I’m hanging a new Butterfly House today!  Over the years, my backyard has become a haven for butterflies and hummingbirds and I love it.  The old butterfly house was made of wood and I couldn’t see inside so I’m really excited about the new one which is made of cedar wood (which ages well) and glass giving me a view I’ve never had until this year.  So exciting!

Do butterflies really use butterfly houses?  Well, the answer is yes… and no.  Some species of butterflies will use a butterfly house and some some won’t.  Most of the woodland species, such as Cloaks and common Wood Nymphs will because they spend winters in the protective cover of wood piles and tree cavities.  A butterfly house is perfect for these butterflies!  However, those butterflies that migrate south won’t stay to enjoy the free rent no matter how nice the digs.  In either case, a butterfly house make a wonderful addition to your garden decor, a great home for your woodland butterflies, and they also make great conversation pieces!

Many gardeners who want to attract butterflies may not know what to do with their butterfly houses.  Where to place them and what to put in them.  How to make your butterfly house a home for the flying flowers.  Here, we will talk about butterflies and how to use a butterfly house to attract butterflies and how to set one up.

Once you have a butterfly house you may be wondering what to do with it and what to put in it.  I use a hanging butterfly house and use a short shepherds hook to place it just where I think it’s going to be the most visible but also keeping it well within the habitat.  This is a good reason to use the hanging butterfly house on the shepherds hook method so that you have the ability to be able to move it as your plants grow and reserve your view.  Place your hanging butterfly house or a pole mounted butterfly house in your butterfly habitat surrounded by all the things that butterflies love.  A complete butterfly habitat needs two types of plants.  “Host Plants” that caterpillars feed on, and “Nectar Plants” for the food source for adult butterflies.

Host Plants: Clover, Dill, Fennel, Hollyhock, Rue, Spicebush, Kale, Milkweed, Nettle, Parsley, Passionflower, Willow, Asters, Bee Balm, and Black-eyed Susan.

Nectar Plants: Butterfly bush, Butterfly weed, Cosmos, Goldenrod, Lantana, Lavender, Marigolds, Mexican sunflower, Pentas, Phlox, Purple Coneflowers, Salvia, Zinnias.

Be sure to place a piece of tree bark or some long twigs inside for the butterflies to use as a roost.

If you love butterflies, please visit the butterfly shop inside of my garden store.  There you will find more information on butterfly habitats, a video on the best plants to use for attracting butterflies, the butterfly house for sale that I’ve talked about today, a butterfly feeder, and lots of garden decor featuring butterflies for yourself or gifts for your favorite gardener.

If you like this information, so will all the other butterfly lovers you know.  I’d be pleased and honored to have you Tweet this article, bookmark it, or just forward my article to a friend you know who likes butterflies too.

Happy Butterfly Gardening!

P.S.  If you are like me, you’ll want to have the hummingbirds showing up too.  you can find lots of info both on this blog and online by visiting me at my garden store’s hummingbird Shop.

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1. 8 Spring Home Gardening Tips for Beginners
2. Monarchs and Milkweed

You might not get to Mexico this winter, but if you plant some milkweed, you can help a Monarch Butterfly get there.

With their bright orange and black wings, monarchs are one of the most easily recognizable butterflies in the U.S. and Canada.  But where do they come from?  The monarch in your garden is like a long-haul trucker stopping for a meal.  This little creature travels hundreds or thousands of miles in its lifetime.  You can be part of this incredible journey by planting milkweed, the one plant absolutely essential to the monarch’s life-cycle.  See the video at the bottom of this post for more information.

Monarchs are well known for their long-distance migration.  Each fall, they fly thousands of miles on their delicate wings to ancestral roosting sites, where they spend the winter months semi-dormant in large colonies.  Western monarchs migrate to dozens of locations along the California coast, where they cluster in native trees and in the ubiquitous non-native eucalyptus.

East of the Rockies, monarchs make a more dramatic migration.  They fly from southern Canada and the northern United States all the way down to a handful of sites in the mountains of Mexico, where they roost in the millions.  It’s breathtaking to see so many monarchs in the trees that their collective weitht sometimes breaks branches, and to hear the sound of millions of butterfly wings when the monarchs take flight to sip from puddles.

