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butterfly gardening

host and nectar plants for various butterfly species
Blues
Brush Footed
Coppers
Grass Skippers
 Swallowtails
Fritillaries
True Brush-Foots
Hummingbirds
My Garden
 Sulphurs
Hairstreaks & Elfins
Spreadwing Skippers
Metalmarks
Baby Boomers And Beyond

Butterfly Gardening - butterflies in my garden

USDA PLANTS DATABASE
New York Ironweed
Family Asteraceae - Aster family
Genus Vernonia Schreb. - ironweed
Species Vernonia noveboracensis (L.) Michx. - New York ironweed

the further you stray from the species on our list, the less likely it will perform as a butterfly plant

Start with a vegetable garden. Next create a herb garden to draw beneficial insects...ladybugs, parasitic wasps, lacewings. honey bees, hover flies, tachinid flies, minute pirate bugs, soldier beetles, braconid wasps, chalcids wasps, big eyed bugs, assassin bugs and damsel bugs. Butterflies are attracted by smell and these herbs and insects contribute in part to the butterfly habitat. Smell draws the butterflies and color "as they see it" hones them in. Many butterflies do not or rarely go to flowers and some will be drawn by these insects. Adding a wet soil spot and fermented sugars will also help.

Getting advice at nurseries and garden centers. As you can see from our list, very few butterflies go to the butterfly bush. Actually the butterflies prefer the wild species which are generally not found in garden centers anyway. Bought a plant that butterflies were just flocking around and put it in my garden. None of my butterflies went to it, but instead prefered the radishes in bloom. It also turns out that it was a host plant...this year i expanded my use of radishes and it turns out that it fits a niche attractive to many butterflies. another thing, i get the impression that a female butterfly will go to any workable flower in bloom just before laying her eggs. have never seen valerian listed as a butterfly plant. red valerian, yes, but not valerian. it is quite an impressive plant, huge and blooms early and for a long time with a heavy essence. no butterflies went to it until one female butterfly hit it. you measure valerian blooms by square feet and that butterfly stayed there until every little morsel was taken. the butterfly was a cross between a cabbage white and a sulphur.

Searching for butterfly information on the internet - type in "butterfly" and you will get a mass of disinformation. You will get every bucket shop hucking plants and by the time you are finished you will be advised to buy just about everything green that waves in the wind. You must type in the specific name of the butterfly you would like nectar plants for. Even better, type in the scientific name + nectar. There is a butterfly site on the internet that is perfect in just about every way except for one little problem. They don't mention what butterflies go to that specific plant.

Butterfly plants to look for in a garden center and seed catalogs that bear nectar and have the desired structure - ironweed, fleabane, joe-pye weed, aster, milkweed, mint, white clover, composites, oxalis, dogbane, verbena, honeysuckle, tickseed sunflower, wild hydrangea, blazing star, buttonbush, moss phlox, clover, phlox, thistle, pickerelweed, burdock, spirea, knotweed, viburnum, goatweed, red bud, hercules club, hawkweed, blueberry, spring beauty, blackberry, bluet, violet, toothwort, cinquefoil, mustard, goldenrod, red clover, nj tea, heal-all, boneset, partride pea, camphorweed, trumpet creeper, lupine, senna, strawberry, butterfly weed, cranberry, sweet pepperbush, pussytoes, huckleberry, wild geranium...refer to the ( plants database ) for other species that will grow in your area.

The butterfly list covers all weather zones and habitats in the United States. Most people live in suburban areas, so swamp and mountain butterflies probably will not be seen in your garden. That is the purpose of the government plant database. A swamp species may have a related local plant that is worth a try. Acanthus are very effective in the south, but will not live in the north. The plant database shows a ruellia in the acanthus family that will grow in the north. Sure enough, it is a very popular nectar plant. We do not separate host and nectar plants because we are not thoroughly convinced that there is a distinction. butterflies may indeed use the nectar from a host plant.

Choosing plant bloom colors - most butterfly sites will give you color preferences, but in fact they can't do it. each plant has a different ultraviolet florenscense. the yellow dandelion is red to the butterfly. A white flower may have striking colors leading the butterfly to the nectar.

