Alicia's Butterfly Garden Tips
It is wonderful to see butterflies in your garden, but unless your well-balanced Butterfly garden has both host and nectar plants the Butterflies will just eat and move on.
*Good host plants for your garden should include:
Snapdragons, hollyhocks, plantain, cheese weed, sunflowers, nasturtiums, Shasta daisies and milkweed.
*Good nectar plants for your garden should include:
Lantana, butterfly bush, cosmos, aster, purple coneflower, zinnia's and lavender.
*Avoid planting hybrid plants.
*Plant in clusters and not singles.
*Your garden should get a minimum of 6 hours of sun exposure.
*Butterflies respond well to purple, yellow and red flowers.
*Place a basking rock in a sunny area of the garden (White & Dark or Black).
*Butterflies REALLY love rotting fruit, sliced watermelon and mud.
Butterflies are insects too, so be mindful if you feel the need to kill bugs.
The following groups of plants are important native plants for butterfly gardening.
| English Name | Scientific Name | Plant Type | Caterpillar Food Plant For: |
| Alligator Flag | Thalia geniculata | perennial | Brazilian Skipper |
| American Hackberry | Celtis occidentalis | tree | Tawny Emperor, Hackberry Emperor, American Snout, Question Mark, Mourning Cloak |
| Black Cherry | Prunus serotina | tree | Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Red-spotted Purple, Coral Hairstreak |
| Blue Porterweed | tachytarpheta jamaicensis | perennial | Tropical Buckeye |
| Boneset | Eupatorium perfoliatum | perennial | not a caterpillar food plant |
| Butterfly Milkweed | Asclepias tuberosa | perennial | Monarch |
| Corkystem Passionflower | Asclepias tuberosa | vine | Gulf Fritillary, Julia Heliconian, Zebra Heliconian |
| Dutchman's Pipe | Aristolochia macrophylla | vine | Pipevine Swallowtail |
| Faux Persil Balloon vine | Cardiospermum corindum | vine | Gray Hairstreak, Miami Blue, Silver-banded Hairstreak |
| Goldenrod species | Solidago ssp. | perennial | not a caterpillar food plant |
| Hollow Joe Pye Weed | Eupatorium fistulosum | perennial | not a caterpillar food plant |
| Holywood | Guaiacum sanctum | tree | Lyside Sulphur |
| Lime Pricklyash | Zanthoxylum fagara | shrub or tree | Giant Swallowtail,Northern Sicklewing, Schaus' Swallowtail |
| Mexican Senna | Senna mexicana | shrub | Cloudless Sulphur, Sleepy Orange, Orange-barred Sulphur |
| Mistflower | Conoclinium coelestinum | perennial | not a caterpillar food plant |
| Mountain Mint | Pycnanthemum species | perennial | not a caterpillar food plant |
| New England Aster | Aster novae-angliae | perennial | Pearl Crescent |
| Oswego Tea | Monarda didyma | perennial | not a caterpillar food plant |
| Partridge Pea | Chamaecrista fasciculata | annual | Cloudless Sulphur, Sleepy Orange, Gray Hairstreak |
| Pearly Everlasting | Anaphalis margaritacea | perennial | American Lady |
| Purple Milkweed | Asclepias purpurascens | perennial | Monarch |
| Spicebush | Lindera benzoin | shrub | Spicebush Swallowtail |
| Spiny Hackberry | Celtis pallida | large shrub or tree | Emperors, American Snout, Red-bordered Metalmark |
| Swamp Milkweed | Asclepias incarnata | perennial | Monarch |
| Tropical Milkweed | Asclepias curassavica | perennial | Monarch |
| Turkey Tangle Frogfruit | Phyla nodiflora | perennial | Common Buckeye, Phaon Crescent, White Peacock |
| Violets | Viola ssp. | perennial | Fritillary species |
| Water Dropwort | Oxypolis filiformis | perennial | Black Swallowtail |
| White Snakeroot | Eupatorium rugosum | perennial | not a caterpillar food plant |
| Wild Bergamot | Monarda fistulosa | perennial | not a caterpillar food plant |
