How to Plant a Butterfly Bush Flower Garden

Attract butterflies to your garden with a butterfly bush. With hundreds of variations in color and flower size, the "butterfly bush," known as the Buddleja davidii, can turn your garden into a butterfly magnet. All butterflies are nectar feeding insects, but not all butterflies like all flowers or nectars. The butterfly bush is one of the most popular flowering bushes that will attract butterflies, but there are others as well. Combine them all to attract the greatest variety of butterflies.

How to Arrange Your Garden Plants

A butterfly garden is like any flower garden. Alternating your plant variety and sizes and mixing cultivated plants and wild or natural plants should attract a good variety of butterflies, as well as present a pleasing visual garden. Some plants will require more light than others, which is fine. Butterflies like shaded and full sun, so plant your flowers in patterns that provide both. Leave open spaces among your plants for butterflies to sun themselves and always have several sources of water available, including running water and puddles. Space your plants according to their need, in recommended soil types for each plant.

Butterflies look for more than nectar. They also need plants that will feed their larva. There must be a food source for each stage of the butterfly's life cycle. Having a safe place to lay eggs and a ready water source are important considerations when planting your butterfly garden. Some butterflies prefer rotting fruit, so you can also set out a plate of peaches, watermelon, cantaloupe or apples for them to feast on.

Popular Variations of the Butterfly Bush

• Buddleja davidii, White Profusion, 10 feet tall and about 10 feet wide, with 16-inch flowers
• Buddleja davidii, White Bouquet, 6 feet tall and about 6 feet wide, with flower spikes 6 to 8 inches long, and fatter than the White Profusion
• Buddleja, Blue Chip, a more compact plant, 2 feet wide by 2 feet tall, with thick growths of lavender-blue flowers
• Buddleja davidii, Nanho White, 5 feet tall and 5 feet wide with white blooms
• Buddleja davidii, Guinevere, 10 feet tall and 10 feet wide, with purple spike flowers
• Buddleia davidii, Black Knight, 10 feet tall and 15 feet wide, with deep purple-black spike flowers
• Buddleja davidii, Adonis Blue, a dwarf plant, only 5 feet tall and 5 feet wide

Other Butterfly Attracting Plants

• Echinacea purpurea, Coneflower, a member of the daisy family and looks like it, with protruding and prickly seed-head, reddish-purple flowers
• Delphinium, Larkspur, most common color is purple, but white flowers available, flowers in elongated clusters, from 2 to 6 feet high depending on variety
  
• Bee Balm, attracts hummingbirds, bees and other nectar-seeking insects to its pink, white or red flowers, 2 to 4 feet tall depending on variety
• Sedum, there are more than 500 varieties of this popular succulent in all sizes and colors
• Veronica spicata, Spike Speedwell, a clump of dark green leaves with tall white spikes, 20 inches tall and 12 to 18 inches wide
• Butterfly weed, Bright orange flowers, 12 to 24 inches tall
• Aster novae-angliae, Aster, white, pink, purple, lavender or red 1 1/2-inch wide flowers atop a 2 foot to 4 foot high plant
• Asclepias, Milkweed, Common milkweed is 4 feet high, different varieties come in different colors and sizes

Butterflies and Their Favorite Plants

• Monarch Butterfly: Milkweed, butterfly bush, goldenrod
• Great Swallowtail Butterfly: Honeysuckle, milkweed, goldenrod, azalea
• Tiger Swallowtail: Milkweed, Japanese honeysuckle, lilac, butterfly bush
• Buckey Butterfly: Milkweed, Chickory; larval food source: snapdragon
• Great Spangled Fritillary: Milkweed, verbena; larval food source: violet
• Painted Lady: Aster, goldenrod, butterfly bush; larval food source: hollyhock, daisy