This butterfly garden plan will bring many butterflies to your garden. The perennials are hardy to zone 3 or 4 and do well in my Minnesota garden.
If you live in a warmer climate, Butterfly Bush (zone 5) could replace the Joe Pye Weed.
There are Butterfly Host and Nectar Plants included in this garden. Butterflies will come and feed at the nectar flowers and lay eggs on the host plants.
Here are my favorite varieties of these plants:
Zinnia (nectar)- Elegans or State Fair (tall) and Lilliput (medium height)
Aster (nectar and host plant for Pearl Crescent Butterfly)- New England (native)
Liatris (nectar)- Meadow Blazing Star is a "Monarch magnet" (native)
Sedum (nectar)- Spectabile
The diameter of this circular island bed is about 9 feet. The plants in this garden will bloom from July through October.
If you would like some earlier flowers, add some annuals such as Pentas, Heliotrope, Lantana, Scabiosa or perennial Allium or Chives.
The Swamp Milkweed, an excellent nectar plant to use in Butterfly Garden Plans, is also host plant for the Monarch butterfly. The Parsley and Rue are host plants for the Black Swallowtail butterfly.
Anise Swallowtail (Western and Northwestern U.S. and Southwestern Canada)...host plant - sweet fennel
and Europe:
Papilio Machaon (Linnaeus, 1758) Swallowtail (Italy, france, belguim, Sweden, Norway).....host plants - milk parsley, angelica, and wild angelica
Enjoy the added activity with this butterfly garden plan. Try raising an egg or caterpillar found on the host plants. Raising butterflies is a fascinating hobby!