Attract more butterflies in 10 Easy Tips and tricks to keep them coming back! Butterflies are so beautiful and peaceful to look at and their short lives bring such pleasure. So, why not make the butterflies more welcome to your garden and yard?
Attracting butterflies to your garden is easy and can be very inexpensive. Having the best flowers and plants will ensure they visit. Providing a place for them to rest in the shade and take a cool drink will ensure they will stay!
Inviting more butterflies to any garden only requires flowers, occasional fruit, and an optional butterfly house but most importantly freshwater is a must.
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Fun Facts About Butterflies
- Most all butterflies live a month or so
- The painted lady butterfly can live up to one year
- The favorite flower to the butterfly is the Buddeja
- Butterfly wings are transparent
- There are up to 20,000 different species of butterflies
- If a butterfly lands on you, it’s probably attracted to your sweat
- Butterflies have taste receptors on their feet and use their feet to taste
- Butterflies are mostly attracted to certain colors, red, orange, yellow, purple, and pink
- Butterflies are attracted to flowers on trees too, such as crab apple, cherry, plum, and apricots
Attract More Butterflies with Nectar Flowers
Butterflies love flowers and especially the ones with nectar for them to take a sweet sip of! Did you know most all plants up in the 90% range need some kind of pollination to produce fruit and seeds? Having some larger types of flowers may help the butterflies land and perch on the flowers while taking a drink.
When a butterfly visits your garden and feeds on the wonderful nectar that the flowers provide, as they travel from one plant to the next, they actually pollinate the plants. The butterfly’s pollination is greatly appreciated by many plants, which aids in the plant’s growth and reproduction of new seed. They may not be equal to bees when it comes to pollination, but they sure do their part.
Why Butterfly Gardens are Useful
Butterfly gardens are useful to butterflies because they provide shelter for the butterflies during their life cycle. Having a shelter is beneficial to provide a space so they can rest their wings and get out of the wind and the beating sun.
Placing food and water in the shelter will provide them with the added nutrients they will need during their short life span. Not to mention how calming and peaceful they make you feel by watching how free and graceful they are!
Attract More Butterflies with Plants They Love
Butterflies love plants and flowers that are planted in masses or clusters allowing them a place to land and take a sip of nectar. Choose plants that are open throughout the day and do not close up too early. Butterflies prefer bright flower colors such as yellow, orange, and red.
Did you know that butterflies will eat the leaves of the milkweed plant causing them to be unpleasant to their predators and birds who may try and eat them?
Flowers and Herbs That Attract Butterflies to a Garden
| Aster | Bee Balm | Butterfly Bush | Calendula | Catmint | Cornflower | Cosmos |
| Dianthus | Fennel | Global Thistle | Hollyhock | Joe-Pye Weed | Lavender | Liatris |
| Lilac | Marigold | Mint | Nasturtium | Oregano | Pansy | Phlox |
| Coneflower | Sage | Snapdragon | Tickseed | Trumpet Vine | Yarrow | Zinnia |
Attract More Butterflies by Protecting Them From the Wind
Even on sunny and windy days, you can still attract butterflies to your garden. Wind can be a powerful element and butterflies won’t find your beautiful site beneficial if they aren’t capable of landing to feed on nectar. You can assist in that by providing a wind blocker.
A wind blocker can be known as fences, trellis, trees, arbors, tall shrubs, and even your house! You can also plant taller flowers and clusters which creates another form of a wind blocker or windbreak.
Watch My How to Attract More Butterflies Tutorial
Providing Water for Butterflies
Just like every living organism, butterflies also need water too! Butterflies can’t drink out of birdbaths and fountains due to them not having a place on the land which will cause them to drown. They can however drink out of puddles.
Mud puddles have their pros and cons for butterflies, but I prefer to use a bone dish with wet sand, or even having glass pebbles sitting in water! This method reduces the number of mosquitos hanging around your garden which is good for your butterflies!
How to Create a Butterfly Watering Station
Step 1 : Wash and Rinse the Bones Dishes Well
Use shallow dishes (antique bone plates are inexpensive and great for this project) wash in hot water and use All Natural Dish Soap and rinse well.
Step 2 : Add Glass Gems
Add enough sanitized glass pebbles to cover the bottom of the bone dish.
Step 3 : Add Water
Add fresh clean, filtered water to cover the pebbles
Step 4 : Find a Sunny Place in Your Garden
Place the butterfly watering station in the sun and out of the wind in your garden so they are able to enjoy 🙂
Attracting Butterflies Using Ripe Fruit
Have any overripe fruit? Don’t get rid of it! Some butterflies enjoy the nectar from rotting fruit over the nectar from flowers. A common way to display rotten fruit for your butterflies is using a bird suet feeder.
A bird suet feeder is a multi-purpose utensil by feeding your butterflies rotten fruit in the summer and Bird Suet Treats in the winter! How cool! There are many other ways such as a flat bird feeder and plant hanger hanging from a tree branch, a flat bird feeder on an outdoor table or deck railing, or a decorative shallow birdbath.
Attract More Butterflies by Providing Sunny Areas
No matter how large or small your garden is, you can still attract more butterflies by having it in the sunniest location possible! You want this area to receive at least 6 or more hours of sunlight every day. This aspect can determine how long butterflies will stay around throughout the year.
The best place with the proper amount of sun will keep them around not just for summertime, but also during the early spring and into the late fall!
Butterflies rely on the sun to warm their bodies because they can’t regulate the heat inside their bodies which classifies them as ectotherms. When you see a butterfly land on a rock spreading its wings, they are naturally warming up their wing muscles so they can continue to fly. This process becomes important on cooler days because they can’t fly at temperatures below 55 degrees.
