What plants and flowers attract bring butterflies back year after year? Butterfles add to the beauty of gardens; with the right preparing you can feel like a kid again watching them flit and flutter around, it will add a smile to your face.
Butterflies are naturally drawn to a wide range of colors such as pinks, purples, yellows, oranges, reds as well as white. They don’t favor greens and blues. The blossoms should be flat-topped or have short flowering tubes.
- Acmon Blue – buckwheat, lupines, milkvetch
- American Painted Lady – cudweed, everlast
- Baird’s Swallowtail – dragon sagebrush
- Black Swallowtail – parsley, dill, fennel, common rue
- Coral Hairstreak – wild black cherry, American and chickasaw plum, black chokeberry
- Dun Skipper – sedges, grasses including purpletop
- Eastern Tiger Swallowtail – wild black cherry, ash, tulip tree, willow, sweetbay, basswood
- Giant Swallowtail – prickly ash, citrus, common rue, hoptree, gas plant, torchwood
- Gray Comma – gooseberry, azalea, elm
- Great Purple Hairstreak – mistletoe
- Gulf Fritillary – maypops, other passion vines
- Henry’s Elfin – redbud, dahoon and yaupon hollies, maple-leaved viburnum, blueberries
- Monarch – milkweeds
- Painted Lady (Cosmopolite) – thistles, mallows, nievitas, yellow fiddleneck
- Pygmy Blue – saltbush, lamb’s quarters, pigweed
- Red Admiral/White Admiral – wild cherries, black oaks, aspens, yellow and black birch
- Silver-Spotted Skipper – locusts, wisteria, other legumes
- Spicebush Swallowtail – sassafras, spicebush
- Sulphurs – clover, peas, vetch, alfalfa, asters
- Variegated Fritillary – passion flower, maypop, violets, stonecrop, purslane
- Viceroy – willows, cottonwood, aspen
- Western Tailed Blue – vetches, milkvetches
- Western Tiger Swallowtail – willow, plum, alder, sycamore, hoptree, ash
- Woodland Skipper – grasses
- Zebra Swallowtail – pawpaw
- Mint family plants – peppermint, lavender, basil, oregano
- Herbs – rosemary, sage, thyme, chamomile, marjoram, bee balm
Don’t waste your money on butterfly houses; butterflies prefer to sleep nestled in leaves, high up in your trees. Instead, you’ll wind up attracting nuisance bugs and bats. Instead, you can use potted milkweed plants or cuttings for monarch butterfly beds.
Butterflies get their nectar from flowers, so water features and bird baths are not necessary for them. You may want include a beautiful water fountain or ponds for your enjoyment, it adds to the aesthetics of your front or backyard and will certainly attract birds.
Butterflies do however need places to “puddle,” as it provides the critical minerals they need. Create puddling spots for the butterflies by filling shallow dishes or pans with sand and a little water and place them in sunny spots in your yard.
Use caution with pesticide use. Certain pesticides, such as malathion, Sevin, and diazinon will kill butterflies.
Landscaping is more than just installation, planting, and construction. It also includes lawn and landscape maintenance. Mountain Road Landscaping offers a range of services to our customers after we have completed the design and installation of their dream outdoor living spaces throughout the Lehigh Valley and Pocono area.
