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Plants for butterflies

Nectar plants butterflies visit and the host plants their caterpillars eat, with a sample bed planned from them.

A butterfly garden needs two kinds of plant. Nectar plants feed the butterflies: flat or clustered flowers they can stand on, in sun, out of the wind. Host plants feed their caterpillars, and a butterfly can lay its eggs only on its own host plants: milkweeds for the monarch, for instance. Without host plants a garden is a café the butterflies pass through; with them, it is where they are born.

Every plant here is recorded by NC State as visited by butterflies or as a host plant. The host plants are marked, and the host plant guide lists them by butterfly.

483 plants: 285 perennials, 1 fern, 12 bulbs, 28 grasses and 157 shrubs.

The dozen to start with

  • Little bluestem

    Little bluestem

    3 ft · grown for its leaves · host plant for common wood-nymph

    Blue-green summer blades turn copper and bronze in autumn and hold their colour through winter.

  • Black-eyed Susan

    Black-eyed Susan

    24 in · mid July to mid September · host plant for 2 species

    Masses of golden, dark-centred flowers from midsummer into fall.

  • Canna

    Canna

    5 ft · early July to early October · host plant for brazilian skipper

    Huge, paddle-shaped leaves, green, bronze or striped, topped with bright flowers in red, orange, yellow or pink from midsummer to frost.

  • Winterberry

    Winterberry

    8 ft · grown for its leaves · host plant for henry's elfin

    A native holly that drops its leaves in autumn to show branches packed with bright red berries, which last into winter until the birds take them.

  • Common lilac

    Common lilac

    11½ ft · early May to late May · host plant for 2 species

    The lilac of old farmyards: large, heavily scented flower trusses in lilac, purple, white or pink in mid-spring, on a tall, suckering shrub that can live for a century.

  • Purple coneflower

    Purple coneflower

    3 ft · late June to early September · host plant for 2 species

    A tough native with purple-pink petals around a bronze cone, blooming for weeks in midsummer.

  • Blue false indigo

    Blue false indigo

    4 ft · late May to mid June · host plant for 6 species

    Spikes of indigo-blue pea flowers in late spring on a plant that grows as big as a shrub, with blue-green leaves and black seed pods that rattle in winter.

  • Bee balm

    Bee balm

    3 ft · early July to early August · host plant for 3 species

    Shaggy, colourful flower heads that draw hummingbirds, bees and butterflies.

  • Rosemary

    Rosemary

    4 ft · early March to early May

    The kitchen herb: a dense, aromatic, evergreen shrub with needle-like leaves and small, pale blue flowers from late winter into spring.

  • Blue fescue

    Blue fescue

    10 in · grown for its leaves

    A compact ornamental grass that forms neat tufts of striking blue-silver blades.

  • Oakleaf hydrangea

    Oakleaf hydrangea

    6½ ft · mid June to early August

    A native shrub for every season: cone-shaped white flowers that age to pink, huge oak-shaped leaves that turn wine red and purple in autumn, and peeling, cinnamon-coloured bark in winter.

  • Switchgrass 'Northwind'

    Switchgrass 'Northwind'

    5½ ft · early August to early October · host plant for common wood-nymph

    The most upright switchgrass: a narrow, rigid column of olive-blue leaves that never flops, turning gold in autumn and standing through winter.

A bed planned only from these plants

The planner was given only the plants on this page that suit zone 6 and full sun, and designed this 16 × 8 ft (4.9 × 2.4 m) bed from them when the page was made.

A 16 × 8 ft (4.9 × 2.4 m) bed at eye level in early August: Verbena 'Homestead Purple', Sea thrift, Brown-eyed Susan, Smooth aster 'Bluebird', Mugo pine 'Mops', False sunflower, Little bluestem 'The Blues', Lowbush blueberry, Surprise lily, Grecian windflower, Red spider lily.
A 16 × 8 ft (4.9 × 2.4 m) naturalistic planting in zone 6, full sun, seen from the path in early August.
6. False sunflower66. False sunflower66. False sunflower63. Brown-eyed Susan33. Brown-eyed Susan33. Brown-eyed Susan33. Brown-eyed Susan33. Brown-eyed Susan35. Mugo pine 'Mops'52. Sea thrift22. Sea thrift22. Sea thrift22. Sea thrift22. Sea thrift21. Verbena 'Homestead Purple'11. Verbena 'Homestead Purple'11. Verbena 'Homestead Purple'12. Sea thrift22. Sea thrift22. Sea thrift21. Verbena 'Homestead Purple'14. Smooth aster 'Bluebird'44. Smooth aster 'Bluebird'44. Smooth aster 'Bluebird'48. Lowbush blueberry88. Lowbush blueberry88. Lowbush blueberry88. Lowbush blueberry88. Lowbush blueberry88. Lowbush blueberry88. Lowbush blueberry88. Lowbush blueberry87. Little bluestem 'The Blues'77. Little bluestem 'The Blues'77. Little bluestem 'The Blues'79. Surprise lily9. Surprise lily9. Surprise lily9. Surprise lily9. Surprise lily9. Surprise lily9. Surprise lily9. Surprise lily9. Surprise lily9. Surprise lily11. Red spider lily11. Red spider lily11. Red spider lily10. Grecian windflower10. Grecian windflower10. Grecian windflower10. Grecian windflower10. Grecian windflower10. Grecian windflower10. Grecian windflower10. Grecian windflower10. Grecian windflower10. Grecian windflower10. Grecian windflower10. Grecian windflower
From above, to scale. Each circle is one plant, as wide as the room it needs.

The plants

  1. 1 Verbena 'Homestead Purple' × 4, purple
  2. 2 Sea thrift × 8, pink
  3. 3 Brown-eyed Susan × 5, yellow
  4. 4 Smooth aster 'Bluebird' × 3, blue
  5. 5 Mugo pine 'Mops' × 1, dark green leaves
  6. 6 False sunflower × 3, yellow
  7. 7 Little bluestem 'The Blues' × 3, tan
  8. 8 Lowbush blueberry × 8, white
  9. 9 Surprise lily × 10, pink
  10. 10 Grecian windflower × 12, blue
  11. 11 Red spider lily × 3, red

Planned as a naturalistic planting: low grasses and groundcovers, the matrix, make up 45% of the planted ground. Cool colours (purple, pink and blue) with yellow and red as the warm notes, and tan and white to calm things between them. The flowering is at its height from early August, with 5 kinds out together.

The planner's own design check: 11 Excellent, 6 Good. It flags one thing to watch: Nothing on this plan is highly poisonous or an aggressive spreader.

Open this bed in the planner Change its size, the sun or the style, move plants about, or swap one for another.

All 483 plants

Show all 483, by where they go in a bed

Front of a bed 117

Middle of a bed 152

Back of a bed 214

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