Host Plants for Butterfly Caterpillars
Butterflies need plants that will also feed the larvae too. There are some butterflies that require certain hosting plants to lay their eggs while others are not so particular or fastidious!
Before a butterfly becomes a butterfly they are actually a caterpillar. A caterpillar, the larvae of butterflies feed entirely on plants. This is why it’s so important to include some plants to which the caterpillars can feed nearby.
For example, larvae plants and or trees for butterflies include some of the following:
- Dogwood
- Blueberry
- Willows
- Columbine
- Indigo
- Pawpaw
- Wild Cherry
Attract More Butterflies with Host Plants for Butterfly Eggs
The great news that many “host plants” are ones you may already be growing in your garden and yard! Not all host plants will work for all butterflies. But planting a variety of host plants ensures a variety of butterflies!
| Dill | Fennel | Parsely | Violets | Mustards | Willow |
| Snapdragons | Passion Vines | Carrots | Milkweed | Thistles | Birch |
| Asters | Clover | Alfalfa | Black Cherry | Sassafras | Tulip Tree |
| Ash | Aspen | Spicebush | Indigo | Nettles | Poplar |
| Elm | Black Locust | Hackberry | Red Bay | Borage | Hollyhock |
Attract More Butterflies by Providing Shelter in the Winter
Most butterflies stay the winter where they are, except the lucky monarch which relocates to Mexico for the winter, smart butterfly! There are certain stages for different butterflies and how they survive the winter. For instance, swallowtails overwinter in the pupal stage while others wait it out in the larval stage.
I like to provide shelter for the butterflies no matter what stage they are in by not raking the leaves on the mountain and having plenty of firewood under a roof for them to hibernate in.
Use Organics in Gardening in the Butterfly Garden
Keep the butterflies healthy by using natural fertilizers and pesticides on your plants. We use natural manure tea and fish fertilizers in all our plants, even edible ones. See the More Gardening Links below this post to find more valuable information. Bees and butterflies are sensitive to even a little harmful pesticide so we opt not to use anything otherwise organic.
Do the research and use only natural and organic products in your garden, the bee’s and butterflies’ lives depend on it.
Attract More Butterflies and Hummingbirds
Butterflies are amazing to look at in a garden or in nature as a general. I also love hummingbirds just as much. They remind me of my mom and how she always loved them. Knowing how to feed and water the hummingbird is very important too just like the butterflies. If you would like more information on hummingbirds, check out How to Make Hummingbird Food as well as How to Make a Hummingbird Swing video.
Which Plants Keep Butterflies Away
If for some reason you do not prefer to have butterflies in your garden, you can deter them naturally by planting their least favorite plants next to the plants you do not want them on. Plants that repel butterflies naturally are aromatic herbs such as borage, hyssop, and rosemary to name a few. I can say I have never met anyone in my life that didn’t want butterflies in their yard or garden. (But to each its own).
Crafts for Butterfly Lovers
Butterflies are beautiful creatures that mean no harm, and I personally love them. I love doing crafts with butterflies, especially using my butterfly printable for my Glass Pebble Magnets, Crafts, and More! I love putting these around my garden. Also, I have taken the time to create Butterfly Gift tags for any holiday, or birthday to give to your friends and family! Enjoy 🙂
Print the Butterfly Glass Pebble Template
Print Butterfly Gift Tags
More Valuable Garden Links
It’s Springtime and you know what that means! Time to plant those seeds, and if you haven’t gotten your seeds yet, here is a tip! Dollar Tree is the best place you can go! 5 Shocking Reasons To Buy Dollar Tree Seeds will tell you exactly why they have the best seeds but have no fear! Once you get your seeds, let me help you with your Seed Organization In 6 Amazingly Simple Ways!
When you start your seed babies, make sure you read into it because let me tell you, Vermiculite Vs Perlite is a complete gardening game changer!
Interested in more gardening tips and tricks? Visit 12 Gardening Tips for Beginners to learn the basics needed to plant your own garden!
Vertical Gardens for Small Spaces is also beneficial, and gives you the opportunity to plant a garden with minimal space needed!
Want to learn how to make your own natural soil for your new garden? Check out Making Compost Naturally into Gardening Soil. Don’t know what you can compost? Many Incredible Uses for Eggshells will help start some ideas!
In my own garden, I only like to use my Manure Tea Recipe in my Hügelkultur Raised Beds, container gardening planters (which you can find in my Guide to Container Gardening post), and even in the Oya and Ollas that get the liquid fertilizer. I do like to switch out the manure tea every other week with my Fish Emulsion Fertilizer (read more about that).
Need some ideas on what to grow this year in your garden? 11 Great Plants to Regrow From Cuttings is all you need!
Now that you’ve grown your garden, a couple of key factors to make your bounty last longer that would be beneficial would be Methods of Drying Herbs and Dehydrate Food Naturally Using a Dehydrator. These methods allow you to keep what you have grown all year round for your enjoyment!
You’ve grown your garden, but did you grow your gourds? You should’ve! Growing Gourds for Birdhouses, in Containers and For-Profit, can show you the many different ideas that you can make with all different types of gourds!
In Conclusion, Ways to Attract More Butterflies
I absolutely love butterflies and the joy they bring. There is so much more interesting data on them, I probably could write a book! If you really want more information on butterflies then read the interesting article on Pollinator Syndrome from the US Forest Service.
It is so easy to attract these beautiful creatures by just doing a few things like growing what they need, providing shelter, water, and a place to live and grow. How about making a Hanging Basket Using Dollar Tree Hangers and plant butterfly-loving flowers in it?
Related Articles Related to Attracting More Butterflies
If you’d like more information and a free butterfly garden guide, check out Student Conservation Association.
I love using a Butterfly Planting Guide from Pollinator.org, I put in my zip code and it downloads the regional guides in my zone! Check it out today!
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