Creating a butterfly garden in your yard is a great way to add color that will continue to bloom all summer long, the butterflies and other wildlife that will be attracted to your garden are an added bonus. Butterfly gardens not only turn a corner of your yard into a haven for you, but they provide food and shelter for butterflies in areas where development has greatly decreased nectar bearing flowers.
To create a butterfly garden of your very own there are several plants to keep in mind that attract butterflies. Other plants offer food or are preferred for laying eggs in, so they should also be included in your garden. To ensure that your garden is blooming, and attracts butterflies, through all three seasons choose a couple plants from each list of suggestions below.
When you plant your garden there are several things you need to keep in mind to make it insect friendly. This guide will include tips to help you grow as successful a butterfly garden as possible.
Shrubs and vines that are great to include in a butterfly garden are Butterfly Bush, Lilac, Wild Passion Flower, and Summersweet. Wild Passion flower has amazingly beautiful flowers that give a tropical feel to the garden and blooms all summer long. Common Lilac is a very fragrant shrub that blooms early in the spring, these need plenty of space to grow and can get very tall.
Plants that bloom in early spring include Candytuft, Sweet Pea, Rockcress, and Sweet Violet. Sweet Violet and Rockcress are good choices to plant near and around any shrubs you plant, because they can grow in partial shade. Candytuft works great along borders because it grows as a flat spreading groundcover.
Flowers that will bloom all summer are Shasta Daisy, Tickseed, Queen Anne’s Lace and Butterfly Weed. Queen Anne’s Lace is hard to find in nurseries because of its classification as a wildflower, so try looking in seed and nursery catalogs. The large doily-like flowers though will shoot up in your garden and fill it with blooms for a couple months, make sure to deadhead spent blooms.
To make sure there are still blooms in late summer and into the fall try to include some of the following plants throughout your garden; New England Aster, New York Ironweed, Goldenrod, and Joe-Pye Weed. New York Asters are compact flowers that will have a large number of blooms and can be used as filler in corners of your garden. New York Ironweed is another flower that is a deep purple color, try planting these towards the rear of your garden because they get very tall.
Some things to remember when planting
-Most, if not all, of the plants listed need to be in areas that receive full sun.
– Add a layer of compost to the flower bed before planting.
– Plant larger flowers in the back allowing yourself some space to do regular deadheading and weeding.
– Plant flowers in free form so that your garden has a natural appearance as possible.
– Use mulch and a soaker hose to control moisture as much as possible.
– Avoid using chemical insecticides in your garden which will harm butterflies.
– Include at least one Butterfly Weed or Parsley plant for eggs to be laid in.