One of the most fascinating aspects of this migration is that it takes place over several generations.  The last generation of the summer hatches at the northern limit of monarch range.  That generation delays sexual maturity and, triggered by the changing season, begins the 3,000 mile journey to Mexico, where it spends the winter.  In early March these butterflies reach sexual maturity and head north, mating as they go.  Some get as far as southern Texas, where the females lay eggs and die.  The next generation hatches and, after completing metamorphosis, heads north and east and repeats the process.

Over three or four more generations, monarchs repopulate the rest of the continent easy of the Rockies, until the last generation of the season begins the southern migration again.  A similar, thought shorter, migration happens west of the Rockies as Monarchs overwintering in California head north.

Understanding the Milkweed Connection

Butterfly gardens must provide food for both adults and caterpillars.  Monarch caterpillars feed exclusively on milkweed, a double-duty plant that also serves as a nectar source for adult butterflies.  Milkweed has a sap that contains alkaloids, which make the insects taste bad to birds and other predators.  The striking coloration of the monarch evolved as a warning that tells predators, “Don’t eat me; I taste bad.”

Start your monarch garden by planting milkweed species such as swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata, butterfly weed (A. asperula), and common milkweed (A. syriaca).  If possible, choose a species that’s native to your region.  Plant native perennials to provide nectar from spring through fall.  Because monarchs migrate, late-season nectar is particularly important.  Good choices include coneflowers (Echinacea spp.), ironweed (Vernonia spp.), Joe Pye Weed (Eupatorium fistulosum), sedum (Sedum spp.), and verbena (Verbena spp.).  Commercial nectar is also available along with butterfly feeders specially made to provide a quick meal to migrating butterflies.

Add some dense shrubs where the butterflies can hide from hard rains and strong winds or a butterfly house Avoid insecticides, which can kill butterflies.  Then sit back and wait for these orange and black beauties to arrive.

Note: Avoiding Butterfly Bush

Butterfly bush (Baddleia spp.) has long been a staple for gardeners trying to attract butterflies, and there is no doubt that butterflies find the shrub irresistible.  An import from Asia, butterfly bush comes in many colors and grows in a variety of conditions.  Beware however, butterfly bush has become invasive in some parts of the country, notably the Pacific Northwest and Mid-Atlantic region.  Choose native perennials and flowering shrubs instead.

Click the link below for an interesting video from the New York Times.

Monarchs and Migration

No related posts.

There is nothing more relaxing than sitting in a chair or swing on your patio, deck, or porch and watching butterflies make a graceful trip around your yard.  Even in today’s hectic times, all “seems at peace and right with the world”, as a butterfly pauses to sip some nectar or relax on a warm rock.

Without a doubt, the number one thing you have to do if you want to attract butterflies is quit using chemical pesticides, fertilizers, and herbicides in your butterfly garden.

One thing people often forget is it’s important to provide “host plants”, not just nectar sources.  By providing host plants, you can watch the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into an adult butterfly.  Besides host plants, of course, you need nectar plants that bloom from the start of the season to late summer and fall.

Remember to provide butterflies a place to warm in the sun.  Provide a bath waterer or “mister” for them.  Put out slices of banana.  Fruit flies come to the banana and butterflies consume fruit flies which provides them with protein and minerals.  Put out a slice of watermelon or overly ripe fruit, and you’ll be amazed at all the butterflies that stop by for a light lunch of “fruit plate”!

At our shop, The Decorator’s Garden Supply, we offer products and provide further information to help you encourage butterflies to visit and stay with you. You will find advice for starting a butterfly garden, you’ll be able to browse butterfly houses, butterfly feeders, nectar, and garden decorative items featuring a butterfly motif.  You can shop for gifts for the butterfly lover, and watch a video on what host plants to provide if attracting butterflies is what you want in your garden.

To your success!

P.S. You’ll find more info and products to help in attracting butterflies here.

Related posts:

1. How to Make a Butterfly House a Home
2. How to Attract Hummingbirds to your yard.
3. Monarchs and Milkweed