Butterflies!

Every gardener I know loves to have butterflies visit their gardens. These lovely pollinators are just fun to have around. I love to watch them as they flitter and float above the yard, looking for tasty treats. They don’t seem to have a method to their flights of fancy, but I am certain that the way Mother Nature works, there must be a reason for the zig-zag flight patterns.

It’s not too soon to be thinking about luring butterflies to your garden as it’s almost time to hit the nurseries for our spring plantings. There are a couple of tried-and-true things to look for, and this includes the daisy-like blooms that offer a sort of landing pad for the butterflies. Besides the daisy family, other perennials like cone flowers, clematis, yarrow, and calendula all are butterfly magnets.  Coreopsis, monarda (bee balm), and penstemon have also been found on butterfly-attracting lists.

There are lots of shrubs that the butterflies like, too. And of course the butterfly bush (buddleja) is right up there on the top. But this is also on Oregon’s list of invasive plants, so if you don’t already have one, please don’t go and put one in. They are especially harmful along waterways where they seem to thrive and choke out all the natives. If you do have one, please deadhead the flowers before they go to seed. I took mine out several years ago, and as much as I hated taking down such a lovely bush, we live close enough to a watershed that I didn’t want to take more chances of it being my fault the streams were clogged. Besides, there are lots of other shrubs that are just as pretty and the butterflies like as much if not more.

One example is Ceanothus, or California lilac. The bees like this one, too, so I wouldn’t put one too close to the house or patio, but they are very pretty in the spring and can draw hundreds of pollinators. Escallonia and Hebe are two more shrubs that draw butterflies, as do lavenders, elderberries and currants. Or you can try lilac, Cistus (rockrose), and honeysuckle.

Salvias (sages) come in all sorts of colors now, and they are very popular butterfly food sources. Some are annuals, like Salvia coccinea (scarlet sage), and can be grown easily from seed. Salvia elegans (pineapple sage) can be hardy – if protected - in some coastal gardens since it is okay in zones 8 to 11.  Be careful, though, as the Salvia splendens has been hybridized so much that it is grown more for unique colors than the nectar. It will look lovely in your garden, but the butterflies may give it a pass.

Foxglove, lupines, bleeding hearts and wisteria will all attract butterfly larvae. Ceanothus will attract larvae along with adults, as will many viburnum and spirea.

Of course, it is all well and good to try to attract adult butterflies with the plants mentioned above. But if you want to have masses of the winged beauties, you should also grow some plants that are hosts to butterfly larvae, aka caterpillars. And this can be a little tricky as some caterpillars are voracious eaters that can wipe out a veggie patch in short order. It’s also tricky to know which caterpillars will turn into moths and which will turn into butterflies. Both are great pollinators, but the moths will pollinate at night and not all plants are receptive to night pollination.

One sure trick for luring in the beautiful orange-and-black Monarch butterflies is to plant a grouping of milkweed. The female Monarchs lay their eggs on the underside of the milkweed leaves. When the caterpillar emerges, it first eats its own egg and then turns to eating the leaves of the milkweed. But it's not called milkweed for nothing and can become invasive in the home garden. Planting a milkweed meadow where it can do its own thing is preferred. Some states have even classified milkweed as invasive plants and try to eradicate them, especially in urban settings.

When I was helping a Girl Scout troop plant a butterfly garden many years ago in Pennsylvania, I had three scouts come to me and proudly declare they had killed all the caterpillars they found on the new plants. So I went and found a great little book called “Butterflies and Moths” published by Golden Guides. It is pocket-sized and has color drawings of not only butterflies and moths, but their caterpillars and food sources as well. Too bad we hadn’t done a lesson on caterpillars before we put in the garden!

I also learned a hard lesson not to put a butterfly garden next to my bird-feeding area. The birds consider butterflies to be dessert to the sunflower seed meals. I had rescued a particularly lovely butterfly from my potting shed only to have a robin swoop in and snatch it away.

Butterflies will also appreciate a shallow dish with water and soil to make a mud pile on the ground near the plants. The hard part for me is to remember to add water so the mud doesn’t dry out into a cake.

The nice thing about planting a butterfly garden is that the same beautiful, colorful plants will often attract hummingbirds and bees. It’s a win-win-win situation.