Planting for Butterflies and Hummingbirds

These lovely and charming visitors are as useful in our gardens as they are beautiful. They are airy and soft, quick and gentle, and everybody loves them. With the right plants in your yard you can encourage them to stay for a while. Let’s look at what it takes…

Butterflies in the larval (caterpillar) stage need food plants and adult butterflies need nectar-producing plants. Butterflies enjoy sunny areas that are sheltered from winds, preferably with some water nearby.

Hummingbirds consume about half their weight in food each day. The flowering plants you will provide them a supply of nectar and insects for protein. They prefer a mix of shade and sun and a blooming period throughout the season. Because hummingbirds may be quite territorial, plant several of each plant in different locations if you can.

How to Plant a Butterfly Garden

Try to plant the tallest plants in the background and the shortest in the front, it will act as a shelter for one and two will let you have a better chance to view and enjoy them.

Pesticides could be deadly for these gentle creatures, please do not use them. If you attract nature to you, nature will work for you! Butterfly and hummingbird gardens will not only attract these creatures, but others who will feed on unwelcome insects in your garden, which is a wonderful thing to have. A supply of water nearby will be needed if you have no source available. A birdbath, small pond or even a pool will do just fine.

Lure nature’s loveliest pollinators to the garden with nectar and host food sources, and masses of brightly colored flowers.

Here’s How

• Select a sunny garden space that is not too windy.
• Select host and nectar plants specifically for butterflies in your area (a local garden center can help with your choices).
• Select plenty of food sources for caterpillars.
• Select several flower types that open flat like daisies for “perching.”
• Plant flowers of bright colors in large masses.
• Provide a water source, preferably with flat rocks for sunning.

Tips

• Don’t freak out when caterpillars devour foliage. That’s the whole idea!
• NEVER spray insecticides in a butterfly garden.
• Container gardens can also attract butterflies and hummingbirds successfully.

Making a butterfly garden involves growing leafy plants for caterpillars and planting fluffy blooms like leatrice, lavender and Black-Eyed-Susan. Create a butterfly-friendly garden with tips from a professional gardener in this free video on gardening.

Attracting Butterflies and Hummingbirds to Your Backyard: Watch Your Garden Come Alive With Beauty on the Wing

Roll out the welcome mat for butterfles and hummingbirds. Attracting Butterfles and Hummingbirds to Your Backyard reveals the secrets for creating irresistible gardens and a welcoming landscape, which will lure these amazing creatures up close and personal for your enjoyment and wonder. Author Sally Roth knows the best plants, feeders, and water features that appeal to butterflies and hummingbirds, plus she offers an entertaining and insightful guide to butterfly and hummingbird behavior.

A sample butterfly border garden has a large variety of host plants

Here are the favorites plants for butterflies

Food for Larvaes (caterpillars stage)

Plants

• Hollyhock
• Snapdragon
• Aster
• Diascia
• Bleeding Heart
• Foxglove
• Fennel
• Sunflower
• Lupine
• Nasturtium

Butterfly Perennials

Vines like

• Passion Vine
• Strawberry
• Wisteria

Gardens for Birds, Hummingbirds and Butterflies

The spectacular color and motion of hummingbirds, songbirds, and butterflies adds a breathtaking dimension to any garden. This book will show readers how to design and maintain a landscape that will attract these “moving flowers” to the yard. Unlike similar books, which are mostly just catalogs of bird and butterfly species, this new entry to the Black & Decker Outdoor Home series focuses on designing, planting, and caring for a landscape that will attract and sustain birds and butterflies. Also unique are the more than two dozen building projects, such as a post-mounted birdhouse, that will stimulate retail sales of lumber and other building materials.

Shrubs

• Wild Lilac
• Senna
• Hibiscus
• Ocean Spray
• Tree Mallow
• Mallow
• Coffeeberry
• Currants / Gooseberry
• Rose
• Spiraea
• Viburnum

Trees

• Horsechestnut
• Birch
• Cornus
• Dogwood
• Crabapple
• Pine
• Plane Tree
• Poplar
• Prunus
• Douglas Fir
• Oak
• Willow

Food for Adult Butterflies

Plants

• Jupiter’s Beard
• Achillea
• Lily-of-the-Nile
• Snapdragon
• Columbine
• Butterfly Weed
• Aster
• Astilbe
• Borage
• Shasta Daisy
• Cereopsis
• Cosmos
• Delphinium
• Dianthus
• Purple Coneflower
• Sea Holly
• Wallflower
• Sweet Pea
• Lobelia
• Monarda
• Oregano
• Phlox
• Sage
• Pincushion Flower
• Goldenrod
• Marigold
• Verbena

Shrubs

• Abelia
• Buddleia
• Wild Lilac
• Hebe
• Lavender
• Honeysuckle
• Potentilla
• Coffeeberry
• Rhododendron
• Rhus Trilobata
• Currants / Gooseberry
• Rosemary
• Elderberry
• Spiraea
• Lilac

Trees

• Acer
• Horsechestnut
• Apple
• Willow

Here are the favorites plants for Hummingbirds

Plants

• Hollyhock
• Columbine
• Butterfly Weed
• Spider Flower
• Montbretia
• Delphinium
• Foxglove
• Gladiolus
• Coral Bells
• Iris
• Cardinal Flower
• Lupine
• Monkey Flower
• Monarda
• Geranium
• Sage
• Veronica
• California Fuchsia
• Zinnia

Vines and like

• Bean, scarlet runner
• Trumpet Vine
• Clematis ligusticifolia
• Cardinal Climber

Shrubs

• Flowering Maple
• Acacia
• Strawberry Tree
• Buddleia
• Calliandra
• Wild Lilac
• Westurn Redbud
• Cestrum
• Flowering Quince
• Fuchsia
• Toyon
• Hibiscus
• Justicia
• Beauty Bush
• Lavender
• Honeysuckle
• Ribes sanguineum & speciosum
• Elderberry
• Lilac
• Weigela

Trees

• Horsechestnut
• Silk Tree
• Coral Tree
• Eucalyptus

Hummingbird Inventory

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