Flower Gardening

Growing a Butterfly Garden: A Brief Tutorial

By Nina Koziol

Of all the creatures that visit our suburban garden near Chicago, butterflies are the most exotic and magical. On warm summer days they sail from one flower to another in search of nectar. In sunlight, the shimmering wings of the red-spotted purple appear iridescent. And while the large, brightly colored swallowtails and painted ladies tend to grab our attention, there are countless smaller species—colorful coppers, crescents, checkerspots, hairstreaks, skippers, metalmarks, blues and others roughly the size of a thumbnail—that are just as fascinating and fun to watch.

No matter where you live, it’s easy to invite a variety of these winged wonders into your yard. A butterfly garden is simply one that offers nectar for the adults and certain plants for their caterpillars. If you grow flowers, you likely have nectar plants that attract them. Nectar is a sugar-rich liquid that butterflies, bees and other pollinators rely on for energy.

A Tutorial on Butterflies

A butterfly’s tongue is shaped like a flexible straw, which it unrolls and dips into the base of a flower. Native perennials like bee balm (Monarda), purple coneflowers (Echinacea) and black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia) are good sources of nectar, but many butterflies are attracted to easy-to-grow annuals such as Mexican sunflower (Tithonia), zinnias, lantana, cosmos, marigolds, ageratum and verbena.

During their short lives, butterflies must find food, avoid predators, seek shelter from bad weather, find a mate and reproduce. On top of these daunting tasks, female butterflies must find suitable plants, called host plants, on which to lay their eggs.

Caterpillar Care

Each species of butterfly requires specific plants for its caterpillars to eat. Monarchs, for example, will only lay eggs on milkweed (Asclepias) plants. No other plant will do. For this reason, I grow the colorful swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) and butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa), both well-behaved perennials in my beds and borders. Like most perennials, they only bloom for a few weeks, so I also grow the annual milkweed, (Asclepias curassavica), which flowers from May through October in our zone 5 climate.

The elegant zebra swallowtail will only lay eggs on the native pawpaw tree (Asimina triloba). Some hairstreaks lay their eggs on oaks, hickories and butternut trees while the question mark butterfly lays eggs on the leaves of elm, hackberry, hop vines and nettles.

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