What flowers attract butterflies: what to plant to make your garden more beautiful

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

As OBOZREVATEL found out, this is not so difficult if you plant flowers whose nectar butterflies feed on. These will definitely be plants with bright flowering, because these insects are guided, among other things, by colour. Also, such flowers mostly have a wonderful sweet aroma. So everyone will benefit from such an organisation of the garden.

What problems can arise from butterflies

This wonderful medal cannot but have a downside. And this downside is caterpillars. Flocking to flowers, butterflies not only collect nectar from them, but also lay eggs on plants, from which their larvae, caterpillars, 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, the caterpillars will later produce even more butterflies, so this nuisance can be tolerated if it is not about agricultural plants, but only about the aesthetic side. However, 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.

Next, let's talk about plants that butterflies like. Let's divide them into perennial species and annuals.

Perennial flowers

Asters

It is better to choose two varieties - New Belgian and Marcinki. The former will begin to bloom in late summer and will delight you with flowers until September, while the latter will take up the baton immediately afterwards 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 metres. Its purple flowers have a sweet honey scent that butterflies love. Buddleia flowers bloom from August until November.

Autumn helenium

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

Heliotrope

The peculiarity of the large, up to 12 cm, inflorescences of the plant is that they rotate in the wake of 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 scent 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.

Spikelet liatris

This 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.

Goldenrod

The fluffy inflorescences of cheerful yellow colour are pleasing to the eye all summer - from May to September. Butterflies are attracted to them both by their scent and bright colour.

Annual flowers

Three species are most often recommended for attracting butterflies: blue ageratum, double-feathery cosmea and zinnia. Cosmea blooms first 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 autumn. 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 colours of these plants to your liking, as they boast a great variety of shades.

Earlier, OBOZREVATEL told which garden flowers can be eaten by people.

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