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Butterfly Garden Plan



Attract Butterflies
with Nectar and Host Plants




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.

The links in the upper left hand side of this page go into more detail on butterfly gardening, Milkweed and Raising Monarchs and Swallowtails. There are specific pages on Swamp Milkweed, Joe Pye Weed, and Aster. Check them out!

Monarchs are found throughout U.S. and Canada. Black Swallowtails are found East of the Rocky Mountains in the U.S. and Southern Canada.

Here are some other options for Swallowtail host plants if you live in other areas of the U.S. and Canada:

  • Pipevine Swallowtail (Southern U.S.).....host plant - pipevine
  • 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!

Joe Pye Weed (upper left) Aster (bottom right) Bee Balm (behind Aster)



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