How to Attract Butterflies with a Butterfly Garden (2024)

Ah, that magical feeling you get when a butterfly comes drifting into your garden. I especially enjoy having butterflies in my yard because I enjoy taking photos of them. The intricate coloring and patterns of their wings are comparable to a work of art. This is all about how to attract butterflies and keep them coming back.

Butterflies are important to our gardens because they act as pollinators and natural pest control. In recent years, as the climate becomes hotter and drier, the number of butterflies is declining in the United States and across North America. Having a butterfly garden that serves as a sanctuary for butterflies to live in and thrive is a way you can get involved with protecting and conserving this species of insect.

When you create a butterfly garden, you want to think about the whole life cycle of a butterfly. Selecting plants that act as host plants and nectar plants will invite butterflies to stay around for the long haul. With a bit of planning and careful selection of plants, you can expect to see butterflies making your garden their home.

Here are a few things to know about creating a beautiful and colorful garden oasis for butterflies.

Table of Contents

How To Attract Butterflies To Your Garden

close up photo of white ascia butterfly on a statice flower in shades of pink purple red

Provide A Source Of Shelter In Your Butterly Garden

When adult butterflies visit your beautiful garden they are in search of a butterfly sanctuary, somewhere where they feel safe and protected. This is what will also ensure that new generations of butterflies will hatch right in your yard. It’s always fun spotting a chrysalis on one of your plants.

So when thinking about starting your butterfly habitat try choosing a location that’s sheltered from strong winds. The butterflies don’t like it and besides, they’ll blow right away.

Another thing to consider is grouping plants together as this offers more shelter for the butterflies. Plant in mass, having some variety in the types of plants, as well as sizes.

A great addition to can consider is a butterfly house. A butterfly house is exactly what it sounds like, a protective house for butterflies with small slats that allow butterflies to enter and just small enough to keep out any predators. Butterfly houses can be incorporated into your garden. They come in a variety of styles and colors and can show off your personality.

chrysalis on a ponytail palm chrysalis is semi-translucent and shows wings starting to form — *A Monarch chrysalis on Nell’s Ponytail Palm in her backyard in Santa Barbara.*

Keep It Organic

Practicing organic gardening principles is important in any garden. Your initial reaction to spotting pests in your garden may be to use pesticides. However, pesticides won’t be limited to preventing and killing just those pesky aphids and mealybugs but also the butterflies you are trying to attract.

There are organic routes you can take to control an infestation. Most plants can be treated with horticultural oil, insecticidal soap, and neem oil. Just do a little research on the plants you will be treating to ensure they will not be negatively impacted by any of these solutions.

Butterfly Puddling Station

Have you ever seen a group of butterflies all congregating near shallow puddles? Butterflies love muddy puddles because of all the minerals they get from sipping on the water. They can’t live on sugar alone and they need vitamins and minerals just like humans.

There is an easy way you can replicate a muddy shallow puddle, by taking a saucer or shallow dish and filling it with wet sand, flat rocks, and water. Place this in your butterfly garden and watch the butterflies congregate around it.

You can also add a puddling stone to your garden. This is a shallow watering station that butterflies can drink water from. There’s a collage at the bottom of the post that provides links to buying puddling stones online.

blue bird bath filled with water and decorative rock in light blue and green with flat rock in the middle in texas ranger bush in background — *This is the bird/butterfly waterer in Nell’s back garden. The rock & glass chips insure that the butterflies don’t drown while getting a drink.*

MORE HELPFUL GUIDES ON GARDENING:

7 Things To Think About When Planning A Garden, Vegetable Container Gardening: A Beginner’s Guide to Growing Food, How To Successfully Plant Shrubs In The Garden, How To Prepare and Plant A Flower Bed, Clean And Sharpen Your Pruning Tools

Plant Selection In Your Butterfly Garden

Butterflies have preferences for the nectar plants they like. Doing some research to find out what butterflies are common to your area can help you with choosing the host plants and nectar plants you will need.

