Butterfly season is in full swing! Here are some tips on how to keep those little beauties happy!!!! Butterflies are cold blooded so your butterfly area needs to be exposed to the sun but protected from the wind. On cool mornings, they really like a place to warm up, so putting a concrete bench or flat rock to let them sit on to warm in the morning sun. It’s also very important to provide water for your butterflies. Butterflies drink by slurping mud so construct at least one puddle area and also provide a resting area in your mud puddle by adding a rock in the middle. You can make a water area by adding sand to a birdbath or clay saucer making sure standing water isn’t above the sand line. Keep in mind, that the fewer pesticides you use in your butterfly garden the more successful it will be.
You will need two types of plants for your butterfly garden nectar plants for adult butterflies, and larval plants for the caterpillar stage of the butterfly. Plant flowers in large grouping so that butterflies will notice them more easily. Every butterfly garden should start with a butterfly bush. It’s blossoms are magnets for butterflies. Surround your butterfly bush with perennials and accent with annual bloomers. This combination of flowering plants will be stunning to look at and butterflies are sure to find it an irresistible home! Remember the larval plants will be eaten by the caterpillars, this is normal but they will survive. Herbs such as parsley, dill and fennel are some of caterpillars favorite foods as well as milkweed.
Annual Nectar plants:
Ageratum
Dianthus
Phlox
Sunflower
Asters
Pentas
Salvia
Petunias
Perennial Nectar Plants:
Coneflower
Goldenrod
Milkweed
Salvia
Coreopsis
Rudbeckia
Verbena
lantana
Yarrow
Shrubs:
Bougainvillea
Butterfly Bush
Firebush
Hibiscus
Vines:
Honeysuckle
Larval Plants for :
Monarch- milkweed
Black swallowtail- Parsley, Dill & Fennel Painted Lady- Mallows
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