The following plants have the highest extractable nectar and most would not be considered butterfly nectar plants. Structure of the plant is just as important as the amount of nectar. That's why some plants that look good on the drawingboard fail to attract butterflies.
aloe, milkweed, blueberries, brazilian plume, bromeliads, catalpa, christmas cactus, clintonia, columbine, columnea, diathus, foxglove, evening primrose, fuchsia, hibiscus, honeysuckle, iris, orris root, monarda, lilies, red hot sally, petunia, shrimp plant, rhododendron, solomon's seal, snapdragon, white salvia, turtlehead.
Top general butterfly plants in our region zone 6
milkweed, dogbane, thistle, clover, ironweed, DAMP SOIL, ROTTING FRUIT, buttonbush, joe-pye weed, fleabane, blackberry, goldenrod, hawkweed, viburnum, butterfly weed, nj tea, boneset, blueberry...this is just a general list. The top plant for blues is wild buckwheat which is not even on the list.

We do have a recommendation. Why not cover all the bases and select a plant from every plant group. This means that you are providing something of interest to every insect on earth. examples of every plant group listed below:
club moss, horsetails, maidenhair fern, bracken, juniper, pine, ginko,ephedra,wormwood, aster, calendula, coneflower, elecampane, fireweed, cornflower, eupatorium, dandelion, vernonia, lobelia, honeysuckle, teasel, valerian, dogbane, milkweed, gentian, spigelia, forget-me-not, mint, coleus, ajuga, lantana, plantain, gardenia, mimosa, rehmannia, ash, devil's claw, water hyssop, morning glory, phacelia, bogbean, jacob's ladder, peppers, new zealand spinach, amaranth, prickly pear, dianthus, beets, four o'clock, pokeweed, purslane, knotweed, cabbage, caper, mignonette, peony, plum,apple, blueberry, hibiscus, primrose, willow, tea, rose of sharon, pawpaw, squash, passion flower, violets, beech, oak, witch hazel, hickory, bayberry, hops, mulberry, elm, stinging nettle, wild ginger, japanese star anise, magnolia vine, water lilies, poppy, barberry, clemantis, dill, ivy, holly, dogwood, boxwood, senna, peanut, chick pea, red bush, rosewood, tonka bean, french lilac, lupine, birdsfoot trefoil, soybean, pagoda tree, false indigo, clove, pea, acacia, impatiens, geranium, sorrel, nasturtium, flax, purple loosestrife, eucalyptus, evening primrose, senega, buckthorn, grape, sedum, gooseberry, agrimony, mistletoe, maple, sumac, horse chestnut. bergamot, dictamnus, rue, prickly ash, bamboo, sorghum, corn, millet, oats, barley, wheat, rye grass, yucca, yam, iris, onion, aloe, asparagus, day lily, false solomon's seal, water hyacinth, sarsaparilla, orchid, pineapple, ginger

There are many butterflies that have unknown nectar and host plants. Our complete plant group list above goes some way towards trying to attract these unknowns.

THE LEAST OF WHICH, THE WHITES BUTTERFLIES
they're all around already, but here are their plants...brassica, caper, rocky mountain bee plant, composites, alfalfa, mustards, dandelion, red clover, aster, mint, toothwort, spring beauty, violets, peppergrass, saltwort, verbena, lantana, rockcress, chickweed, phlox, houstonia

OKAY, YOU NOW HAVE A BUTTERFLY GARDEN. NOW WHAT...Most butterfly sites will rate the effectiveness of their plants. Actually this approach is misleading since the bulk of your flower garden will see very little to no activity. This is because most flowers appeal to one or very few butterflies and they may not appear in your garden. The most exciting situation is when a swarm of butterflies hits a plant. You just never know which one it will be or where did all these butterflies come from. Last year there were over 200 butterflies on one plant. It looked like that monarch migratory swarm in mexico that you see on tv. It is extremely important that you have confidence in your plant selections even though there is no activity. Some very credible butterfly sites will state that a particular known butterfly plant will not work in their region. Timing of bloom is critical with a margin of error of only a few days. Some plants fill a niche between their competitor's flower bloom. Having failed to fill that niche at the exact time it will lose out, but given the right weather conditions it will work. A butterfly garden must meet all contingencies so we would disregard "won't work" statements including those of the naba chapter's reports.

My garden is mostly in partial sun and does not have masses of flowers. Having said that, it is one of the most complete butterfly gardens in the world. There must be some butterfly website that will mention two mandatory host plants, aster umbellatus and aster undulatus, but have never seen one. I found that the wavy leaved aster seed is almost impossible to come by. Had to beg the Connecticut Botanical Society to go into the field and send me some seed.