Butterfly Garden

What could be more charming and tranquil than a garden filled with butterflies, fluttering back and forth from one flower to the next in the lazy sun shine delicately lighting upon fragrant blossoms ? One Native American legend relates that if a person wants a wish to come true, they must capture a butterfly and whisper that wish to it. Since they make no sound, they can’t tell the wish to anyone but the Great Spirit. By making the wish and releasing the butterfly, it will be taken to the heavens and granted.

A butterfly's chief source of nourishment is the nectar which the bloom of flowers provide. To a butterfly's mind there is no such thing as too many flowers or too many blooms to dive into, so be sure to plant their favorites in sizable groupings. Let your garden offer nectar flowers throughout the run of the seasons so they can always find food.

As butterflies need to keep their bodies warm in order to fly, you want to place the flowers in beds or containers in a sunny location. Butterflies will actually bask in the sun to warm themselves in preparation for flight. You also want to see to it that your container garden is in an area protected from wind and you most assuredly want to refrain from using harmful chemical sprays. Some butterflies like water, so fill a bowl with a wet sand and place it into your container garden. Try also flowers which bloom in yellow, purple or orange to catch your butterflies' attention. They also enjoy large flat stones on which they can sit and spread their wings in the sun.

Butterflies can smell. They have chemoreceptors at the tips of their antennas and on the bottoms of their feet by which they pick up the scent of plants in the air and then follow the scent trail to its source: your garden.

They are finicky eaters and will only eat a few plants. Here are some plants sure to bring these natural beauties of color into your garden:

Achillea	Chrysanthemum	Coreopsis	Delphinium	Dianthus
Echinops	Echinacea	Heliopsis	Hollyhock	Hibiscus
Lavender	Garden Lily	Lupine	Forget-Me-Not	Zinnia
Violet	Rudbeckia	Rhododendron	Scabiosa	Goldenrod
Wisteria	Marigold	Viburnum	Lilac	Nasturtium
Verbena	Asclepias	Phlox	Buddleia	Roses
Cosmos	Petunia	Sweet Alyssum	Helianthus	Heliotrope

Container gardens filled with these flowers could also bring a beautiful hummingbird into your yard .

Some of the more common butterflies and their favorite annual flowering plants on which adults feed include:

It is a little harder to attract hummingbirds to our Gardens than it is to attract butterflies. First of all, the Garden must be visible to them from 30 to 50 feet overhead. The colors must be vivid in order to catch their eyes on their migratory trips from mid-April to mid-May and again from mid-July through September.

There is a long list of flowers that are attractive to hummingbirds. Some annuals that you might have success with include geraniums, verbena, dianthus, vinca, morning glories, salvia, and smaller-flowered petunias.

Here are some other tips that may help you in luring butterflies and hummingbirds to your Garden. Plant several separate Gardens to minimize competition between butterflies and hummingbirds. Plant masses of color closely together to create islands of bright color. Annuals work particularly well for this. Plant some of the annuals that attract both butterflies and hummingbirds, such as geranium and verbena. Plan your Garden so that some flowers are blooming all summer. Timing is everything. And, lastly, minimize the use of harsh pesticides if at all possible. Not only will they harm many butterflies and hummingbirds, but they may also kill spiders and Insects that are also eaten by hummingbirds.