Butterflies are always looking for nectar, so if you can provide the tastiest meal, you can keep them around!
Grow Your Own Butterfly Garden
Butterflies and flowers were made for each other. As a French poet once pointed out, 鈥淏utterflies are flying flowers, and flowers are tethered butterflies.鈥 Here is our list of the best plants that attract butterflies to the garden, with their respective common and Latin names, along with some advice on how to grow them.
In attracting butterflies, it鈥檚 important to understand what they want most out of life: nectar. The ancients, who believed that nectar fell directly from heaven, named it after the wines of the gods.
Keeping Your Garden Butterfly-Friendly
To attract butterflies to your garden, it鈥檚 best to include a range of food sources. You鈥檒l need flowers with 1) nectar (for adults) as well as 2) 鈥渉ost鈥 plants for caterpillars.
Now if you want to keep butterflies in your yard (and support these declining pollinators), you must have those host plants where they can lay their eggs (some butterfly species are fussier than others as to what plants are best); once the larvae hatch, the host plants will serve as food for the developing caterpillars.
A butterfly鈥檚 wish list also includes sunny, open spaces, shelter from the wind, and fresh water.
- Just placing some flat stones around your yard and garden gives a place for butterflies to 鈥渟unbathe鈥 so that they can rest and warm their wings for flying.
- A bird bath or even a shallow basin can provide water. In nature, butterflies often gather around mud puddles to get the minerals they need. As the water evaporates, it leaves behind valuable salts and minerals that butterflies need. Some garden stores even sell pudding stones.
Plants That Attract Butterflies
Native plant varieties are best; some butterflies can only eat from native flowers. When building a butterfly garden, or really any pollinator garden, native varieties are far more effective.
For caterpillars, consider plants like milkweed, dill, and asters. Monarch caterpillars ONLY eat milkweed. In fact, the monarch butterfly is also known as the 鈥渕ilkweed butterfly.鈥
For butterflies, Joe-Pye weed, ironweed, coneflowers, goldenrod, and brightly-hued asters are nectar-filled favorites.
Plants to Attract Butterflies
Different plants can attract different species of butterflies! See our full list of flower and fruit varieties to consider adding to your garden. You may consider some of these plants 鈥渨eeds,鈥 but the butterflies love them.
| Common Name | Latin Name |
|---|---|
| Allium | Allium |
| Aromatic Aster | Symphyotrichum oblongifolium |
| Bee balm | Monarda |
| Black Cherry | Prunus serotina |
| Blue Wild Indigo | Baptisia australis |
| Blueberry bushes | Vaccinium corymbosum, Vaccomoium angustifolium |
| Buttonbush | Cephalanthus occidentalis |
| Butterfly bush* | Buddleia |
| Catmint | Nepeta |
| Clove Pink | Dianthus |
| Cornflower | Centaurea |
| Daylily | Hemerocallis |
| Dill | Anethum |
| False indigo | Baptisia |
| Fleabane | Erigeron |
| Floss flower | Ageratum |
| Globe thistle | Echinops |
| Goldenrod | Solidago |
| Grey Dogwood | Cornus racemosa |
| Helen鈥檚 flower | Helenium |
| Hollyhock | Alcea |
| Hoptree | Ptelea trifoliata |
| Joe-Pye weeds | Eupatoriadelphus fistulosus, Eupatoriadelphus maculates, Eupatorium purpureum |
| Lavender | Lavendula |
| Lilac | Syringa |
| Lupine | Lupinus |
| Lychnis | Lychnis |
| Mallow | Malva |
| Milkweed | Asclepias tuberosa |
| Mint | Mentha |
| New York Ironweed | Vernonia noveboracensis |
| Ninebark | Physocarpus opulifolius |
| Northern Spicebush | Lindera benzoin |
| Pansy | Viola |
| Phlox | Phlox |
| Pipevine | Aristolochia macrophylla |
| Privet | Ligustrum |
| Purple coneflower | Echinacea |
| Rock cress | Arabis |
| Sage | Salvia |
| Sea holly | Eryngium |
| Senna, American | Senna hebacarpa |
| Senna, Maryland | Senna marilandica |
| Shasta daisy | Chrysanthemum sp. |
| Snapdragon | Antirrhinum |
| Stonecrop | Sedum |
| Sweet alyssum | Lobularia |
| Sweet rocket | Hesperis |
| Tickseed | Coreopsis |
| Tuliptree | Liriodendron tulipifera |
| Trumpet Vine | Campsis radicans |
| Zinnia | Zinnia |
*Butterfly bush is categorized as an invasive plant in many states and is not used as a host plant for caterpillars.
Please let us know if we鈥檙e missing any of your favorite butterfly plants! Just comment below.
Related Pollinator Articles
- Learn more about Butterfly Gardening from our 蜜桃恋人 organic gardener.
- For more plant recommendations, see Plants that Attract Hummingbirds and Easy Ways to Attract Bees to Your Garden.
- Plus, check out Native Bees: The Best Pollinators for Your Garden!
Catherine Boeckmann
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I found this plant at Walmart of all places, and has attracted many butterflies. It blooms continually from Spring until mid Fall. I planted only one plant and it's now 2' x 2'. It will definitely be on my to-grow list next Spring.
Do you have to leave the entire milkweed plant over the winter? I bought plants last fall that bloomed and I kept seed. I was told the plants would put back out from the root. Mine didn't so I had to replant from seedlings from the seeds we kept.
Hi Bruce,
Yes, milkweed should come back after the winter on its own, but it’s a slow growing plant and will sometimes be out-grown by faster growing ones.
No one mentioned oregano as a butterfly plant. We discovered its attraction to both butterflies and bees quite by accident, having planted a few common oregano plants as ornamentals. The oregano plants themselves are easy to grow - they love the sun, don't require a lot of water, and reseed easily. Since we don't harvest the leaves for cooking (you can consume them, they are just not the Greek variety), we can allow the plants to grow tall and flower into beautiful, purple, butterfly attracting flowers. Oregano will reseed almost anywhere and become invasive, even in the lawn, however, if there is an open corner in the garden needing to be filled, oregano may fit the bill.
Hello. I want to plant a butterfly garden. Can you tell me where I could find seeds and plants that are good for my region? I live in Fremont, Ohio. Thank you.
You can find a list of butterfly plants above. As for stores that sell them, we would simply suggest that you consult the major home-goods/building supply chain stores, nurseries, and groceries in your area.
I am happy to see a Swallowtail Butterfly uses "Parsley" as a Host Plant for eggs/caterpillars; I see the occasional Swallowtail here in Conn.; planting parsley is a crop anyone can grow!!! : )
Dill (loved by many varieties of caterpillars) particularly Monarchs; also fennel.
The Butterfly lay the eggs on the Dill; then the eggs hatch; the butterfly eats Dill Parsley or Milkweed; great news; Question; Would I have to keep the Dill plants up in the winter; or are the eggs and caterpillars atched and grown to fly away as Butterflies? the eggs do not overwinter?;
In colder climates, most butterflies will overwinter as caterpillars or pupae. Unless you’re in a climate where butterflies are active year-round, there’s no need for you to try to maintain your dill through the winter, as caterpillars will be dormant and won’t be feeding. They will awaken in the spring, feast on the dill, and become beautiful butterflies that will start the cycle over again!
