Flowers that attract butterflies: what to plant to make the garden more beautiful

A flower garden in itself is a place full of beauty. However, it can be made even more beautiful by attracting the most beautiful pollinating insects, butterflies.

As OBOZREVATEL has found out, this is not so difficult if you plant flowers the nectar of which butterflies feed on. These will certainly be plants with bright colors because these insects are guided by color, among other things. In addition, such flowers mostly have a wonderful sweet aroma. Thus, everyone will benefit from such an organization of the garden.

What problems can arise from butterflies

This wonderful medal cannot but have a downside. And this downside is the caterpillar. Flocking to flowers, butterflies not only collect nectar from them but also lay eggs on plants, from which their larvae, the caterpillar, later hatch. And these creatures feed on leaves. Therefore, those who want to admire adult insects should be prepared for the consequences of their "children's" activities.

However, even more butterflies will later emerge from the caterpillar, so this nuisance can be tolerated if it is not about agricultural plants but only about the aesthetic side. Experienced gardeners warn that it is better not to put up with white butterflies. They live on cabbage plants and cause serious damage to them.

Now let's talk about plants that butterflies like. We divided them into perennial species and annuals.

Perennial flowers

Asters

It's best to choose two varieties: New York and Jenny. The former will begin to bloom in late summer and will delight you with flowers until September, while the latter will take roots immediately after and bloom until frost. All the butterflies of the Indian summer will be in your garden.

Buddleia

This is a rather large shrub that can grow up to 2 meters. Its purple flowers have a sweet honey aroma that butterflies love. Buddleia flowers bloom from August until November.

Helenium autumnale 

The flowers of this plant resemble chamomile and have the most attractive colors of yellow, orange and red for butterflies. Helenium blooms in the middle of summer and pleases with flowers until late cold weather. Butterflies love it for its abundance of nectar.

Common milkweed

Quite tall (up to 1.5 m) plants in the middle of summer produce orange or purple inflorescences that have an unusual aroma with notes of vanilla or chocolate. Butterflies adore this fragrance and flock to the plant en masse. However, this plant is an invasive species, so you will have to strictly control its spread if you don't want it to take over the entire site.

Heliotrope

The peculiarity of the large (up to 12 cm) inflorescences of the plant is that they turn after the sun. These flowers also have a sweet aroma with notes of vanilla, very pleasant for butterflies. Heliotrope blooms almost throughout the warm season.

Lavender

The fragrance of these flowers is hard to confuse with anything else. Lavender can form incredibly beautiful blue-violet carpets of flowers, which attract many butterflies. This beauty can be seen from June to October.

Blazing star

The herbaceous plant pleases flower lovers with its white, lilac and pink inflorescences. They appear around mid-summer and bloom for 30-40 days, attracting butterflies.

Echinacea purpurea

This relative of the aster produces large flowers in various shades of pink, burgundy, lilac and white in early August. Flowering lasts until October.

Ilex decidua

Another late summer flower. Brush-shaped inflorescences appear around the middle of this time and bloom until the fall. Most often, it is purple-pink, but white varieties can also be found.

Goldenrod

Fluffy inflorescences of cheerful yellow color delight the eye all summer: from May to September. Butterflies are attracted to them both by their scent and bright color.

Annual flowers

Three species are most often recommended for attracting butterflies: blue ageratum, cosmea, and zinnia. Cosmea is the first to bloom in mid-June and produces white, pink and red flowers until the end of September. The time for zinnias comes at the height of summer. Until the very beginning of frost, it pleases the eye with bright orange, yellow or red baskets. Ageratum blooms in July and blooms until late fall. It blooms in spherical inflorescences filled with nectar.

Other annual flowers that will become a magnet for butterflies include rudbeckia, marigolds, sage, oregano, calendula, snapdragon, various milkweed, and violets. You can choose the colors of these plants to your liking as they boast a great variety of shades.

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