What Plants Attract Butterflies?
Creating a butterfly garden can be an enjoyable project, especially when the fruits of your work result in several varieties of beautiful butterflies frequenting your yard. To attract butterflies, you need plants that can cater to all stages of their life--laying eggs, feeding as caterpillars, building cocoons, and finally, consuming nectar as butterflies. Depending on the area in which you live, certain species of butterflies are likely to be more prevalent than others, and each species has its own set of preferred plants. Does this Spark an idea?
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Colors
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Butterflies are most attracted to bright, warm colors such as red, pink, yellow, orange and purple.
Butterfly Weed
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Asclepias tuberosa is a type of milkweed, frequently sold as "butterfly weed" or "butterfly flower." This is a favorite of monarch caterpillars as well as tiger swallowtail and black swallowtail butterflies.
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Trees
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Oak, flowering dogwood and Eastern cottonwood are popular trees for caterpillars.
Wildflowers
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Goldenrod, asters, ironweed, violets and purple coneflower are wildflowers that are especially attractive to butterflies.
Size and Shape
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The best plants for butterflies to get nectar are those with clustered or large flat flowers where they can land, as well as a short tubular shape which makes the nectar easier to extract.
Location
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Plants should be placed in the sunlight and be as sheltered from strong winds as possible to provide the most-attractive feeding spot for butterflies.
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