Do you love butterflies and want more of them in your backyard? Then you need a butterfly garden! Although the idea of a butterfly garden can sound hard to do, it is quite easy! Here’s how to simply make a butterfly garden.
To create a butterfly garden with ease, take the following steps:
- Set realistic expectations
- Know your climate
- Choose the right size garden
- Plant colorful, fragrant flowers that bloom from spring to fall
- Choose a sunny spot
- Offer sunbathing stones
- Make it organic
- Provide shelter
- Include a salt lick and sugar water
Why A Butterfly Garden Is Beautiful And Practical
Butterflies are gorgeous and gentle insects (so when you observe them, handle them carefully!).
Their vast assortment of colors and patterns is visually stimulating, not to mention relaxing to view a butterfly float by. A butterfly garden, even without butterflies, is colorful.
They’re beneficial, too.
Butterflies are one of the top pollinators in our world; the act of moving pollen from the anther of one flower to the stigma of another flower fertilizes flowers.
Flowers can’t fruit and produce seeds without fertilization. So, you want butterflies to come to your garden, if it is for butterflies, or not.
How To Create A Butterfly Garden With Ease
Establishing a butterfly garden is enjoyable and rewarding: You will see butterflies every day during the warmer months of the year, and you will have flowers to enjoy.
Fortunately, establishing a butterfly garden is easy by simply following the steps below.
Before we jump in, let’s talk about setting expectations that are reasonable.
Set Realistic Expectations
Butterflies can be quite shy and elusive. When you start your butterfly garden, do not expect them all to show up on the first day. However, with some patience and wait a few weeks, you are very likely to see at least a few butterflies.
After this point, I think it’s quite reasonable to expect several butterflies (5-10 at the same time, in my experience).
Just know that you are unlikely to see any butterflies in your garden before March and not later than November, with most butterflies appearing in mid to the end of summertime!
Understand Your Climate And What That Means For Butterflies
Winter in most climates is frigid and doesn’t even allow butterflies to exist. Butterflies require a lot of warmth and sunlight to stay alive.
Because of their harsh winter months, this also means states in northern regions can only support butterflies from spring to early fall.
States in the south have milder winters, and the weather remains warm throughout the year. Because of this, butterflies can survive in areas of the south!
Choose A Size For Your Butterfly Garden
Butterfly gardens can be as big, or as small, as you want them to be! People have made butterfly gardens as small as one flower pot, or as big as several feet across.
It all depends on how much space you would like to devote to butterfly gardening, and how many butterflies you want to attract! (Generally, a larger butterfly garden would attract more butterflies).
Fill Your Butterfly Garden With Bright And Colorful Flowers
They are mesmerized by color and possess an exceptional sense of sight that captures the full color spectrum (unlike bees, for example, which are color-blind to red and prefer some shades of orange and yellow). As they fly around, colors, which indicate a plentiful nectar source, will catch their attention.
Here are just a few flowers that butterflies absolutely love.
Blazing Star
Blazing Star flowers receive their name due to them having slender spires and fuzzy little blossoms at the top, which resemble a shooting star. They are purple or bright white,
Zinnias
Butterflies adore zinnias because they come in so many beautiful colors including purple, yellow, white, red, orange, and pink.
Coneflowers
Coneflowers features large, wide blossoms that welcome butterflies. Their petals are large, bright and include the colors butterflies love: white, orange, pink, yellow and red.
Marigolds
As their name implies, marigolds come in a variety of colors and shades of gold, including red, orange, and yellow colors. These flowers brighten up your garden and invite butterflies!
Yarrow
Yarrow has thin stalks that end in bunches of small, daisy-like flowers. Yarrow comes in pastel colors like cream and light purple, but butterflies are drawn to the brighter colors, like yellow, orange, pink, and red, too.
Goldenrod
Goldenrod has tall thin stalks, with clusters of tiny flowers at the end of each. As the name suggests, goldenrod flowers are a striking golden yellow. When it comes to attracting butterflies, the goldenrod is another winner.
Fill Your Butterfly Garden With Fragrant Flowers
The next component to consider in your butterfly garden is fragrance. Butterflies, even if they can’t see flowers, can smell them. In fact, a strong fragrance in a flower will indicate that it has plenty of nectar.
Below are several examples of fragrant flowers which butterflies are most attracted to.
Milkweed
You may have heard of milkweed, because it is renowned for attracting monarch butterflies (it’s where they will lay their eggs).
But what you may not know, is that this humble little plant is one-of-a-kind, and the milkweed’s frangrance is incredible; moreover, it has a very strong sweet, somewhat spicy scent to it.
