Butterflies and How to Attract Them

Plant the Garden

Before planting a new butterfly garden, experiment with its shape by outlining the boundaries with a garden hose or several stakes pounded in the ground. You can move these into different shapes and then use the line to provide a well-defined edge. Spade and/or till the soil within the area and add compost or some other organic material as needed. Bear in mind that some of the best butterfly plants require rich, well-drained soil.

Finally, place the plants while still in their containers where you think they belong in the garden. Step back, view the area from various angles, and see if you want to change anything. When you are satisfied, you are ready to plant. Be sure to provide plenty of water to the new plants during the first year.

Enhancement Features for Butterflies

Water Sources
Butterflies don’t feed from nectar alone. They also take trace minerals from patches of wet sand or soil. Mud around the edge of a pond, or under a hose bib or birdbath may be used. To create a small damp area, dig out 2 or 3 inches of soil about 24 inches wide in a frequently watered area. Water will collect there. Another way to provide a drinking place is to sink a small bucket in the ground and fill it almost to the top with wet sand. Place these water sources in a sunny area out of the wind and near nectar plants. If cats are a concern, fill a birdbath or other elevated container with sand and keep it moist.

Basking and Hibernation Sites
On cool days, in the morning, and periodically throughout the day, butterflies warm their blood and flight muscles by basking with their wings open and their bodies perpendicular to the sun. Place a few large stones or rocks in sunny spots to serve as basking sites. Again, if cats are a concern, put rocks in a birdbath or other elevated container.

Research indicates that "butterfly hibernation boxes,” which you may have seen in gardening catalogs, have not been effective at attracting overwintering butterflies. The best way to help butterflies survive the winter is to adopt a maintenance plan that meets your aesthetic requirements without disturbing all the butterfly habitat. Don’t be too concerned about tidiness in all areas of your property. Over-zealous fall cleaning of yards and gardens can remove the very stuff that many butterflies depend on to get through the winter: snags, downed wood, thick undergrowth, brush piles.

Wild Patches
Many butterfly species seek shelter among weeds and tall grasses at night and during bad weather. If you can, leave or add wild patches in out-of-the-way portions of your yard, or leave a patch of lawn unmowed. (A bonus is that you’ll probably be growing larval plants, too.) To avoid complaints, mow a strip around the unmowed area and let neighbors and local officials know what you are trying to accomplish.

Moths
In addition to being important pollinators, moths serve as an important food source for breeding birds, bats, and spiders. There are at least ten times as many moth species as butterflies in Washington. Of the 6,000 species of moths in North America, only two species have caterpillars that favor woolen garments and carpets.

Moths are fascinating visitors to the evening garden. Adult sphinx moths extract nectar from deep-throated, fragrant flowers that open at night. Like hummingbirds, they hover in flight while feeding. Instead of the long beak of the bird though, they have a long tongue like a drinking straw. The larvae feed on a variety of plants including alder, apples, azaleas, fuchsias, grapes, cottonwood, poplar, willow, snowberry, and cherry.

Moths and butterflies take nectar from many of the same plants. Flowers that attract night-flying moths include:

If you include some of these plants in your landscape, be sure to go “moth watching” at dusk on some warm summer evening. Use a flashlight after dark. Try covering the flashlight with red cellophane so as not to distract moths from feeding.