It doesn't matter how young or old we are. We all become mesmerized at a butterfly visiting the yard. We can create a healthy environment for them by growing the plants they enjoy sitting on and sipping or feeding from.
Orange and Pink Rule in Butterfly Land
Butterflies prefer a mass of colorful, diverse, fragrant flowers preferably with tubular or flat, upright blossoms. Butterflies even have favorite colors: pink, orange, yellow and purple. And luckily for us, they’re not neat freaks. Like teenagers, they thrive in a messy room! They’d rather visit a more natural, less perfect garden than an orderly one as long as it’s filled with many, many flowers full of nectar.
They’d also love a big rock or evergreen in your garden that they can sit on in the early morning and a warm, sheltered area, where they’re protected from wind. Butterflies can fly only if their body temperature is above 86ºF. They’ll sit and sun themselves on a nice warm rock to heat up their internal motor before they take to the air.
Invite Butterflies Over
First, make sure you’ve added a 2-3 inch layer of compost to the area where you’ll be planting. Compost is full of nutrients for your plants. This way you won’t have the need to purchase chemical fertilizers or pesticides. Many of these caustic products can kill young caterpillars, which are easily mistaken as pests. Go organic in your yard. It’s win-win for the butterflies and your own health!
Compost will also help retain moisture so you’re wasting less water. It's best to add a layer of compost to your yard once or twice a year, preferably in fall and early spring. You don't even have to dig it in! The underground organisms and earthworms with do the work for you.
Next, see the list below and try to plant a few plants from the caterpillar list and a few from the adult butterfly list. A caterpillar host plant is the plant that adult butterflies will use for egg laying. Many species of butterflies will lay their eggs on only one or a few types of plants, while others are less selective. The concerned and doting mama butterfly will place her eggs on plants she knows her emerging newborns will eat.
Ten Common Plants to Grow in Your Yard for Butterflies
A variety of caterpillars can feed on:
- alfalfa (Medicago sativa)
- cabbage, broccoli (Brassica)
- cherry (Prunus)
- clover (Trifolium)
- dutchman’s-pipe (Aristolochia)
- milkweed (Asclepias)
- Queen Anne’s lace (Daucus carota)
- vetch (Vicia)
- violet (Viola)
- wildflowers
Ten Common Nectar Plants
Adult butterflies enjoy:
- aster (Aster)
- black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia)
- butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa)
- butterfly bush (Buddleia)
- cosmos (Cosmos)
- lantana (Lantana camara)
- liatris (Liatris)
- purple coneflower (Echinacea purpuea)
- sunflower (Helianthus)
- yarrow (Achillea)
To read more about butterflies see Stokes Beginners Guide to Butterflies by Donald and Lillian Stokes, (Little, Brown and Company, 2001)
Annie Spiegelman - Raised in the asphalt jungle of New York City, with a can of Raid in her hand, Annie Spiegelman moved to the Bay Area over ten years ago ...
