Plant a butterfly garden
No one would ever say a butterfly garden is boring. Besides bright color, another thing you’ll notice about all the flowers below is the size. Large flowers, especially those with flat shapes, are the easiest for butterflies to land and feed on. Fragrance helps bring the butterflies in, as well. Plant flowers in groups of three to five (or more) for the most impact.
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Low-maintenance beauty
In the slideshow, we’ll take a look at five butterfly-friendly plants. In the illustration below, we’ll show you how to mix some of them together to create a gorgeous butterfly garden. But don’t feel locked into just these plants — if you like a taller goldenrod or a different zinnia color, go right ahead. The butterflies aren’t the least bit picky about cultivars! And a garden like this is low-maintenance, too. There aren’t too many kinds of plants, so you don’t have to remember a bunch of different plant care tips. Instead, you’ll have lots of time to pull up a chair, lean back in the sun and watch the butterflies enjoying your garden.
Get the look of the butterfly garden below:
- Wide brick edging keeps the garden tidy and offers butterflies the perfect spot to sun themselves on cool, dewy mornings.
- A privacy fence and evergreen shrubs, like ‘Holmstrup’ arborvitae, give delicate butterflies some protection from gusts of wind.
- Mix butterfly-friendly annuals like zinnias into a perennial bed. You can change them out for a different look every year.
- Cut butterfly bush back hard in early spring. By late summer, it’ll be back to full size, ready to delight you and the butterflies!
Products for Butterflies You Might Like:
Butterfly Hibernation House
Butterfly Puddler
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Meet the plants
Click through the slideshow to learn about the corresponding plants in this beautiful butterfly garden plan.