Build Your Own Butterfly Garden: Choosing the Plants
- Amy Bright
- Apr 3
- 2 min read
Butterflies have specific needs: they need a host plan for the very hungry caterpillars and a variety of flowers for nectar. They also need a watering rock, if you're feeling generous!
The two butterflies I'm intentionally supporting this year are gulf fritillaries and Monarchs.
Gulf Fritillaries
Gulf fritillaries are orange butterflies that have a distinctive silvery pattern on their wings. I'm not a butterfly genius, so I frequently confuse them with Monarchs.
If you look below, you'll see they're definitely not the close to the same.
Caterpillar host plants: Passion vine. The caterpillars need a lot of food, and passion flowers provide that food! These quick-growing flowers might take over your yard if you're not careful.
During caterpillar season, check for eggs or caterpillars.
The eggs are usually tiny black specks at the end of the vine's tendrils.
The caterpillars are tiny black forms that grow into black and orange beasties.
Butterfly Plants: Passion flowers, Zinnias, and Dahlias
Of course, they seem to love anything colorful, but I'm focusing on zinnias because they're easy and beautiful, and dahlias because my mom planted some last year, and they've spread.
Passion flowers are also a favorite of the bees and every other pollinator!
I cannot emphasize enough how readily these flowers take over a yard, at least in the South.
Monarch Butterflies
Greer, SC, is a monarch sanctuary city, so the butterflies need assistance in all the neighborhoods!
Monarch wings look like stained glass to me and have the famous black and white edging.
Caterpillar host plant: Milkweed
This is THE plant for Monarch caterpillars, but it doesn't spread the same way passion flowers do. We only have a few plants on the property, so I'm attempting the following this year from Baker Creek Seeds:
Hello Yellow
Showy
Soul Mate
Swamp
Nectar plants: Once, again zinnias and dahlias brought a host of species to the yard last year, including Monarchs! I'm adding more into the mix:
Marigolds
Butterfly Pea
Golden rod (already in the yard)
Cosmos
Wildflower mixes
Do you have an intentional butterfly garden, or do you plant flowers and enjoy whoever shows up? Let me know your favorite flowers in the comments!
(All photos mine unless otherwise indicated)
Ironic that your post is right above mine since I posted about being happy out in nature, listening to birds and watching my tulips grow. I'm also trying to plant things that attract butterflies so this is an interesting article. Thank you.
Those butterflies are very pretty. I like Monarch butterflies-- I wonder if it's because they are the only ones I can recognize on sight LOL