Butterfly Garden Plants

[majeresmom]

I have a butterfly garden and am growing the following plants:
African Marigold, Butterfly Bush, Sweet Pea, & Summersweet. I live in zone 9 (Central Florida) and while I did see some butterflies in my garden I would love to see a whole lot more. Can anyone suggest some other plants to try?
Thanks
Emma

[Grey]

Pentas! Butterflies love them - and they come in all kinds of colors. The red and bright pink varieties, of course, are your best bet.

You can also grow Butterfly Weed, the monarchs need it. I have a relative in St. Pete that grows it and has monarchs in her pool cage where she can kind of protect them until they mature.

[Jess]

Hi
You need to supply the food plants fot the caterpillars as well as the nectar plants to really increase the number of butterflies you get.
Unfortunately I don't know which butterflies you have in the States so I can't tell you which plants.
Gardeners who are not organically minded kill caterpillars that eat their plants so the number of butterflies in many areas are diminishing. In the UK we are all encouraged to leave an area in the garden wild to help reverse this trend.
Check which butterflies you see visit your garden and then look up the food source for their caterpillars.

[majeresmom]

I have never heard of Pentas before. Thanks for the idea. I will ask at my local nursery. Does anyone know what type of plant the caterpillars might like that I can grow in zone 9 here in central Florida?

[Jess]

What a fabulous site and it shows you what some of the caterpillars look like. Wish we had Swallowtails here. They are so beautiful. I wonder why we don't? Does anybody know? Surely we can't be too cold for them and all their host plants grow here.

[Jess]

Thanks AO.

That is so sad So once upon a time we did have them and possibly still have a few. I need to plant Selinum carvifolia to get my Swallowtails but I don't quite know how to build a fen?!
Seriously though I am going to investigate this some more and see if there is any way I can produce an environment that they could survive in. Not necessarily in my garden (although that would be nice if possible) but one of the gardens I work in has a brook at the back and underground springs in the garden so the soil never dries out not even in the Summer. Maybe, just maybe, I could create an area they could live in.

[AO]

That would probably a great idea!

Maybe to create a fen (this may not work), you could buy a fish pond container at a local fish store, fill it with dirt and as much water as needed to keep the soil wet, and try to grow some Selinum carvifolia.

This way you can control the plant, the soil's moisture and the type of soil as if it were a huge plant pot. In addition, you can buy more fish pond containers to have more of these swallowtail plants.

This is only a suggestion and if I come of with something less time-consuming, expensive or simple I will gladly share it.
Best of Luck!

[AO]

Another top choice next to butterfly bush for your butterfly garden is a white hydrangea tree. I have a 12 ft. tall one and it attracts many butterflies especially monarchs and swallowtails. If you plant it in full sunlight the butterflies will visit throughout the day since they move to the sunnier spots and keep away from the shadier ones.
However, this tree also attracts bees and bugs, but it helps contribute to a lively atmosphere for your backyard.

[Greenhaven]

Monarchs, especially, use the milkweed plants to feed their young. Common and Swamp milkweeds would fulfill this. I don;t know about the other butterfly varieties. Encourage the Monarhs, though...their numbers are rapidly and alarmingly diminishing due to loss of habitat here and in Mexico where they overwinter, besides all the Bt corn that kills the good caterpillars along with the bad.

[AO]

Common Name Scientific Name Hardiness Zone
pentas pentas lancelota 10
lantana lantana camara 8
butterfly bush buddleia spp. 5
joe-pye weed eupatorium spp. 2
catmint Nepeta mussinii 4
coreopsis coreopsis spp. 3
Blazing Star liatris spp. 2
Black Eyed Susan rudbeckia spp. 3
New England Aster aster novae-angliae 2
Butterfly Weed asclepias tuberosa 3
Purple Coneflower echinacea purpurea 3
Thistle cirsium spp. 3
Globe Thistle echinops exaltatus 3
Bee Balm monarda didyma 4
Milkweed asclepias spp. 3
Mountain Hydrangea hydrangea spp. 3
Wild Bergamot monarda fitsulosa 3
Goldenrod solidago spp. 3
Ageratum ageratum houstonniamum 10

Note* some of these plants are wildflowers and/or will spread. Make sure you know details of these plants before you plant them.

[sososleepy]

Hi Majeresmom,

You should be able to get Zebra Heliconian and Gulf Fritillary butterflies if you plant passionvine, that's their host plant. I'm a bit further south than you are, and I've had great success with our native passiflora suberosa, corky stem passion vine. You are probably far enough north to find passiflora lutea and incarnata. Stay away from the red flowered passion vines though, some of those are reported to be toxic to the caterpillars.

Other folks have all ready suggested Milkweed - I'll second that, it's the host for Monarch and Queen butterflies. Soldier butterflies use it too, but they like native milkweed, and won't use the red and orange one you find at most stores.

If you have a lot of space, a citrus tree or a wild lime tree will bring giant swallowtails. The wild lime is not a fruit bearing tree; there are pictures of it on my site under host plants.

Another favorite of mine is Cassia. I have several different kinds of Cassia, and they all get orange-barred sulphurs.

I have pictures of the host plants that have worked best for me on my site:
https://butterflies.heuristron.net
I'm still adding stuff and working on it, but there's more than enough there now to give you tons of ideas, and we're geographically close enough that what worked for me should apply to your area as well.

Hope that helps!

[Jess]

Wonderful site soso

I hope more sites such as yours turn up and encourage people to know their pests before trying to kill them. Too many times the caterpillar is seen as the enemy and not associated with the beautiful butterfly it will turn into.

[schleng]

I love the Butterfly Bush. Aside from it attracting an amazing amount of butterflies, it has an unbelievably long period of blooming. And there are so many types.....tall ones, shorter ones, purple, pink and white flowered plants...it's one of my favorites.

Here is one that is always eye-catching...not only because it attracts butterflies, but also because it is part of a wonderful flower garden design.


Susan

[sososleepy]

Thanks very much Jess!

Schleng, I love Butterfly Bush too, but I can't keep them alive for more than a season down here. How far south should they grow?

[schleng]

Hi sososleepy,

Well, they grow pretty far south, but not all the way south in Florida. They will grow as far as Zone 10A, but the most southern part of Florida is 10B. So it depends where you live.

Susan

[sososleepy]

I'm right on the edge between a and b, and I've lost three of them so far, so I quit trying, but the butterflies LOVE them, so I want to try.... but it's a waste of time and $ if they're just going to die again... grumble!! Is there any plant as pretty that works as well as a nectar plant for south FL?

[opabinia51]

In SW Canada we plant something called a butterfly bush which has beautiful flowers that attracts a myriad of butterflies. I'm not sure if it grows where you live. Ask at local nurseries.