What should I plant to make a Butterfly Garden?
Don Herbison-Evans (
donherbisonevans@yahoo.com )
&
Stella Crossley
(updated 30 March 2008)
There are 2 aspects to a butterfly garden:
1. attracting adult butterflies to feed, and
2. attracting adult butterflies to breed.
1. Attracting adults to feed
This requires mainly flowers with nectar.
You can cheat by placing little coloured plastic saucers around
the garden with dilute honey in them. Otherwise, good plants are:
Some species of butterfly also drink sap exuding from trees
and the juices of rotting fruit.
Try leaving cut fruit on a bird table in your garden.
2. Attracting adults to breed
This requires the presence of the food plants
of the caterpillars in your garden.
First you need to learn what species of butterfly
most commonly breed in your area.
These will be the species to accommodate in your garden.
Female butterflies are very fussy.
They will only lay their eggs on plants belonging to a few plant species
or in some cases plants from one scientific genus or family.
The caterpillars have digestive systems atuned to the
chemicals in only a few plant species,
and so the caterpillars can only thrive on these plants.
So look up books and webpages about the biology
of your local butterflies, and
learn what foodplants their caterpillars use.
These are the plants to grow in your garden.
Often older leaves of plants contain more toxins than young leaves,
so it is a good idea to prune regularly any bushes or trees that
you grow in order to encourage new growth.
Some specific plants for commonest butterflies in Australia are:
Further reading :
Butterflies and Other Invertebrates Club
various booklets.
Peter Valentine,
Gardening for Butterflies.
