Garden Medley

Most people love butterflies. They’re brightly colored, beautiful and bring to mind pleasant childhood memories. And children love to chase butterflies.

However, many people have trouble attracting butterflies into their gardens. They may occasionally flutter by, but they won’t stay.

The trick to getting butterflies in your garden is to plant a garden that will attract them. You want plants that they will lay their eggs on and plants with nectar they love.

Which plants you use varies by the kind of butterfly you want. I’ve had success attracting Anise Swallowtails with my fennel bush. One year we had caterpillars all over it, which led to cocoons, and my daughter got to see the butterflies hatch from the cocoons. It was very exciting for her.

Flowers in general will encourage butterflies to appear. A large patch of flowers will help to encourage butterflies to hang around, as there will be abundant nectar for them.

Flowers that butterflies tend to prefer include:

Asters, Butterfly plant, Cosmos, Gaillardia, Lilac, Marigold, Sweet pea, Verbena and Zinnias.

Most of these flowers are quite attractive and you will enjoy having them in your garden anyhow. Some weeds, however, also attract butterflies. You may not like having them around, but dandelions attract some species of butterfly.

Of course, you want to consider whether or not you want to encourage butterflies sometimes. My fennel was big enough to support butterflies and caterpillars without losing too much of the plant. There are times that you will think of butterflies as pests if they happen to eat some of your preferred plants.

Even if you haven’t had butterflies in your garden before, you’ll find that they locate you fairly quickly. They move around quite a bit, but with a good butterfly garden you and your family will be able to enjoy their entire life cycle.

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