Attracting Butterflies

Many of us enjoy attracting butterflies to our gardens. If all we ever do during the day is plant, weed, and deadhead and only have time to sit in the garden in the evening, we are missing something. It is the butterflies, they are most active during the day when the sun is out and the weather is warm. Attracting butterflies means we need to plant the right plants in our garden so more and more come around.

A wonderful place to plant a butterfly garden would be next to your deck or patio so you can watch them come in and enjoy the plants. While attracting these beautiful little insects, you just might see a himmingbird or two coming to see what is available. With the following plants in your garden; Anise hyssop, Verbena, Tall sedum, Butterfly weed and Butterfly bush, it will reach its peak in midsummer. This is when you will see the most butterflies.

Some of the other flowers that butterflies enjoy are: Stokes' aster, Jupiter's beard, Joe-Pye weed, Blanket flower, Shasta daisy, Starflower, Spike blazing star, and Lantana. Try any all of these, including the ones listed above, and see how many different species of butterfly you will attract.

The first step in keeping the butterflies around is to grow the plants that butterflies love and here are a few tips for making them happy:

• 1. Give Them Shelter. If your garden is windy, plant a hedge of lilacs. They like the nectar in the spring and the shelter the rest of the season.
• 2. They Need Water. Mud puddles give some butterflies nutrients and salts. Make it out of a plastic saucer, using half sand, half compost, and water.
• 3. Start in the Sun. Butterflies may rest and hibernate in wooded areas, but in order to fly well their wings need to be dry and warm. If you place a rock in the sunniest part of the garden, they can land and warm up and get ready for the rest of the day.
• 4. Family Friendly Location. Milkweed, parsley and snapdragon are good plants for butterflies to lay their eggs.
• 5. Easy on Sprays. Insecticidal soap is probably the best way of getting rid of unwanted insects and is not harmful to butterflies.

Once fall rolls around you have a couple of choices to make for your garden. You can cut all the flowers back to the ground, which means less reseeding, but you will have a tidier garden. You can also leave all the plants standing and in the winter you will be able to enjoy seeing the birds stopping by for tidbit of the seed-heads. Once you start attracting butterflies to your garden you will probably look for more excuses to sit out in your garden.