Would you like to attract a variety of butterflies to your garden? Different plants and environments attract different types of butterflies. So, if you really want to focus on particular butterflies, you can do it by planting appealing plants and creating welcoming environments. For example, asking, “what color flowers will attract butterflies?” is the wrong question to ask.  Or rather, an incomplete question. Successful butterfly gardening requires creating “butterfly habitat,” which addresses each type of butterfly’s needs over its entire life cycle.  

The life cycle of the butterfly consists of four distinct stages: egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa (chrysalis: sack-like covering), and adult.  A successful butterfly garden must provide food and habitat for both adult butterflies and their caterpillars all year round.  Though many butterflies will drink nectar from a variety of flowering plants, their caterpillars are often limited as to which plants they can feed on.  These plants are called “host plants”.

In order to create a successful butterfly habitat you must have: 

1.  A combination of adult nectar sources and larval host plants.

Your goal is to attract the maximum variety of species to remain in your yard, reproduce and build populations, not to pass through for a snack on their way to more attractive living quarters.  While butterflies need both host and nectar plants to complete their life cycles, an emphasis on host plants encourages butterflies to breed within given areas. Each kind of butterfly uses a limited range of host plants, but many host plants also provide nectar; in other words, a “twofer;” consider these plants first. Milkweed is a good example of a twofer:  a host plant and nectar provider for Monarch butterflies.

2.  Native species and their favorite landscapes.

Most larval host plants are natives.  Click here for a list of butterflies and their host plants from the University of Minnesota Extension.  Remember that larval host plants are meant to be eaten.  Damaged leaves or even plants that are completely defoliated is a good thing. It means your butterfly garden has attracted butterflies that have reproduced! 

And only a few plants are eaten to the ground by butterfly larvae; examples being, milkweed, parsley, dill, and fennel.  These plants, however, often rebound several times before they must be replaced.  On other hosts, like trees, most shrubs and grasses, feeding damage is barely noticeable, and what there is encourages healthy, new plant growth. 

NOTE: many nurseries use pesticides and these chemicals can be deadly to butterfly larvae. When buying host plants always ask if they have been treated with pesticides. Similarly, be very careful when using pesticides in your garden. If you must use chemicals, use them sparingly, and only treat the infected plant.

3.  Shelter and a variety of feeding opportunities.

Plants with different heights and growth habits appeal to a greater variety of butterflies by providing more opportunities for feeding and shelter.  For example, when monarch and queen butterflies are looking for nectar, they are generally attracted to taller flowers.  

And don’t forget trees: wild cherry (which hosts tiger swallowtail) and willow (which hosts Viceroy - a monarch look-alike) provides both food and shelter.  In addition, wild cherry and willow also produce nectar that attracts many other kinds of butterflies.

4.  Plants which have different blooming times.

These plants provide food for butterflies during periods of low natural availability. Flowers, like asters, which are late season bloomers, are important sources of nectar for butterflies (as well as bees and other pollinators) in the fall.

5.  Plants with different flower colors and different flower shapes.

Different butterfly species are attracted to different flower colors: yellow, orange, white, and blue flowers as well as reds, pinks, and purples, but the shape of the flower is important too.

The feeding behavior and length of the proboscis (aka: butterfly tongue) dictate which flowers butterflies visit. Long-tubed flowers are more accessible to species with long probosces whereas many composites (daisy-like flowers, like black-eyed Susans and Stokes’ aster) provide a feeding platform and easy nectar accessibility for smaller species.  As a rule, small butterflies feed on nectar from small flowers and large butterflies feed on nectar from larger ones. 

Avoid double flowers. They are usually bred for showiness, not nectar production.

6. Plant in shade as well as full sun. 

Shade appeals to more butterfly species, especially forest species butterflies.  The Giant Swallowtail and the Mustard White are Minnesota butterflies that prefer a shady woodland habitat. A rare shade-loving species, the Taiga Alpine, occurs in northern Minnesota exclusively, when in the lower 48 states.

7. Group plantings of flowers.

Group plantings of flowers are more apparent in the landscape, not only to us but to butterflies as well, allowing larvae to locate additional food in the event of shortage.

8.  Habitat and food for “no-flower” butterflies.

There are butterflies that rarely visit flowers, like the Question Mark.  These butterflies hang around rotting fruit, animal dung, dead animal carcasses  - which you may or may not want to supply - or tree sap.  If you have fruit trees, you can leave fallen fruit, like apples, on the ground.

 Then there are also the “puddle club” butterflies - mostly male. They gather at mud puddles and stream banks to drink water and take in salts and other nutrients. You’ll attract these butterflies if you live on or near water, or you can create your own “puddles” to attract them. 

9.  Shelter for “overwintering” butterflies. 

There are about nine butterflies that overwinter in Minnesota, among them the Question Mark.  Although many of them “hibernate”, only coming out during the winter if there is an exceptionally warm day, these butterflies need shelter during the winter months to survive our climate.

Adjust your fall cleanup to provide habitat for them.  Don’t mulch everything.  Leaf litter from large plants, like hostas, for example, provides shelter for butterflies and other pollinators.  Also, don’t cut your spent flowers and plants down to the ground.  Leaving 18” to 20” worth of stems and leaves also provides shelter for these overwintering butterflies. 

In addition, you can take fallen sticks and stems, bundle them together and put them in an out-of-the-way place in your yard to provide more habitat.  To sum up:  Be less tidy!

Provide a year-round combination of food and shelter for butterflies. Then, sit back this summer on your lounger, a glass of lemonade or ice tea by your side, and enjoy your successful butterfly garden!

REFERENCES

“Butterfly Gardens”, https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/gardens/butterfly/index.html

“Butterfly, Bee and Moth Garden Designs”, https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/gardens/butterfly/designs.html

Krischik, Vera, “Creating a Butterfly Garden”, https://extension.umn.edu/landscape-design/creating-butterfly-garden. Contains a list of butterflies and their host plants

Malone, Kathy, IFAS Publication “COMMUNITY BUTTERFLYSCAPING: HOW TO MOVE BEYOND BUTTERFLY GARDENING TO CREATE A LARGE-SCALE BUTTERFLY HABITAT” (contains tables listing flowers and hosts for specific butterflies), https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/EP420 

Reeves, Walter, “Attract Butterflies to Your Garden by Building a Butterfly Puddle”, You Tube, U of GA Extension: https://extension.uga.edu/

Stokes, Donald and Llillian, The Butterfly Book:  An Easy Guide to Butterfly Gardening, Identification, and Behavior,  Little, Brown and Co.,  New York, NY 1991.

Weisenhorn, Julie, “UMN Extension Fall Cleanup for Pollinators” (video), https://extension.umn.edu/lawns-and-landscapes/flowers-pollinators

“Rare Species”, https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/rsg/profile.html?action=elementDetail&selectedElement=IILEPN8140#:~:text=The taiga alpine is listed, clearly a long-term threat.

Photo Credit: University of Minnesota Extension (1), www.flickr.com (all creative commons) (2), www.publicdomainpictures.net (3,4), https://arb.umn.edu/blog/2021/03/30/meet-the-mustard-white-butterfly (5)