These Butterfly Plants Will Make Your Garden Even More Gorgeous
Butterflies fluttering about make your outdoor living space feel extra charming. Not only is it a delight to marvel at their colorful, patterned wings as they land in your garden, but, just like bees and hummingbirds, these whimsical insects are important pollinators, too.
Want more frequent visits from Monarchs and Painted Ladies to your outdoor space? The key is adding plants that are known to attract butterflies. When you're planting, focus on flowers with red, yellow, orange, pink, and purple blossoms. Adult butterflies also prefer flat tops, clusters, and short flower tubes, according to the National Wildlife Federation.
“Butterflies and other pollinators are attracted to plants with bright blooms and fragrant smells,” explains landscape architect Catie Casazza and the owner of design-build firm CRL Construction in Los Angeles. “Both qualities help pollinators like butterflies find pollen, which they carry on their bodies spreading it between plants to pollinate fruits and flowers.”
Some flowers—like goldenrods, sunflowers, and geraniums—are like homes for butterflies too, explains Victoria Cummins, a gardening expert at PlantWhisperer who specializes in permaculture. A few special plant caterpillars actually lay their eggs on the leaves of these plants. “When the eggs hatch, the baby caterpillars have a ready snack bar right in front of them,” she says. “They get to munch on the leaves as they grow big and strong.”
Overall, the best thing you can do is plant flowering plants that are native to your area because butterflies and those plants have co-evolved, explains the National Wildlife Federation. And, if you don’t just want butterfly cameos, but rather a consistent presence in your yard, make sure that when one plant stops blooming, another begins. They’ll also favor your yard if you’ve got some flat stones that they can rest on in sunny places.
“I also make sure to water my planters regularly, as butterflies need puddles and damp soil to sip from,” Cummins says.
With that explainer out of the way, here’s 12 plants that attract butterflies.
Watching butterflies fluttering around your backyard area is an instant mood-lifter. Not only is it a delight to marvel at their colorful, patterned wings as they land in your flower beds, but, just like bees and hummingbirds, these insects are important pollinators, too. Want more frequent garden visits from monarchs and painted ladies? The key is adding flowers for butterflies.
When you're planting, focus on flowers with red, yellow, orange, pink, and purple blossoms. Adult butterflies also prefer flat tops, clusters, and short flower tubes, according to the National Wildlife Federation.
"Butterflies and other pollinators are attracted to plants with bright blooms and fragrant smells,” explains Catie Casazza, a landscape architect and the owner of design-build firm CRL Construction in Los Angeles. “Both qualities help pollinators like butterflies find pollen, which they carry on their bodies, spreading it between plants to pollinate fruits and flowers.”
Some flowers—like goldenrods, sunflowers, and geraniums—are like homes for butterflies too, explains Victoria Cummins, a gardening expert at PlantWhisperer who specializes in permaculture. A few special caterpillars actually lay their eggs on the leaves of these plants.
“When the eggs hatch, the baby caterpillars have a ready snack bar right in front of them,” she says. “They get to munch on the leaves as they grow big and strong.”
Overall, the best thing you can do is plant flowering plants that are native to your area because butterflies and those plants have coevolved, explains the National Wildlife Federation. And, if you ensure they return again and again, make sure that when one butterfly plant starts to wane, another begins to bloom. They’ll also favor your yard if you have flat stone pavers or garden edging that they can rest on in sunny places.
“I also make sure to water my planters regularly, as butterflies need puddles and damp soil to sip from,” Cummins says.
To start planning the most prolific butterfly garden imaginable, here are the 11 best butterfly plants to attract these wonderful winged pollinators to your outdoor space.
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Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca)
Monarch butterfly populations have dramatically declined by as much as 95 percent over two decades in some parts of the United States. However, planting milkweed, which has gorgeous star-shaped blooms, is one sure way to help out these winged pollinators.
“With its pretty pink and white blooms, not only do butterflies flock to milkweed, Monarch butterflies absolutely need it to survive,” Cummins says.
Milkweed is a pretty easy-to-care-for butterfly plant, too, and can even grow in gravel-like soils so long as it’s in full sun.
Just know that while pollinators love milkweed, it is poisonous for dogs and cats.
