Butterflies are always looking for nectar, so if you can provide the tastiest meal, you can keep them around!
Grow Your Own Butterfly Garden
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Butterflies and flowers were made for each other. As a French poet once pointed out, “Butterflies are flying flowers, and flowers are tethered butterflies.” Here is our list of the best plants that attract butterflies to the garden, with their respective common and Latin names, along with some advice on how to grow them.
In attracting butterflies, it’s important to understand what they want most out of life: nectar. The ancients, who believed that nectar fell directly from heaven, named it after the wines of the gods.
Keeping Your Garden Butterfly-Friendly
To attract butterflies to your garden, it’s best to include a range of food sources. You’ll need flowers with 1) nectar (for adults) as well as 2) “host” plants for caterpillars.
Now if you want to keep butterflies in your yard (and support these declining pollinators), you must have those host plants where they can lay their eggs (some butterfly species are fussier than others as to what plants are best); once the larvae hatch, the host plants will serve as food for the developing caterpillars.
A butterfly’s wish list also includes sunny, open spaces, shelter from the wind, and fresh water.
- Just placing some flat stones around your yard and garden gives a place for butterflies to “sunbathe” so that they can rest and warm their wings for flying.
- A bird bath or even a shallow basin can provide water. In nature, butterflies often gather around mud puddles to get the minerals they need. As the water evaporates, it leaves behind valuable salts and minerals that butterflies need. Some garden stores even sell pudding stones.
Plants That Attract Butterflies
Native plant varieties are best; some butterflies can only eat from native flowers. When building a butterfly garden, or really any pollinator garden, native varieties are far more effective.
For caterpillars, consider plants like milkweed, dill, and asters. Monarch caterpillars ONLY eat milkweed. In fact, the monarch butterfly is also known as the “milkweed butterfly.”
For butterflies, Joe-Pye weed, ironweed, coneflowers, goldenrod, and brightly-hued asters are nectar-filled favorites.
Plants to Attract Butterflies
Different plants can attract different species of butterflies! See our full list of flower and fruit varieties to consider adding to your garden. You may consider some of these plants “weeds,” but the butterflies love them.
| Common Name | Latin Name |
|---|---|
| Allium | Allium |
| Aromatic Aster | Symphyotrichum oblongifolium |
| Bee balm | Monarda |
| Black Cherry | Prunus serotina |
| Blue Wild Indigo | Baptisia australis |
| Blueberry bushes | Vaccinium corymbosum, Vaccomoium angustifolium |
| Buttonbush | Cephalanthus occidentalis |
| Butterfly bush* | Buddleia |
| Catmint | Nepeta |
| Clove Pink | Dianthus |
| Cornflower | Centaurea |
| Daylily | Hemerocallis |
| Dill | Anethum |
| False indigo | Baptisia |
| Fleabane | Erigeron |
| Floss flower | Ageratum |
| Globe thistle | Echinops |
| Goldenrod | Solidago |
| Grey Dogwood | Cornus racemosa |
| Helen’s flower | Helenium |
| Hollyhock | Alcea |
| Hoptree | Ptelea trifoliata |
| Joe-Pye weeds | Eupatoriadelphus fistulosus, Eupatoriadelphus maculates, Eupatorium purpureum |
| Lavender | Lavendula |
| Lilac | Syringa |
| Lupine | Lupinus |
| Lychnis | Lychnis |
| Mallow | Malva |
| Milkweed | Asclepias tuberosa |
| Mint | Mentha |
| New York Ironweed | Vernonia noveboracensis |
| Ninebark | Physocarpus opulifolius |
| Northern Spicebush | Lindera benzoin |
| Pansy | Viola |
| Phlox | Phlox |
| Pipevine | Aristolochia macrophylla |
| Privet | Ligustrum |
| Purple coneflower | Echinacea |
| Rock cress | Arabis |
| Sage | Salvia |
| Sea holly | Eryngium |
| Senna, American | Senna hebacarpa |
| Senna, Maryland | Senna marilandica |
| Shasta daisy | Chrysanthemum sp. |
| Snapdragon | Antirrhinum |
| Stonecrop | Sedum |
| Sweet alyssum | Lobularia |
| Sweet rocket | Hesperis |
| Tickseed | Coreopsis |
| Tuliptree | Liriodendron tulipifera |
| Trumpet Vine | Campsis radicans |
| Zinnia | Zinnia |
*Butterfly bush is categorized as an invasive plant in many states and is not used as a host plant for caterpillars.
Please let us know if we’re missing any of your favorite butterfly plants! Just comment below.
Related Pollinator Articles
- Learn more about Butterfly Gardening from our Almanac organic gardener.
- For more plant recommendations, see Plants that Attract Hummingbirds and Easy Ways to Attract Bees to Your Garden.
- Plus, check out Native Bees: The Best Pollinators for Your Garden!
Catherine Boeckmann
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In Southern California I was told to refrain from planting fennel, Buddleia, Tropical Milkweed, non-native ornamental grasses, thistles and mustard plants. All these plants are invasive and are taking over native landscapes and hillsides. Daisy like plants are good for butterflies. The like open flowers as opposed to those that are the double flower type.
Swallowtail butterflies seem to love my parsley plants. They're easy to grow and you can plant enough to share.
We love to hear that! What is your favorite way to use your parsley in the kitchen?
Bronze fennel - the Black Swallowtails lay eggs on mine every year and it's a very easy plant to grow.
I have a lot of native pollinators in my GA yard. I would like to add Anise Hyssop to the list. It is a pollinator magnet for bees and butterflies. It is a beautiful flower with a beautiful scent!
Butterflies love verbena, although my husband does not. I have it in only one place as it spreads quickly. But butterflies and bees all come to it.
Tithonia (aka "Mexican sunflower") draws butterflies like a magnet. It comes in several heights and a variety of shades of orange.
I would not advise people to plant butterfly bush for pollinator value. It easily spreads by seed, invading riparian areas and displacing native flowering plants that pollinators rely on. It's considered a noxious weed in multiple states.
There are many sterile butterfly bushes on the market right now. They don't spread seeds and aren't invasive. The ones I planted are all sterile; they include Butterfly Bush Pink Cascade, Miss Violet, Miss Molly, and Prince Charming. The Prince Charming is a beautiful red butterfly bush! My neighbor has Butterfly Bush Pugster in a planter - it's a miniature butterfly bush and also sterile.
Where can I get a butterfly bush for a planter, please?