I live in Tucson, AZ where Fritillaries, Black Swallowtails, and Monarch Butterflies are popular. When choosing plants for my garden I tend to select ones that are drought tolerant. My Red Bird of Paradise plants are in full sun, offer good shelter, and butterflies love them. Other plants that do well here in Tucson are Lantana and Bottle Brush.

Choosing plants that support a butterfly through its life cycle is important to have a successful butterfly garden. There are 2 types of plants that you will want to have; host plants and nectar plants. Host plants are where females lay their eggs so when a caterpillar emerges it already has a food source. For example, milkweed plants are host plants for Monarch caterpillars. Nectar Plants are what an adult butterfly will feed off of.

Having a variety of sizes will attract a variety of different-sized butterflies and different butterfly species. The type of nectar flower is also important; flat flowers are easy to drink from. Nothing tubular – leave those for the hummingbirds. You can go with perennial plants or annuals, such as Penta, Zinnia, Gaillardia, Purple Coneflowers, and Bee Balm.

Resource: Check out our list of 29 Plants That Attract Butterflies, all with photos

How To Attract Butterflies With Fruit

Nectar sources are the staple of butterfly diets but did you know some butterflies also love fruit? They can’t chew it but can drink it, so adding slices of oranges and watermelons to your garden is a great way to attract more butterflies.

There are butterfly fruit feeders that you can purchase or you can make a DIY feeder to add food sources to your garden.

butterfly drinking from cut-up orange in a pink butterfly feeder that is flower-shaped and green foliage in the background

How To Attract Butterflies By Planting In Mass

A successful butterfly garden is one that has a variety of plants for butterflies to be attracted to. Butterflies are attracted to bright colorful flowers (they see them better) so choose perennials and annuals that grow well in a sunny area of your garden.

The right plants play an essential role in butterflies being able to complete their life cycle. So as long as you’re planting one plant, why not plant three.

Choosing plants with the longest blooms throughout the year is more opportunity for a butterfly to spot the brightly colored flowers and come visit your garden. Having a variety of plants that bloom at different times of the year yields more time for butterflies to pollinate. For instance, some bloom all season, some in early summer, some in late summer, and some into early fall.

buckeye butterfly that is colored brown orange and tan on a statice flower

Short on space? You can still create a butterfly garden

Not everyone has space for a large butterfly garden and that’s ok too. If you only have a patio or balcony for gardening you can still take part in butterfly gardening. Planting in containers with a mix of butterfly plants such as bee balm, blanket flower, and salvia is an excellent way to have your own butterfly oasis.

To Attract Butterflies, Colors Matter

Bright flowers attract butterflies especially; red, orange, yellow, purple, and pink. There are some colors that aren’t as attractive to butterflies such as blue and green. Zinnias and cosmos come in a wide array of colors and are easy to maintain. These annuals are great options to consider for your butterfly garden as they’re easy to tuck in anywhere.

example of a butterfly garden with a variety of colors yellow purple red blue white and heights and sizes of plants with water feature in background — *A beautiful garden to attract butterflies.*

Maintenance

To maintain your butterfly garden throughout the season pruning is vital. Deadheading is the act of cutting off old blooms to reinvigorate the plant and encourage repeat blooming. This is also a great way to get yourself outdoors and hands-on in your garden.

Butterfly Garden Essentials

collage of 8 products of butterfly garden additions puddler butterfly house butterfly bird bath banana hammock available at etsy

1. Monarch & Milkweed Design Puddler // 2. Butterfly Bath // 3. Yellow Butterfly House // 4. Whimsical Butterfly House // 5. Rustic Butterfly House // 6. Banana Hammock // 7. Ceramic Feeder // 8. Lavender Design Puddler

Butterflies are incredible specimens and taking part in their conservation is a meaningful way to garden. You can find beautiful Zinnia’s to grow from seed here to get you started on creating a butterfly garden. Hope you found these tips on attracting butterflies helpful and that you see some native butterflies in your garden soon.

-Cassie

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