Butterfly Gardens

Why Grow a Butterfly Garden?

• To help preserve these beloved insects, whose habitat areas are fast disappearing.
• Watching them is fun and educational in a way that connects you and your kids to nature.
• It’s a giant step toward getting your backyard certified under the National Wildlife Federation’s Backyard Habitat Program.

How to Attract Butterflies

Nectar Plants are the sun-loving plants we see adult butterflies feeding on, sucking nectar through their long nose-like proboscis, and an assortment of nectar plants will attract dozens of butterflies to your garden. Eric Raun, a suburban Maryland butterfly expert, recorded 32 species feeding on his butterfly bushes alone — the most of any plant. (And if you’re worried about your butterfly bushes spreading, just remove the dead flowers. That will prevent their reseeding and encourage reblooms.) Runners-up in Raun’s garden were nonnative plants verbena, marigold, zinnia, salvia, globe amaranth, and white clover, and native plants wild ageratum, milkweed, and blackeyed susan.

Host Plants are used by butterflies as places to lay their eggs, and then as food by the emerging caterpillars, so including some in your garden will attract even more species. But butterflies are often very picky about which plants they use as hosts, a departure from their more generic tastes in nectar plants. For example, the Monarch caterpillars will only eat the milkweed plant. Most host plants, like milkweed, are weedier, less attractive and harder to find than nectar plants, so one butterfly expert recommends simply adding fennel and dill to your garden as an easy way to provide host plants. And because host plants by definition show the effects of heavy munching, you may want to put them in less visible spots. Some of the more ornamental host plants in the Mid-Atlantic area are aster, sedums, and snapdragons.

All butterfly-attracting plants, whether nectar or host, should be massed in groups of three or more so they can be seen by these near-sighted insects, but be sure to provide a diversity of plants to attract lots of species. And because butterflies feed from spring to fall, be sure to select plants with a variety of booming times.

Other Attractants

Many butterflies love to suck liquid from moist soil, an activity called puddling. You can create a puddle by burying a sand-filled container in the ground (a shallow saucer or birdbath will do) and periodically adding stale beer, sweet drinks or water. Some species feed on overripe fruit, but be warned that yellow jackets are equally attracted to them. Butterfly houses are more decorative than effective, generally attracting more wasps than their intended guests.  But flat rocks or patches of dirt in protected spots do provide places for butterflies to warm themselves in the morning.

Gardening Practices

• Avoid the use of insecticides. Populations of many species have been reduced by insecticides, especially sprays to control gypsy moths and mosquitoes.
• “Weeds” like clover, violets and dandelions are excellent food for butterflies, so consider relaxing your definition of the perfect lawn to include something for the insects. It’ll help our threatened honeybees and native pollinating bees, too.
• Garden clean-up? Not so much. Some butterflies overwinter as larvae or pupae in leaf litter at the base of host plants, so leave at least a light leaf covering around them until early spring.

Watching

On sunny days it’s fun to watch adult butterflies feeding and puddling, for which they’ll stay in place long enough to offer some awesome photo opps. On cool sunny mornings they’ll also hang out on those rocks you’ve provided for them, warming their muscles enough for flight. There are 239 known species of butterflies and moths in the small state of Maryland alone, so get yourself a pair of binoculars and a field guide, and start your list!

This article was originally published in Maryland’s Voice Newspapers. Photo credits in collage: jade bee by the Flatbush Gardener; goldfinch by Runner Jenny.