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Attracting butterflies to your garden can be so much fun.
There are specific plantings which will attract butterflies to your garden. Butterflies are attracted to the most fragrant flowers.
Attracting butterflies to your garden also requires attracting caterpillars. Some common weeds like milkweed, nettles, thistles, supply the leaves which caterpillars chew on.
The following is a list of shrubs and perennials that attract butterflies:
| Butterfly Bush | Buddleia davidii | A 10-15ft. shrub with violet flowers. |
| Lilac | Syringa vulgaris | An 8-15ft. shrub, flowers bloom in May. |
| Butterfly Weed | Asclepias tuberosa | Butterflies are attracted to this plant's bright orange flowers. |
| Bee Balm | Monarda sp. | Red flowers bloom on this 3ft. plant in summer. |
| Stonecrop | Sedum "Autumn Joy" | Flowers turn from pink to red. |
| Lavender | Lavendula angustifolia | Aromatic purple flowers. |
| Coneflower | Echinacea purpurea | Purple petals surrounding a brown cone center. |
| Liatris | Liatris scariosa | Purple flowers bloom from mid-summer to fall. |
A Yellow Pansy
To the wall of the old green garden A butterfly quivering came; His wings on the sombre lichens Played like a yellow flame. He looked at the grey geraniums, And the sleepy four-o'clocks; He looked at the low lanes bordered With the glossy-growing box. He longed for the peace and silence, And the shadows that lengthened there, And his wee wild heart was weary Of skimming the endless air. And now in the old green garden,- I know not how it came,- A single pansy is blooming, Bright as a yellow flame. And whenever a gay gust passes, It quivers as if with pain, For the butterfly-soul that is in it Longs for the winds again!
Helen Gray Cone, 19th century
A wonderful site chock full of
information on butterflies is The Butterfly WebSite.
The
International Federation of Butterfly Enthusiasts is dedicated to increasing the
butterfly's habitat. Click on the image to view their website.
