Creating a Butterfly Garden
Butterfly gardens contain not only lovely plants but they are designed specifically to attract butterflies. Butterfly gardens can be grown anywhere but they are particularly suited to North America as most at butterfly attractive plants are native to this area. You don’t need a full garden of butterfly plants but can attract butterflies with only just a few containers of butterfly plants.
Some general requirements for a butterfly garden are to have nectar plant source, larval host plants, pesticide free environment, full sun and some local butterfly fauna. Many butterfly attractive plants are native to North America and need little attention to grow or thrive. You should plant your garden in the spring with younger plants. This will give the plants the time to mature and be very strong the following year.
Nectar sources are important and your butterfly garden should contain a few different varieties of nectar producing plants. You will attract many more types of butterflies this way compared to only have one type of nectar producing plant. This encourages the butterflies to lay their eggs in your garden and within 6 of weeks you should notice the birth of the new butterflies.
The following plants are popular butterfly attractants; Black-Eyed Susan, Butterfly Weed, Ironweed, Lantana, New England Aster, Swamp Milkweed, Vervain, Azalea, Butterfly Bush, Egyptian Star Flower, Joe-Pye Weed, French Marigold, Purple Coneflower, Blazing Star and Zinnia.
You should design your garden so there is plenty of available sun. The butterflies like the sun because it warms them up and the plants need the sun for food and energy to produce nectar. You should also plant colorful flowers, as butterflies are attracted to purple, orange, dark pink, yellow and red. Butterflies tend to hover around these colors. An interspersion of strong scented flowers and colorful ones will not only attract butterflies but will be very pleasing to the eye as well.
Butterflies also enjoy puddles and will frequently congregate at small puddles. It is easy to make small permanent puddles in your garden. You should use sweet liquids like sweet drinks, stale beer and water. Butterflies like sweet foods so you c an encourage them to congregate by leaving overripe fruit by the puddles as well. Butterflies like to feed off of overripe fruit.
Host plants need to be planted besides nectar producing plants. These plants are where the butterflies will lay their eggs and once the caterpillars emerge they will feed on the host plant. Your garden should also be pesticide free, as most pesticides will kill the butterflies. Some natural plants that repel pests and are not harmful to butterflies are mint, herbs, petunias and marigolds.
You will need to determine your local butterfly fauna so you can plant the proper host plants. The Milkweed attracts the Monarch, the Fennel attracts the Black Swallowtail, the Senna attracts the Cloudless Sulphur, the Hop Tree attracts the Giant Swallowtail, the Spicebush attracts the Spicebush Swallowtail, the Pawpaw attracts the Zebra Swallowtail, the Black Cherry attracts the Tiger Swallowtail, and the Willow attracts the Red Potted Purple.
You can gather any information you may need about butterflies and butterfly gardens on the Internet, at libraries, butterfly houses, garden centers and nurseries, zoos, butterfly gardens and botanical gardens. You need to get the correct information for your area, as there will be plants that may be suited to your climate and soil better than others.
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