USDA Hardiness Zones: 3-9
Bougainvillea (Bougainvillea glabra)
Bougainvillea’s woody, thorny vine grows well in dry, arid climates—if you have the environment to support it, it's a wonderful butterfly plant that'll add incredible color to your surroundings.
The unusual blooms consist of tiny white or cream-colored flowers that hold the pollen, Casazza says, and they're surrounded by papery bracts in hot pink to flame red.
USDA Hardiness Zones: 9-11
Related Story: How to Grow a Bougainvillea Plant Wherever You Live
California Lilac (Ceanothus)
A native plant that works great as a ground cover, California lilac creates a bed of blue flowers that bring butterflies to the yard, Casazza says. Once established, this butterfly plant is low-maintenance and drought-tolerant.
USDA Hardiness Zones: 7-10
Coneflowers (Echinacea)
With their fuzzy colorful centers and clusters of pink, red, purple, yellow, or orange blooms, coneflowers are another plant that butterflies love.
“No matter the size of your space, try sprinkling in a few of these beauties, and you're sure to have winged visitors in no time,” Cummins says.
These wildflowers prefer full sun, and some can grow as tall as five feet.
USDA Hardiness Zones: 4-9
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American Beautyberry Shrub (Callicarpa americana)
They’re called beautyberries for a reason! The bright purple iridescent clusters of berries on the American beautyberry shrub that appear in autumn look as though they could inspire the next Pantone Color of the Year.
These shrubs invite birds to snack on their berries, and their blooms attract other winged pollinators like the spring azure butterfly. Once they establish their roots, they’re drought-tolerant and a fairly low-maintenance shrub.
USDA Hardiness Zones: 6-11
Sunflowers (Helianthus annuus)
Sunflowers, which can grow up to 12 feet tall, make the perfect landing pad for butterflies, which appreciate the easy access to the nectar. These butterfly plants can also attract bees, so they're wonderful for your local ecosystem.
Sunflowers prefer loose, well-draining soil and these sun-loving plants do best when they get at least 6 to 8 hours of sun exposure.
USDA Hardiness Zones: 1-11
Related Story: 24 Beset Full Sun Perennials for Your Garden
Hollyhocks (Alcea)
Hollyhock flowers are a gorgeous addition to gardens, with their crepe-like petals in pretty colors like champagne, fuschia, and apricot. Bonus: The way their flowers bloom outward (instead of upward) on the stalk makes it easy to see visiting butterflies (and maybe hummingbirds, too!).
These pretty self-seeding flowers prefer well-draining soil. These butterfly plants are sun worshippers, too, and do best when they get at least six hours of sunshine.
USDA Hardiness Zones: 3-8
Lavender (Lavandula officinalis)
Butterflies love lavender for some of the same reasons we do: The purple cylindrical blooms are nice and fragrant.
Beyond its beauty and butterfly-attracting capabilities, lavender is also one the many wonderful edible plants you can grow in your garden and it’s among the plants that can naturally repel mosquitoes. Make sure to plant lavender in sunny spots in soil with neutral pH.
USDA Hardiness Zones: 5-9
Geraniums (Pelargoniums)
Even if you weren't born with a green thumb, you can probably grow geraniums pretty easily. Gardeners consider these pink, red, and white flowers with star-shaped leaves to be one of the best flowers for butterflies, and, if you have some of these in your garden, you may even get some visits from hummingbirds.
Geraniums need full sun and prefer moist, well-drained soil.
USDA Hardiness Zones: 3-9
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Black-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)
Not only do black-eyed Susans provide perfect steady landing pads for butterflies, but these flowers are pretty much the pollinators' equivalent of a “supersized” order.
The eye of the flower head often has 250 to 500 individual flowers, which provides tons of nectar for pollinators, according to the University of Maryland Extension. Black-eyed Susans need full sun and they can sprout up to 7 feet tall.
USDA Hardiness Zones: 3-9
Goldenrod (Solidago)
One of the easiest butterfly plants to grow is goldenrod. It needs full sun and well-drained soil, but it’s a forgiving plant when it comes to drought and poor soil conditions, according to the North Carolina State Extension.
You might need to look closely to spot the bees and butterflies visiting your goldenrod, though, because they can easily blend into the golden flowers.
USDA Hardiness Zones: 2-9
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