Butterfly Gardens

A butterfly garden is a garden planted with flowers that butterflies love. These gardens provide nectar for adult butterflies and food for caterpillars. Butterfly gardens help these important pollinators survive. They are colorful, fun to watch, and easy to create at home or at school.

What Butterflies Need

Butterflies need two types of plants. Nectar plants have flowers full of sweet liquid that adult butterflies drink. Host plants are where butterflies lay their eggs and caterpillars eat. For example, monarch butterflies need milkweed for their caterpillars. A good butterfly garden has both types of plants.

Planting a Butterfly Garden

Choose a sunny spot for your butterfly garden because butterflies love warmth. Plant flowers of different colors and shapes that bloom at different times. Avoid using pesticides because they can kill butterflies. A shallow dish of water with pebbles gives butterflies a place to drink. Flat rocks in the garden let them rest and warm their wings in the sun.

Fun Facts

• Butterflies taste with their feet, so they know right away if they have landed on a good flower!
• A single monarch caterpillar can eat an entire milkweed plant before it becomes a butterfly.
• Some butterfly gardens attract more than 30 different species of butterflies.

Did You Know?

Planting just a few milkweed plants in your yard can help monarch butterflies on their incredible 3,000-mile migration!