Plant an Alabama Butterfly Garden ... also find tips for gardening, birding and landscaping in Alabama on Druid City Online ... including How to Plant an All Season Bird Garden

Plant an Alabama Butterfly Garden

picture of a zebra swallowtail enjoying a beautiful cluster of "Show Star" melampodium ... our Guide to a Better Backyard has great gardening, birding and landscaping tips for Alabama and the Appalachian mountains
A zebra swallowtail enjoys this beautiful cluster of "Show Star" melampodium

If you want to attract butterflies to your garden, you'll need flowers with lots of nectar. Any fragrant, nectar rich plant will lure butterflies. Nectar producing plants which provide the adult food are easy to grow and readily available. As long as you have an area that receives at least six hours of sun, you will lure an assortment of butterflies.

But if you want to encourage butterflies to stay in your yard, they'll need a place to raise a family. Since most butterfly larvae can only digest a specific type of plant foliage, the female butterfly only lays her eggs on particular kind of plants. This plant is known as the host plant. Many host plants may already be in your yard or surrounding areas. Others are easily planted.

Here is a list of caterpillar host plants and nectar flowers that will lure Alabama's rich population of butterflies.

Swallowtails

Zebra Swallowtail
Host Plant: Paw Paw
Adult Food: Blueberry, blackberry, butterfly weed, butterfly bush, lilac, red bud, verbena

Zebra Longtail
Host Plant: Passionflower
Adult Food: Blueberry, blackberry, butterfly weed, butterfly bush, lilac, red bud, verbena

Black Swallowtail
Host Plant: Parsley, Queen Anne’s Lace, carrot, celery, dill, fennel
Adult Food: Red clover, butterfly weed, thistle

Giant Swallowtail
Host Plant: Trees and shrubs of the citrus family, hop tree, prickly ash
Adult Food: Lantana, azalea, bougainvillea, goldenrod, butterfly bush, dianthus

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
Host Plant: Wild cherry, sweet bay, tulip tree, birch, ash, cottonwood, willow
Adult Food: Wild cherry, butterfly bush, lilac, phlox, dianthus

Brush-footed Butterflies

Great Spangled Fritillary
Host Plant: Any of the violet species
Adult Food: Butterfly weed, black-eyed susan, thistle, verbena, vetch, joe-pye weed, passionflower vine, purple coneflower

Painted Lady
Host Plant: Thistle, hollyhock, mallow, daisy
Adult Food: Aster, cosmos, blazing stars, coreopsis, joe-pye weed, red clover, butterfly bush, zinnia, privet, butterfly weed

Viceroy
Host Plant: Willows, poplars, cottonwoods, apple
Adult Food: Aster, goldenrod, joe-pye weed, thistle, butterfly weed

Red Admiral
Host Plant: Nettle
Adult Food: Prefers tree sap and fermenting fruit, but will also nectar at daisy, aster, goldenrod, butterfly bush, red clover, gaillardia

Monarch
Host Plant: Butterfly weed and other milkweeds
Adult Food: Nectar from all milkweeds, lilac, clover, lantana, thistle, goldenrods, blazing stars, coreopsis, butterfly bush, mints

Whites and Sulphurs

Cabbage White
Host Plant: cabbage, broccoli
Adult Food: Mustards, clover, asters, mints

Clouded Sulphur
Host Plant: Alfalfa, clover
Adult Food: Flower nectar of many plants including butterfly bush, cosmos and gallardia

Gossamer-wing Butterflies

Red-banded Hairstreak
Host Plant: Wax myrtle, sumac, oak
Adult Food: Yarrow, coreopsis, butterfly weed

Summer Azure
Host Plant: Dogwood
Adult Food: Most nectar producing flowers

Skippers

Common Checkered Skipper
Host Plant: Globe mallows, mallow, hollyhock
Adult Food: Aster, red clover, dianthus

Horace’s Duskywing
Host Plant: Red oak, willow oak, water oak, white oak
Adult Food: Goldenrod, peppermint

These nectar rich flowers are especially attractive to butterflies ...

• Abelia
• Althea
• Aster
• Azalea
• Bee Balm
• Bougainvillea
• Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia)
• Blazing Star Liatris
•Butterfly Bush •Butterfly Weed (Milkweed)
• Coreopsis

• Cornflower
• Cosmos
• Daylily
• Four O’clock
• Heliotrope
• Holyhock
• Impatiens
• Lantana
• Mealy Blue Sage
• Mexican Bush Sage
• Mexican Sunflower (Tithonia)
• Nastrutium

• Nicotiana (Flowering Tobacco)
• Passionflower
• Pentas
• Petunia
• Purple Coneflower (Echinacea)
• Salvia
• Scabiosa
• Scarlet Sage
• Sedum
• Verbena

Other Tips for Growing a Great Butterfly Garden:

• Avoid using insecticides or pesticides. Limit weeding and cutting back plants. You might accidentally deprive caterpillars of food, possibly remove cocoons, and destroy newly laid eggs.

• Host plants are food plants and will be devoured so don't use them as the focal point of your garden. Parsley, dill, chives and butterfly weed are very popular host plants. Plant them 3 or more times during the summer to maintain a constant food supply.

• Put out fruit for the butterflies. Overripe fruit is a major attractant. There are also butterfly feeders available both for fruit and nectar.

• Butterflies love to drink from puddles. You can make a permanent puddle by sinking a container in the ground and filling it with sand. Keep it wet and butterflies will flock to the moisture, especially males who draw nutrients from the sand.

• Include butterfly basking stones in the garden. Black stones in particular will absorb and retain the sun’s heat and create a striking visual effect.

If you want more information about attracting butterflies to your garden, contact Canebrake Gardens at (205) 366-8600, and set up an appointment with Traci. You can also call your local Alabama Cooperative Extension office. The Tuscaloosa County office number is (205) 349-4630.