5 secrets how to turn your garden into a butterfly magnet

🦋 5 secrets how to turn your garden into a butterfly magnet

For over a month now, Eastern Tiger Swallowtails have been all over our garden, every single day. This female was dancing from flower to flower on a blooming Cashmere Bouquet (Clerodendrum bungei). This large native swallowtail butterfly is easy to recognize by its yellow wings and bold black "tiger" stripes. The beautiful blue coloring on the hindwings tells us this one is most likely a female. Seeing a butterfly like this in the garden isn't just luck. Give butterflies what they need, and they'll find you!

1. 🦋1. Plant flowers for nectar
   Butterflies need nectar, and some flowers are much better at providing it than others. Plant plenty of nectar-rich flowers and, when possible, group them together. A big patch of blooms is much easier for a passing butterfly to find than one lonely flower.
   Our experience? Clerodendrums are great butterfly magnets. When they're blooming, the butterflies always find them. That's why we have Clerodendrums all over the garden.
2. 🦋2. Don't forget the caterpillars
   This is the part people often miss. A butterfly garden isn't just about feeding adult butterflies.
   Butterflies need the right host plants to lay their eggs. Their caterpillars then feed on those plants. Different butterflies need different hosts, so find out which butterflies live in your area and plant for the whole life cycle.
   No caterpillars - no next generation of butterflies.
3. 🦋3. Be very careful with pesticides
   You can't invite butterflies into the garden and then spray everything that crawls.
   Butterfly caterpillars are insects too. Broad-spectrum insecticides can kill the very caterpillars you're trying to attract. In a butterfly garden, a few chewed leaves aren't necessarily a problem. Sometimes they're proof that your garden is working.
4. 🦋4. Give them sunshine and shelter
   Butterflies love warm, sunny areas because they rely on outside heat to warm their bodies. But an exposed, windy garden isn't ideal either.
   The best butterfly gardens have both: sunny feeding areas and nearby plants that provide shelter from wind and weather.
5. 🦋5. Give them a place to drink
   Butterflies don't only visit flowers. Some will gather on damp soil, mud or wet sand to take in water and dissolved minerals, a behavior called puddling.
   You don't need a fancy butterfly fountain. A shallow damp spot or a little wet sand can do the job.
   And one more flower worth planting...

💡That Eastern Tiger Swallowtail kept returning to our Cashmere Bouquet for a reason. Clerodendrum bungei produces big clusters of nectar-rich pink flowers, and butterflies notice.
In fact, Clerodendrums are some of our most reliable butterfly-attracting plants. When they're in bloom, there's usually something fluttering around them.
Plant flowers. Plant host plants. Leave room for caterpillars. Add sun, shelter and a little water. Then watch who discovers your garden.

🛒 Transform your yard into a Butterfly Haven with exotic plants

📚 Learn more:

· Clerodendrum bungei in Plant Encyclopedia
· 13 tropical flowers to plant in spring to attract pollinators year around
· Butterfly Haven or a Heaven on Earth?
· Top 20 plants for a Butterfly Haven
· Five best butterfly attractors for a Southern garden
· Top Eight irresistible vines for a hummingbird haven:
Part 1 • Part 2

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