Easy Butterfly Garden Plan
Best Butterfly Flowers

Several years ago, I decided to create a butterfly garden.

Aster left Zinnia middle Joe Pye Weed right

Over the years, my appreciation for flowers and nature "blossomed".

Bird watching became one of my hobbies. This seemed to naturally lead to observing the butterflies that occasionally visited my garden.

This is when I decided to create a garden to attract butterflies.

After scouring numerous books and loads of information on butterfly flowers and plants, I experimented in my own garden.

I will share with you what I learned and which of these really attracted butterflies.

This is when I discovered native plants....some favorites are, Swamp Milkweed, Joe Pye Weed, Asters and Meadow Blazing Star.

The tremendous advantages of native plants:

• Historical....they evolved over thousands of years
• Practical.....they require minimal attention and care
• Durable.....resist pests and disease
• Naturally beautiful
• Provide food and cover for wildlife

Since natural sort of "fits my personality", I decided to try some of the native plants of our area.

If you are gardening for butterflies and want to observe the entire life cycle of the butterfly, i.e. all of the unique butterfly stages, be sure and include in your plan:

• Nectar Plants - butterfly food
• Host Plants - caterpillar food

The above links will give you detailed information and specific suggestions on the top nectar flowers and host plants to add to your garden for butterflies. Also, here is a butterfly garden plan I designed with some of the top butterfly plants.

For a cheap garden that attracts butterflies, why don't you try growing the seeds yourself with one of the butterfly seed kits below......

Garden Seed Kits for Butterflies

• Easy Garden for Butterflies Kit includes (# of seeds): 25 Tropical Milkweed, 20 Zinnia elegans and 20 Zinnia lilliput.
• Small Garden for Butterflies Kit includes (# of seeds): 15 Swamp Milkweed, 30 Tropical Milkweed, 25 Joe Pye Weed, 20 New England Aster, 15 Zinnia elegans, 15 Zinnia lilliput and 25 Bee Balm Monarda fistula.
• Large Garden for Butterflies Kit includes (# of seeds): 20 Swamp Milkweed, 40 Tropical Milkweed, 40 Joe Pye Weed, 30 New England Aster, 25 Zinnia elegans, 25 Zinnia lilliput and 40 Bee Balm Monarda fistula.
• Host Plant Garden for Butterflies Kit includes (# of seeds): 25 Swamp Milkweed (Monarch), 40 Tropical Milkweed (Monarch), 20 Rue (Black Swallowtail)

PLEASE NOTE: I have started these flowers from seed myself. The Tropical Milkweed, Zinnia elegans and Zinnia lilliput are easy to start from seed and grow quickly. The perennial seeds are much slower to grow. The Swamp Milkweed seeds need to be refrigerated for 1 month first or sown in the ground in the fall. Here is the best method for starting seeds that I have found.

Which butterfly garden?

Easy Butterfly Garden $5.99 Small Butterfly Garden $7.99 Large Butterfly Garden $9.99 Host Plant Garden $5.99

• The Hummingbird Guide: Plant a hummingbird flower garden, Attract hummingbirds with flowers, Hummingbird facts, species, photos and more.
• Native Ventures Butterflies - Dr.Charles Allen, expert and author on native plants of Louisiana, shares information on native butterfly host and nectar plants for this area of the U.S.
• Plant a rain garden in your yard and help protect our waterways while you enjoy long days of watching butterflies and hummingbirds.
• GardenHere - The Friendliest Home Gardening Community on the Internet. We make it easy to trade plants, seeds and flowers. Forums, Auctions, Zone Lookup, Chat, Calculators, Plant Encyclopedia and much more.