Some will compare it to vanilla, for all sorts of butterflies are attracted to the sweet-smelling milkweed!
Lavender
Lavender is a commonly used scent in many cultures and parts of the world, known for its refreshingly fragrant and recognizable aroma.
It is sweet and pungent, along with a relaxing aromatic quality that isn’t overpowering on your senses. Additionally, it has a lovely scent that will attract a butterfly or two to your yard!
Verbena
Butterflies are drawn to Verbena with its sweet, lemony smell. Place a lovely little Verbena flower in your garden, and some butterflies will come and try your Verbena.
Daylilies
Certain daylilies like the Hyperion variety have a sweet lemony fragrance that butterflies are attracted to. These excellent trumpet-shaped flowers should help attract butterflies with their smell.
Nepeta (Catnip)
Not many people realize that nepeta (or catnip) attracts butterflies as well as cats. Butterflies are attracted to the mild minty scent.
Phlox
Phlox has a naturally sweet, mellow aroma. It smells like pollen and honey, and butterflies and people love the fragrance. Add some of it to your garden (especially in bright colors), and you will surely attract some butterflies!
Make Sure Your Garden Blooms From Spring To Fall
If you would like to maintain a continuous butterfly presence (except in winter) it requires some planning getting the timing of flowering plants right and planting a series of plants that bloom consistently from spring into fall.
These plants will ensure that butterflies (and other nectar seeking pollinators) can rely on your garden being a continuous nectar source.
Here is a list of some beneficial butterfly garden flowering plants with timing:
- Daffodils: bloom in spring (February-May)
- Peonies: bloom in spring (May)
- Yarrow: blooms in spring-summer (April-October)
- Verbena: blooms in spring-fall (May-October)
- Milkweed: blooms in late spring and at the end of summer (May-August)
- Roses: bloom in summer-fall (May-October)
- Coneflowers: bloom in summer (June-August)
- Daylilies: bloom in midsummer (June-July)
- Blazing stars: bloom in midsummer (July-August)
- Phlox: blooms from mid to late summer, depending on the variety (June-October)
- Zinnias: bloom in midsummer to early fall (June-September)
- Asters: bloom in late summer to early fall (August-September)
- Goldenrod: blooms from late summer to fall (July-October)
Choose Somewhere Sunny
Now that you have knowledge about what to plant in a butterfly garden, you will need to now decide where to plant it.
While there may be many suitable areas in your yard to plant, butterflies need ample sunlight so that they can keep warm. South-facing gardens get the greatest sun exposure, which is what butterflies need.
Add In Sunbathing Rocks
There are times when butterflies are a bit sluggish and need to warm up and rest. A rock soaking up the rays of the sun will be ideal. Set up a few flat, gray rocks in the sun for the butterflies to bask on.
Keep Your Butterfly Garden Organic
If you truly want to attract butterflies to your garden, you will need to put the pesticides away. They will kill every insect or weed, even the good ones, which will include butterflies.
Provide The Butterflies With Shelter
Birds, reptiles, amphibians, and other predators also pursue butterflies. Butterflies are easily disturbed by rain and high winds.
These insects are vulnerable to many predators and weather disturbance. You can use a pile of logs or rocks for the butterflies to escape the vulnerability of predators and weather.
Offer The Butterflies Water
Gathering nectar is thirsty work. But did you know that butterflies do not source their water from nectar? Butterflies don’t drink directly from pools, ponds, etc. because of the drowning risk.
Butterflies actually drink from mud since it provides a safe landing surface – you can help the butterflies near you by providing a shallow container with sand/soil.
Just soak the sand/soil in water, leaving a couple centimeters of water on top – this will provide your local butterflies with a safe place to drink!
Provide Sugar Water
Butterflies will flock to sugar water, which is basically homemade nectar. All you need to do is combine three teaspoons of sugar with each cup of water until you have enough sugar water to fill a butterfly feeder (homemade or store-bought). Boil the water and sugar until the sugar has completely dissolved, let it cool, and fill it!
Include A Salt Lick
Finally, while butterflies drink a lot of sugar from nectar, they don’t drink a lot of salt from nectar. Butterflies get salt from supplemental sources such as sweat, manure, and mud.
You can nourish your butterfly visitors and give them salt by adding a few (three or so) tablespoons of salt to that dish of mud water we mentioned.
Final Advice
While establishing a butterfly garden may seem like a huge effort, it is something you can achieve. You do not have to do everything in one day. Just do what you can, wait to see what happens, and go from there.