Flowers for Butterflies

A garden is a space for all to share, including the local wildlife. So when you are thinking about what to plant in your garden, you should consider flowers for butterflies too. Butterfly gardening is a really rewarding thing to do, as you’ll not only enjoy lots of beautiful butterfly-friendly plants, you’ll also be treated to the fluttering magic that butterflies will bring to your garden.

Planting the right type of flowers for butterflies is really important, as butterflies don’t actually eat food as we do. They suck up nectar and this forms the basis of their diet.

Flowers for Butterflies

Butterfly Gardening Tips

There are a few golden rules which will help you attract butterflies to your garden.

Deadhead your plants regularly, so they will keep flowering for longer. The more flowers there are, the more likely butterflies are to visit your garden.

Choose your spot for flowers for butterflies carefully. Butterflies like warm, sunny spaces that aren’t too windy. So make sure you position your flowers that attract butterflies with a bit of thought.

You should also plan what you plant so that the butterflies have flowering plants all throughout the summer. If you also have a good range of plants for bees and butterflies, you’ll be more likely to attract different species of butterflies too. If you group lots of different butterfly-attracting plants together, it will be easier for butterflies to get the nectar that they need.

For those looking to spread wildflowers beyond the garden, plantable seed paper embedded with wildflower seeds offers an interesting approach. SeedPrint produces these in the UK using fully recycled paper embedded with wildflower seeds.

Be mindful about what pest control you use. Don’t use anything that will harm butterflies and other insects. Often you can plant complimentary flowers next to plants that pests love. It’s a much more natural way of dealing with a pest problem without introducing chemicals that can harm butterflies. If you must use something to control the pests, look for more natural options like garlic or chilli sprays. This article can give you some tips on how to make your own natural pest sprays.

Plants to Attract Butterflies

There are many plants to attract butterflies, so why not have a look through the suggestions below and see what ones you might consider adding to your garden space.

Buddleia

Buddleia is known as the butterfly bush, so I couldn’t make a list of flowers for butterflies without starting here. Buddleia (or Buddleja) are fast-growing and easy to care for. Once they are established in the ground, you can pretty much ignore them, apart from deadheading. They don’t need much watering and they are a firm favourite with the UK’s butterflies. If you plant a Buddleia this year, you’ll soon see the benefits to butterflies when the summer comes round.

Cornflowers

Cornflowers might be a bit of a marmite plant. I’m definitely a lover of these beautiful flowers. I think they look stunning and I know the butterflies are fans too. They are easy to grow, low maintenance and also flower for the whole of the summer – from about June onwards. Generally, you’ll see the iconic blue cornflowers growing in gardens in the UK, but other varieties flower with different colours, including pinks and reds. Cornflowers are a great one for little ones to grow. They will germinate and pop up quickly and will keep flowering for weeks.

Verbena

Verbena are a low-maintenance but extremely attractive plant. Some varieties can grow quite large but have long wiry stems so they won’t need staking. The butterflies love Verbena and they will continue to flower right through the summer, into September, so they are ideal for feeding butterflies. You don’t need to deadhead them until right towards the end of the summer. Verbena like full sun positions and will do better if you don’t overwater them. If it has rained a fair bit (over an inch in a week), you don’t need to worry about watering them.

Zinnia

Zinnias are fast-growing seeds. You’ll have flowers in around 10 weeks from sowing. Once your Zinnia gets to around about 18 inches tall, if you cut off the centre flower, it will ensure that the plant will grow longer stems. Zinnias are plants that will grow more flowers, once you cut them, so are ideal for butterfly friendly plants and those that you can pop in the vase. Even if you aren’t cutting your blooms, you must make sure you deadhead regularly.

Sedum

There are lots of different types of Sedum and so you can find a variety that suitable for your garden, whether that’s a rocky garden or one with neat borders to fill. Sedum are another plant which is low maintenance. You shouldn’t cut them back until you see the new growth at the base in the following Spring. Whatever your colour-scheme, you should be able to find a Sedum variety to match and the butterflies will be very pleased you introduced this into your garden.

Lavender

Lavender is one of my favourite things in the garden. I don’t know about you but it always makes me think of my childhood and summer. Our current house didn’t have any lavender in the garden and knowing how much we needed some plants for bees and butterflies, I decided to put some in, right in our front garden. Lavender prefer a nice sunny spot, it won’t do well anywhere where the soil doesn’t drain well. Once it’s established after its first summer, it will rarely need watering, unless it doesn’t rain for several weeks.

If you are trying to be a friend to the birds as well as the butterflies, you could choose not to deadhead your lavender, as the birds like to eat the seeds off lavender once the blooms have faded.

Aster

Looking for perennial plants for bees and butterflies? Then look no further than the Aster flower. This perennial will come back year after year and the butterflies love it. Asters are late bloomers, so are ideal flowers for butterflies right into late summer and early autumn. They are also really good at smothering weeds, so really are a win-win in the flower world.

They also don’t like to be overwatered, so find them a dry, sunny spot in your garden and you’ll be treated with late blooms and a summer full of butterflies.

Borage

Borage, also known as Starflowers will attract butterflies and bees to the garden in their droves. Siting Borage plants near strawberries, squash, cauliflower or tomatoes also improves their fruit yields and helps keep pests away. They are an attractive, although slightly strange-looking plant. They have hairy stems and a five-pointed flower. Borage can be used in cooking as the flowers are edible and they taste a bit sweet like honey. If you like you can also use the leaves to make yourself a cup of cucumber-tasting tea.

Echinacea

Another variety of perennial plants for bees and butterflies is Echinacea. They thrive in warm-conditions and don’t worry too much if there isn’t much rain. They are excellent plants to attract butterflies. From a garden perspective, they are very pretty to look at and will flower from mid-summer right through to autumn. There are so many different colours to choose from, you can find a variety that will suit your colour-scheme in no time.

So I hope this has helped you identify some plants to attract butterflies for your garden. Whatever your style of garden, you can include something for the wildlife – flowers for the butterflies, alongside having a beautiful garden all year long.

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