Butterfly Gardening

Whether you prefer a Koi pond, a water garden with beautiful lilies, a wildlife habitat, a pondless waterfall, a paver patio, firepit or a complete outdoor living space, we will create your perfect getaway in your own backyard. We offer professional & personalized water garden & pond design, installation & pond maintenance services as well as other outdoor living services including landscape renovations and maintenance, paver patio installation, firepit installation, lake fountain & bio-island installation and more. Be sure to visit our services page to learn more!

About Backyard Getaway

Backyard Getaway is a family owned and operated pond and outdoor living service business. serving Sarasota, Bradenton, St. Petersburg and all of Tampa Bay. Please visit our WEBSITE, or call us at 941-752-POND (7663), or email us at info@backyardgetawayponds.com.. And, please LIKE us on FACEBOOK.

Butterfly garden fact sheet www xerces org plants species

About Backyard Getaway

Butterfly garden fact sheet www xerces org plants species

<p> 
 
 
 
Pollinators are 
a vital part of 
a healthy  
environment.  
 
Butterflies are 
a beautiful 
part of our 
gardens.  
 
Flowers that 
provide nectar 
and caterpillar 
hostplants 
can be grown 
in almost any 
garden, and 
will help but-
terflies. 
Like beautiful flowers, butterflies are gems when you find them flying, feeding, or 
basking in your backyard. They come in a range of sizes and colors and, depending 
upon the species, show up at different times of year—even in the winter. 
 
To create a landscape that is inviting for butterflies you should consider their life    
stories. They begin as eggs, hatch into caterpillars that eat plants, spend time as a 
chrysalis, and, eventually, transform into winged adults that flit around looking for 
food, mates, and places to lay new eggs. During each of these stages butterflies 
have very different needs. The more of these needs you can supply, the greater the 
chance that your backyard will become a home for butterflies. 
 
This fact sheet will help you provide the nectar flowers and caterpillar hostplants that 
these beautiful creatures need. It also contains suggestions on what else you can do 
to make the landscape around us—from small urban backyards to large natural     
areas—better for butterflies. 
 
For more information, visit our web site, www.xerces.org, where you will find other 
fact sheets and more detailed guidelines on how to enhance habitat for pollinators. 
You’ll also find information about the Pollinator Conservation Handbook and Butterfly 
Gardening. Creating Summer Magic in Your Garden. 
Western tiger swallowtail drinking nectar from milkweed. 
Photograph © Russell Wood 
Written by  
Mace Vaughan 
The Xerces Society 
for Invertebrate 
Conservation 
 
4828 SE Hawthorne 
Blvd.,  
Portland, OR 97215 
503-232 6639 
 
www.xerces.org  
INVERTEBRATE CONSERVATION FACT SHEET 
Butterfly Gardening 
 
 
Pupation sites. The transformation from caterpillar to adult, the phase called pupation, is done within the protection of a 
chrysalis. Before building a chrysalis, however, a caterpillar wanders in search of a safe site. Depending upon the      
species, this haven could be a bush, tall grass, or piles of leaves or sticks. If you leave these features in your yard, you 
will encourage butterflies to stay around and drink the nectar you provide. 
 
Overwintering sites. Depending upon the species, butterflies may overwinter (hibernate) as eggs, larvae, pupae, or 
even adults. You might find them on plants around the garden, under leaf litter, under loose bark, or in piles of logs and 
other debris. To help these hibernators, a little untidiness goes a long way. Two or three weeks before the severe cold of 
winter sets in, clean up only the leaves and garden debris that you must and pile up some logs or leaves around the 
edge of your yard. 
 
Do not use insecticides in your garden. Finally, don’t use pesticides in your garden. Alternative methods for control-
ling specific garden pests without using chemicals are available, but even these should be used with caution and keep-
ing in mind the various life stages of butterflies. 
 
The caterpillars of each species of butterfly has its own, limited menu of plants upon which it will dine. Female butterflies 
lay their eggs on or near these plants and will be attracted to your backyard if you supply their hostplants. To start with, 
grow hostplants for the more common butterflies you already see flying through your property and then branch out as 
you learn more. The list below includes native and non-native hostplants to consider planting in your garden. 
Adult butterflies need sugar to fuel their search for mates and egg-laying sites. The main source of sugar is nectar from 
flowers. However, some butterflies, such as the mourning cloak, also get sugars from rotten fruit or the sap leaking from 
wounded trees. By providing flowering plants or plates of rotting fruit (like peaches, melons, or bananas) many of these 
beautiful insects will be attracted to your yard. Here is a selection of plants to consider growing in your garden. 
Caterpillar Food: Hostplants 
Adult Food: Nectar, Fruit, and Sap 
Hiding Places for Pupae and Other Useful Things 
COPYRIGHT INFORMATION: We’re happy for you to copy this fact sheet or to use this text elsewhere, as our aim is to get the information spread far 
and wide! Please just credit The Xerces Society whenever the text is used in another format. The photograph, however, is copyrighted and may not be 
used in any way except in this fact sheet. If you are interested in photos of butterflies, please contact us. 
For more pollinator conservation information, go to www.xerces.org  
Aspen, poplar (Populus) 
Bleeding heart (Dicentra) 
Clover (Trifolium) 
Globemallow (Sphaeralcea) 
Grasses and sedges 
Lupines (Lupinus) 
Milk vetch (Astragalus) 
Milkweed (Asclepias) 
Oak (Quercus) 
Penstemon (Penstemon) 
many species 
Parnassians 
sulphurs, blues 
painted ladies, skippers 
skippers 
blues 
blues, hairstreaks 
monarch 
hairstreaks, duskywings 
checkerspots, buckeye 
Rose (Rosa) 
Sagebrush (Artemisia) 
Snowberry (Symphocarpus) 
Spirea (Spirea) 
Thistle (Cirsium) 
Violets (Viola) 
Vetch (Vicia) 
Wild lilac (Ceanothus) 
Willow (Salix) 
Yellowrocket (Barbarea) 
mourning cloak 
swallowtails, painted lady 
checkerspots 
many species 
painted ladies, crescents 
fritillaries 
sulphurs, blues 
hairstreaks, duskywings 
many species 
orange tips, whites 
Aster (Aster) 
 
 
 
 
Milkweed (Asclepias) 
Bee balm (Monarda) 
 
 
 
Penstemon (Penstemon) 
Beggar-ticks (Bidens)  
 
 
Pincushion flower (Scabiosa) 
Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia)  
 
Purple coneflower (Echinacea) 
Daisies (Chrysanthemum) 
 
 
Sagebrush (Artemisia) 
Elderberry (Sambucus)  
 
 
Spirea (Spirea) 
Goldenrod (Solidago)  
 
 
Stonecrop (Sedum) 
Joe-pye weed (Eupatorium) 
 
 
Sunflowers (Helianthus) 
Lavender (Lavandula)  
 
 
Thistle (Cirsium) 
Blazing-star (Liatris) 
 
 
 
Yarrow (Achillea) 
Adult butterflies need to be warm in order to fly. Therefore, nectar flowers and larval host plants should be grown in an 
open, sunny area that is protected from the wind by large shrubs, a hedgerow, a fence, or some other windbreak. You 
also could provide butterflies with large, flat rocks placed in the sun. These rocks will soak up the sun’s heat and give the 
adult butterflies a place to warm themselves. 
</p>