom later in summer and early fall that draw a large number of butterflies and other pollinators; full sun to partial shade, in average to moist soils. Great for meadows or naturalized plantings, as they can sometimes seed around.

8 – Blazing-Star (Liatris) – a magnet for some of our larger butterflies, these spires of violet-pink or white brighten up the summer meadow or perennial border. Full sun, well-drained soil.

9 – Aster – a vast array of species and varieties, many of which are native; they come in a range of colors, heights, and sun preferences, blooming mainly in summer and fall. Lots of butterflies and other pollinators are drawn to Asters, and a few of our smaller butterflies use them as a host plant as well.

10 – Goldenrod – Late-season yellow wildflowers that are another great draw for butterflies, beetles, bees, and a host of other pollinators. Incorrectly blamed for hay fever, they’re great to add to a naturalized meadow or perennial border. Full sun to partial shade and well-drained soil; many are native.

11 – Ironweed – a vibrant violet-purple wildflower that blooms in late summer and attracts butterflies of all sizes. Full sun, well-drained soil.

12 – Agastache – called both Hummingbird Mint and Anise Hyssop, the two different forms of Agastache are great attractants for each of these flying beauties. Now available in several colors, with scented foliage, they’re great long-blooming perennials for sun and well-drained soil.

13 – Purple Coneflower – native to the Midwest (and naturalized here) these prairie cousins to the Black-eyed Susan are long-blooming and attractive to many butterflies. Now available in several colors and heights, they also make great mixed border accents and cut flowers. Full sun, well-drained soil.

Host Plants

Many butterfly host plants are either uninspiring wildflowers (“weeds”) or full-blown trees. Some, though, use plants we garden with as shrubs, perennials or annuals. Most butterflies are very particular about which plants they use, so if you have certain butterflies you’d like to see, we can help you choose the plants most likely to interest them. Keep in mind that almost all butterflies use different plants for nectar than they do for caterpillar food.