50 Tips to Take Your
Butterfly Garden to the Next Level

Ideas submitted by members of the
International Butterfly Breeders Association, Inc..

1. When pruning, leave several dead stalks 3 to 6 feet high for dragonflies to perch on.

2. Add solar lights so that at night your garden will take on a new dimension; moths and night-flying insects can be spectacular.

3. Add a sandy moist area with a little fertilizer in it or manure in it for butterflies to puddle.

4. Plant a good variety of larval food plants in your garden.

5. Make your garden in the shape of a butterfly.

6. Even a small garden can grow larval food ‘trees’ if they are continually trimmed into a hedge.

7. Keep your garden in bloom all growing season by carefully choosing plants which bloom at different times of the year.

8. Grow non-aggressive weed host plants in an area of your garden that is not visible from the front of your garden.

9. Provide a sitting area next to a host plant so you can watch caterpillars eat.

10. Add fruit to attract and feed butterflies such as American Lady, Hackberry, Tawny Emperor, Question Mark, and Red Admirals.

11. Stay Indigenous.

12. Heavily scented White flowers to encourage night time nectar seekers.

13. Trumpet shaped flowers to encourage swallowtails.

14. Flowers with smaller blooms to encourage the smaller often overlooked butterflies.

15. Add a water feature.

16. Light colored stepping stones for basking.

17. A shady area for butterflies to rest in the hottest part of the day.

18. A curved pathway.

19. Compost weeds and clippings from your garden.

20. Add compost to your soil regularly.

21. Nestle into the lee of a hill where prevailing winds are heavy to avoid stress while butterflies "hang on".

22. Provide a shady area with a bench or chair and a small table for human comfort.

23. Country gardens; use an old ladder, old chair, headboard, or other such item for a trellis.

24. Wrap fishing line in a spiral around a post and plant a vine at the base. The fishing line is almost invisible yet gives support for a climbing vine.

25. Plant thorny plants in the rear of the garden where children and pets will be less likely to suffer injury.

26. Select the sunniest location available.

27. Include windbreaks in the design, such as fences, dense shrub plantings, buildings.

28. Know your zone and select nectar flowers that will thrive in your location.

29. Many of our most beautiful flowers provide no nectar for butterflies, so take care that your plant selections are either good nectar sources or ones that you simply love too much to leave out.

30. Select larval host plants used by local butterfly species. Many suggested planting lists include host plants from different regions and planting zones that are not appropriate for a specific location.

31. Control predatory paper wasps and yellow jackets.

32. Include decorative butterfly houses to attract garden faeries. (While butterflies don't use the houses, it is well documented that faeries do and that butterflies are attracted by faeries.)

33. Include a rock wall and a log stack to provide overwintering sites.

34. Leave as much area as possible undisturbed to accumulate leaf litter. Compromise by edging and mulching only the very front of a bed.

35. Weediness encourages butterflies and is a lot easier on arthritic hands than manicured beds.

36. Seriously add host plants for smaller butterflies such as skippers and azures.

37. Select one Saturday or Sunday per month (or season) and invite the neighborhood over. Note: Kids must be accompanied by an adult will probably be a good idea, and set a specific start and stop time, so you can "close the gate" and declare quitting time IF you need to.

38. Do some research and try to attract another species of butterfly into your garden this year.

39. Share your garden. By that I mean, with your neighbors or their kids. Plan a garden tour through your yard showcase what you do.

40. Keep a journal of your garden - visiting butterflies, what they lingered on, how many days they visited, what you observed.

41. Take photos.

42. Start a life list of the butterflies in your garden.

Put the same host plant in multiple locations in your yard to help increase the survival rate of eggs and caterpillars from predators.

Target a specific species, for instance you notice mistletoe growing up in the trees in your area, this is the host plant for the Great Purple Hairstreak, to get them to come to nectar in your yard in zone (9a-9b) for the spring bloom plant a plum tree (either Chickasaw P. Angustifolia or Flatwoods-Hogplum P. Umbellata ) but remember they take awhile to settle in before blooming, for quicker results plant Sweet Almond (Aloysia Virgata)- for the summer bloom, Snow Square stem (Melanthra Nivea) (this plant will naturally seed the surrounding area so keep that in mind when selecting your location) however you will be rewarded with a long blooming excellent nectar source for our pollinaters, if no children around and you have a moist area plant Water Hemlock (highly poisonous) this will also double as one of the native host plants for the Eastern Black Swallowtail, for the fall bloom plant Groundsel Tree (Baccharis Halimifolia) or in moist areas Redroot (Lachnanthes Caroliniana)

Review last years observations and results to make a new plant list for the year, something you have not tried before or want to learn more about, remember learning NEVER ends. Example all of us plant milkweed (usually A. Tuberosa or A. Curassivica) just so we can watch those cats eat all the leaves, now you usually either cut them back and root the cuttings and or buy a new plant, how about also growing (Zone 9a-9b) Crown Flower (Calotropis Gigantea) which has a much greater leaf mass as an alternate host plant for Monarchs.

Work on combos, for instance (zone 9A-9B) plant purple porterweed (Stachytarpheta Jamaicensis) for you nectar plant and Blue Pea Vine (Clitoria Ternea) one of the host plants for the long tailed skipper (Urbanus Proteus) You then can observe and show your kids the unique egg stacking habit and the caterpillars under their leaf "sleeping bag".

Suggested nectar plants For your Sachem-Whirlabout-Fiery-Ocola-Clouded-Delaware-Tropical Checkered skippers, Cassius Blue, and Horaces Duskywing let your spanish needles (Bidens ssp)(host plant for the Dainty Sulphur) grown, plant both trailing (purple-yellow-white) and bush type Lantanas and use Frog Fruit-Carpetweed (Phyla Nodiflora) (host plant for the Phaon Crescent) for your ground cover.

Brazilian skippers (Calpodes Athlius) really like red shrimp plant (Pachystachys Coccinia) (Zone 9a-9b) for nectaring and will double as a hummingbird nectar source. If you have a 10 x10 or larger space plant a bunch of these together to create one large bush, you will also attract Palamedes and Spicebush Swallowtails, and many other pollinaters

For your early bloom (end February beginning March) (Zone 9a-9b) plant large flowering azaleas (pinks and reds), so you can attract some of our early sping btflys Tiger and Palamedes swallowtails, photographing these two btflys searching deep down the throats of the azalea bloom can create a memorable image.

Plant some plants up against a window - or arrange a glass "see through" panel in your garden for this purpose. A good suggestion for schools too! It is wonderful for observation, especially when one is sitting at the table in front of it - wasps doing their rounds, another caterpillar eating the flowers of the swan plant and latex left all over the window as it does so.

Suggestions for ‘think twice’ ideas:

1. Birdhouses may attract birds that eat butterfly larvae.

2. ‘Butterfly houses’ are also known as ‘spider or wasp houses’.

3. Dragonflies eat butterflies.

4. Ladybugs have been known to eat eggs and small larvae of butterflies.

~ >From many of us, not any one of us

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