Scott’s
Butterfly Gardening Page
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Books from
Amazon.com Butterfly Gardening
Information Butterfly
Gardening Links
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Butterfly house plans, butterfly house designs, beneficial insects, plants to
attract beneficial insects, lady bugs, lady beetles, lacewings, solitary wasps,
butterfly information, Oregon butterflies, Dill, alyssum, sunflowers, butterfly
weed, good insects, helpful insects, predatory insects, aphids, nectar, Apiaceae, buckwheat
Butterfly Gardening Books: (Will link you
to Amazon.com)
Stokes
Butterfly Book: The Complete Guide to Butterfly Gardening, Identification, and
Behavior
Butterfly
Gardening: Creating Summer Magic in Your Garden
Gardening
with Native Wild Flowers
Taylor's
Weekend Gardening Guide to Attracting Birds and Butterflies
Butterfly
Gardening for the South
A
Field Guide to Eastern Butterflies...
Peterson
First Guide to Caterpillars of North America
Other stuff you might be interested in:
Paper
Towels - 100% post-consumer recycled paper - Seventh Generation Brand
Toilet
Paper - Made from 100% recycled paper - Seventh Generation Brand
The
Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It: The Complete Back-To-Basics Guide
Butterfly Gardening Information
There are quite a variety of web sites that discuss
butterfly gardening and attracting butterflies, so see the links section below for a
few of the best ones. I mainly want to
narrow down the huge lists of butterfly attracting plants that are out
there. Adult butterflies often eat one food
source, while their caterpillars eat something else, so I broke it down by adult food and caterpillar food.
The following are the plants
I plan to grow in my garden to attract butterflies:
Adult Food Sources:
Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) – Butterfly weed provides nectar to adults
and is also the host plant for monarch butterfly caterpillars (picture
of butterfly weed)
Mexican Sunflower (Tithonia sp.)
– Tithonia is proclaimed to be very attractive to
butterflies as a nectar source (picture
of Mexican sunflower)
Zinnia variety Persian
carpet (Zinnia sp.) – The
Persian carpet variety of Zinnia is a good nectar source for butterflies. Other varieties are probably good too. (picture of zinnia)
Gloriosa Daisy (Rudbeckia sp.) – Gloriosa
Daisies provide nectar to butterflies (picture of Rudbeckia)
Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
- Purple coneflowers have valuable nectar for butterflies (picture of Echinacea)
Dill (Anethum graveolens) – Dill and other members of the Umbel
family (e.g. Fennel,
Coriander/Cilantro, Caraway, Anise, and others) are attractive to
butterflies as a nectar source. Many
beneficial insects also like Dill and Fennel. Some swallowtail butterfly
caterpillars will live on dill or other Umbels.
(picture
of dill).
Shrub Verbena (Lantana camara) –
Very attractive to butterflies and humming birds alike (picture of Lantana)
Crimson and White Clover (Trifolium sp.)
– Many clovers and other legumes are attractive to butterflies as a source of
nectar (picture
of clover)
Some butterflies don’t visit
flowers at all. Instead of (or sometimes
in addition to) flower nectar some butterflies eat tree sap, rotting fruit, and
even bird droppings.
Caterpillar
Food Sources:
Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) – Butterfly weed and other Milkweeds are the
host plants for monarch butterfly caterpillars.
They also provides nectar to many species of adults butterflies (picture
of butterfly weed)
Dill (Anethum graveolens) – Some swallowtail butterfly caterpillars
(see pictures below) will live on dill (as shown) or other members of the Umbel
family (e.g. Anise, Fennel, Caraway, and others). Adult butterflies are
attracted to dill as a nectar source. (picture of dill).
Black Swallowtail ?Eastern
Tiger Swallowtail?
(Papilio
polyxenes) ?(Papilio glaucus)?
Violets (Viola sp.) – Violets are the host plant for
many Fritillary butterfly caterpillars. (picture of violet)
Other plants that some
species of caterpillars live on include members of the Mallow family, the
Sunflower family, nettles, many tree species, and grasses.
I’m always looking for suggestions of good butterfly
plants
What
worked for you
E-mail me: bathabitat@gmail.com
Butterfly information and house
plan links:
Butterflies
of North America – USGS: An
excellent site to look at the butterflies in your state. Has detailed information on each butterfly
species including what they eat and where they are found. This site was also the source for a lot of my
butterfly information.
The Butterfly Guide: A guide
to common butterflies
Butterfly Information:
Great info and links
Troy’s Photo Gallery:
Great Butterfly Photo Site
I’ve
heard small butterfly houses don’t work
too well (if at all), but give it a try if you are interested:
Butterfly house
plans: Plans for the small butterfly
houses garden stores sell
Butterfly house plans 2: Alternate house plans (.pdf)
Butterfly winter
log shelter: A butterfly
over-wintering shelter plan that might actually work (bottom of the page)
Butterfly winter log shelter
2: Info about building
over-wintering shelters for butterflies
Any Questions?: bathabitat@gmail.com
Free
Butterfly house plans, butterfly house designs, beneficial insects, plants to
attract beneficial insects, lady bugs, lady beetles, lacewings, solitary wasps,
butterfly information, Oregon butterflies, Dill, alyssum, sunflowers, butterfly
weed, good insects, helpful insects, predatory insects, aphids, nectar, Apiaceae, buckwheat
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Free
Butterfly house plans, butterfly house designs, beneficial insects, plants to
attract beneficial insects, lady bugs, lady beetles, lacewings, solitary wasps,
butterfly information, Oregon butterflies, Dill, alyssum, sunflowers, butterfly
weed, good insects, helpful insects, predatory insects, aphids, nectar, Apiaceae, buckwheat
The
American Horticultural Society A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants – Buy this
book!
Last Update 01/12/2007
SMH