Plants That Attract Butterflies
Attracting butterflies and watching the float throw the air and flutter from flower to flower Is enough to lift your spirits, and give you the feeling of great accomplishment for the garden you have grown.
A butterfly garden can be grown on a patio, but will also attract wild birds, if done in the yard with the needs of butterflies and birds you will be attracting butterflies that are common in your area. Butterflies are attracted to bright colors, pinks, yellows, orange, red, etc.
Because of the gardeners love for flowers, plants and love of attracting butterflies and birds, this has helped the three stages of butterfly transformations take place. The egg, caterpillar, crysallis to become a butterfly. It takes about six weeks , the female lays eggs on a host plant which is then eaten by the young caterpillars when they hatch. The caterpillar then attaches it self to the stem of the plant as a crysallis and becomes a butterfly.
See your local field guide to find what butterflies are in your area and what plants they like to have as a host plant. This is important if you want to be attracting butterflies to lay eggs in your garden, So there will be more of them in weeks to come.
Landscaping an planning a garden for attracting butterflies is not hard, butterflies like wild birds like edges and layers in their habitat. Low flowers at the edge of the lawn and high flowers at the edge of trees. Sun is very important to butterflies to warm their bodies temperature. Butterflies will rest on flat stones or bare ground to sun themselves to raise their body temperature high enough to fly, be sure you place flat stones in your garden you are planting for attracting butterflies.
Butterflies will appreciate wind breaks as they try to avoid high winds, if your garden offers no shelter,tall plants, shrubs, trellised vine you will not be attracting butterflies to your garden nor will they stay there.
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Native wildflowers are a great draw, they provide special nectar and larval food source for butterflies. Ripe fruit is great for attracting butterflies as it is in attracting wild birds.
Butterflies often puddle, gather at muddy places in the garden, to get soil salts and minerals along with moisture. Youcan create a place for them to gather with a shallow container filled with builders sand and fine gravel and a little compost.
A bird bath with flat stones provide a safe drinking spot, the stones should be up out of the water allowing butterflies to rest, and drink without getting wet.
Attracting butterflies to your garden and yard along with wild birds through planting of plants and flowers and providing for their needs, will bring great pleasure and happiness to your home.
