Imagine a glorious flower garden where the colors not only wave in the breeze but lift up into the air and float off with the wind. This effect can be achieved even on a still day by choosing flowers that offer nectar in exchange for pollination services. Many people who will spray poison on any animal with more than four legs will welcome a butterfly to their yard. I hope once they learn that caterpillars become butterflies that these people will hold back on the poisons and even encourage the juvenile stages. As ambassadors, butterflies may be able to create tolerance for other species and decrease the overdose of chemicals applied to residential yards. Butterflies are attracted to the same plants as we are - colorful and fragrant.

      You can't grow a rainforest but you can develop a great butterfly habitat in your own backyard and at the same time enhance the local population. Many species are in danger due to lost habitat rather than overzealous collectors. You can replace habitat lost by development and modern agriculture (lots of pesticides, no fencerows) by growing native plants formerly in the area. Your garden can provide viewing pleasure, just like a bird feeder, and you can choose plants for birds too. Many butterfly plants are good for hummingbirds and finches feed later in the year on seedheads. Moths will visit fragrant white tubular flowers at night. Instead of collecting, you may want to keep a list of the butterflies who visit your yard. Your garden will also provide many challenging photographic opportunities. Initially, you may have low diversity if lots of pesticides have been used or few larval plants exist in the area.

Site Requirements

Sunlight - at least six hours per day - southern exposure coldblooded organisms need sun to warm flight muscles butterflies exist in all habitats but a sumnny meadow will provide the most viewing opportunities

Easy access from air - not a corridor - away from the tree line

Use no pesticides - or only as a last resort if you "need" to grow a fragile exotic. Native plants resist pests and are familiar to butterflies.

Nutrient Needs

Soil type depends on plants but good soil preparation is always a plus when using perennials - native plants are able to adjust to local soil and moisture conditions with low maintenance needs

Shallow water source or mud puddle - males especially congregate in "puddle clubs" to access salts - lay down thick plastic with gravel under soil or sand

Variety of plants, annuals, shrubs, perennials, especially natives

Species types with simple flowers often have more nectar and fragrance.

Best blooms are fragrant and colorful - especially purple, orange, yellow or red - white fragrant flowers that bloom at night are usually moth pollinated

Design/select for full season bloom with lots of massed color.

Stale beer and over-ripe fruit smeared on trees will attract and feed moths. By 10 AM my fermenting windfall pears were covered with drunken morning cloaks and fritillaries each fall.

Food plants for the caterpillars - different species will appear throughout the season timing emergence to the availability of host plants. Many species have multiple broods if weather and food plant vailability permit. We may only see the last brood if a species overwintered in the south and comes north wil successive broods.

"Weeds" are often the host plants so a butterfly garden is a great excuse for lazy gardeners!

Shelter Needs

Sun-warmed stones or boards for basking and body warming - butterflies are most active when the air temperature is above 75 degrees.

Weeds or brush for overwintering and breeding sites - butterfly houses are "Yuppie woodpiles" or an expensive house for wasps.

Species may overwinter in any developmental stage.

Wind protection - hedge, fence, bulding - many plants are tall and lanky and would need staking in wind when they are isolated from their native tall grass prairie community.