Secret to Attracting Butterlies

[Rose White]

Do you think the same kinds of flowers that attract bees and hummingbirds would be the same ones to attract butterflies?

You could easily attract butterflies and hummingbirds to your garden with the same plants. (I listed a few below.) The down side is that these sweet plants will attract bees, though.

Some of the colorful plants which attract butterflies include butterfly weed, coleus, butterfly blue pincushion, yarrow, sage, aster, coneflower, iris, coreopsis, phlox, goldenrod, heliotrope, alyssum and zinnia. Also fennel, Mona lavender, black and blue salvia guarantica and fan flower. Butterflies also like butterfly bushes, sunflowers, potentilla bushes and bluebird shrubs. They also like vines which include Persian carpet zinnia, petunia, coleus, Spanish flag and vinca.

To attract hummingbirds to your garden, plant honeysuckle, trumpet vine, columbine, butterfly weed, bee balm, hollyhock, hibiscus, clematis, impatiens, phlox, fuchsias, spotted jewelweed, cardinal flower, Turk’s Cap Lily, Wild Bergamot, lupine, phlox and penstemon. They even hover over my red artificial flowers in the woods!

Hummingbirds are also attracted to pentas butterfly red and they can’t resist salvias. They cannot smell and depend on their eyesight to seek out flowers and food sources, especially those with red cone shapes. Inexpensive hummingbird feeders are readily available and will attract the busy little birds so that you can easily enjoy watching them hover and sip the sugar water.
Hummers must feed every 10 to 15 minutes throughout the day, consuming up to 2/3 their body weight in food.

Rose White, author of Easy Gardens Volume 13 -
Bird Sanctuary Plus Butterfly and Hummingbird Gardens