Create a paradise for butterfly and you will benefit from colour twice over. A garden full of eye and butterfly catching, fragrant flowers from spring to autumn can be achieved by selecting some of the following plants.

Butterfly feed on nectar and need this energy giving resource. They also need water from moist soil to which you could add a sprinkling of salt or grow a plant that catches water between its leave like Teasel. Their eggs need food so plant some Cow Parsley, Nettles and Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa).

Butterfly Attracting Flowers

• Lily of the valley – convallaria
• Rock Cress – Arabis
• Sweet Violets – viola odorata
• Shasta daisy and Coreopsis in summer
• Buddleia the butterfly bush in white pink or lilac or even Lilac it’s self
• Dahlia, Cosmos and marigold for their long flowering season
• Petunia, Verbena and fibrous Begonia
• Delphinium, Aster and Day Lily

Tips to increase the Butterfly population

• Do not use insecticides
• Get a large variety of plants to attract a variety of butterflies
• Plant groups of the same flowers so they are easy to see not individual plants
• Butterflies like water so put out a full saucer or have small ponds
• Allow weeds like nettle for food for Red Admirals
• Leave out over ripe food as butterflies love them
• Learn to recognise caterpillars and leave them undisturbed

UK Garden Butterflies
Common Brimstone – Gonepteryx rhamni rhamni
Comma
Holly Blue
Orange Tip – Anthocharis cardamines britannica
Painted Lady
Peacock
Red Admiral
Small Copper
Small Tortoiseshell
Speckled Wood
Large white = cabbage white Pieris Brassicae & small white
Large Skipper – Ochlodes sylvanus
Green Hairstreak – Callophrys rubi
Common Blue – Polyommatus icarus icarus
Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary – Boloria [Clossiana] selene

There are a total of 59 species of butterfly which breed in Britain plus several extinct species and a few migrants.

Related Links

Get Butterflies in your garden
Create a Butterfly Garden