Native Virginia Plants for a Butterfly Garden
A successful butterfly garden needs to have two types of plants--nectar producing plants and host plants. Female butterflies lay their eggs on host plants, which the caterpillar feeds on as it grows. Several plants native to Virginia will attract a wide variety of butterflies to your garden. Locate your butterfly garden in a sunny area that will offer butterflies shelter from the wind.
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Purple Coneflower
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Swallowtail butterflies are attracted to purple coneflowers.
palamedis swallowtail image by Pat Lalli from Fotolia.com
Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) is an herbaceous perennial that blooms each spring in yards and fields across its native Virginia. The purple petals droop gracefully from a spiny-looking brown center atop stems that reach 2 to 5 feet in height. These flowers begin blooming in April and last until September. The nectar of this plant attracts butterflies such as the swallowtail, great spangled fritillary, red-spotted admiral and painted lady.
Swamp Milkweed
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Attract Monarch butterflies with swamp milkweed plants.
monarch butterfly image by Clarence Alford from Fotolia.com
Swamp milkweed grows 2 to 4 feet tall and blooms from June to October with a head of fragrant blooms made up of many small, deep pink flowers. Swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) is used as a food source for the Monarch caterpillar and the females lay their eggs one at a time under the leaves of the milkweed plant. This native Virginia plant is also a food source and host for caterpillars of the Queen butterfly.
Arrow-wood
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Butterflies lay their eggs on the arrow-wood plant.
blue butterfly image by BlueMiniu from Fotolia.com
Arrow-wood (Viburnum acerifolium L.) is also known as Mapleleaf. This native Virginia shrub is made up of dense branches which serve as a good shelter for birds and small mammals. This shrub grows 4 to 6 feet tall and 3 to 4 feet wide. It blooms in the spring with clusters of tiny white, spiky flowers. In the fall, red berries appear that turn a blue-black color and the leaves turn from green to shades of pink for a colorful display in the butterfly garden. The Spring Azure butterfly is attracted to this shrub to lay its eggs, where they are protected by the dense foliage.
Purple Passion Flower
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Hairstreak butterflies use vines for shelter from the wind.
hairstreak image by Henryk Dybka from Fotolia.com
The purple passion flower (Passiflora incarnata), also known as the purple passion vine and Maypop flower, is an herbaceous vine that can climb trees and shrubs or grow as groundcover in the garden. It can be up to 25 feet long and blooms from April to September with vibrant purple flowers that have thin, wavy blue-purple fringe surrounding the center above the petals. The purple passion flower vine is where the Gulf fritillary, variegated fritillary, banded and red-banded hairstreak butterflies lay their eggs. This native Virginia plant is a must-have in a butterfly garden.
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- Photo Credit butterfly image by Sergey Kolesnikov from Fotolia.com palamedis swallowtail image by Pat Lalli from Fotolia.com monarch butterfly image by Clarence Alford from Fotolia.com blue butterfly image by BlueMiniu from Fotolia.com hairstreak image by Henryk Dybka from Fotolia.com
