Creating a Beautiful Butterfly Garden

Butterflies are some of the most beautiful and enchanting creatures on Earth. When considering creating a butterfly garden, you need to remember to install all of the right kinds of plants and flowers that butterflies not only love to feed on but lay eggs on and feed on as caterpillars as well. You want to encourage the entire life cycle of a butterfly to ensure you receive the magical results a beautiful butterfly garden has to offer.

When creating a butterfly garden, you should start with researching which kinds of butterflies are native to your area this way you can plant the types of shrubs and flowers they are attracted to. Next, make a list of all of the different kinds of butterflies you would like to have in your garden, and then learn which flowers and plants they both feed on and lay eggs on. Adult butterflies will visit for a longer period if they find plants to lay their eggs on. The list below will help guide you in selecting some plants butterflies are usually attracted to.

• Apple Trees
• Asters
• Blackberry Bush
• Black-eyed Susan
• Blanket Flower
• Blueberry Bush
• Buddleia (Butterfly Bush)
• Cherry Trees
• Chickweed
• Cosmos
• Dogwood
• Forget-me-nots
• Foxglove
• Goldenrod
• Grape Hyacinth
• Hackberry
• Ice Plant
• Joe Pie Weed
• Loosestrife
• Marigold
• Milkweed
• Phlox
• Privet
• Purple Coneflower
• Sassafras
• Sedum (Stonecrop)
• Shasta Daisy
• Snapdragon
• Spicebush
• Spirea
• Sunflowers
• Verbena
• Viburnum
• Violet
• Zinnia

Once you know which kinds of plants you want in your garden, you should learn about the them in order for your plants to thrive. What do they look like, sun or shade? How tall do they grow? What conditions do they thrive in, dry soil or moist? Perhaps print small pictures from the internet of each plant and their living conditions so that you can begin to plan your butterfly garden properly. In this way you can get a very good estimate of how much room you will need, where to place your garden on your property and how to maintain it correctly. The end result will bring such color, beauty and interest to your landscape!