A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion Landscape trials and triumphs Butterfly and Bird Gardens Butterfly Garden Ideas

The upper corner of my hill has a bunch of milkweed growing there. i decided that was a good start to a butterfly garden. There is a peach tree also so nothing that will hinder my peaches. I really dont have the money to go out nd buy shrubs etc. right now. Any ideas on how to make it more butterfly friendly?

Wrennie - do you grow salvia? Mine are covered in butterflies lately - I can send you some seeds if you don't already have them.

I think I read somewhere that you already have butterfly bushes?

I have 1 perrenial salvia that some other plants crowded last year so it isn't huge this year but its doing alright.(I've given it more breathing room) I do terribly with most seeds. I think I tried butterfly bush once and ended up with an empty pot of seed starter.

Well rats, Wrennie!

I will send you the salvia seeds - all you have to do is LOOK at them and they will grow - the plants are popping up all over the garden that I put 1 innocent looking plant in!!! Just sprinkle a few seeds around where you'd LIKE the plants to grow, and let mother nature take over!

But I wouldn't be able to send you butterfly baby plants - they'd fry in the mail these days. And rats again - I was up in your neck of the woods yesterday - went to the Rhinebeck Craft Fair, but we left late (and got very lost on the way home - my friend was driving and didn't get on the thruway somehow - it took us an hour on curvy 2 lane roads just to get down to New Paltz!!! Then another hour on the thruway just to get down to Harriman in the typical Sunday evening traffic! I didn't get home until after 9p.m.!!!

I won't be able to go up on Aug. 18th, since that's the day we have to take Amy to the airport - how long will people be up there? I could go up on Sunday probably for the day.

(I do have those coneflower plants potted up for you - they are looking GOOD!)

I found this page somewhere....

Thanks Willy. Ya' know that site sounds really familiar somehow.

I think there are some natural muddy spots up there for them to drink. I have lots of those plants wild. Maybe I'll just let the milkweed go to town up there. My neighbor is going to think I'm nuts. He's been cutting down everything on that hill since the mid 60's. Well its for my critters now :LOL:

That reminds me, I havent noticed my sea holly, I wonder if its just still small. I'll have to look when I get home.

How about pentas? Butterflies love it. I know there's a list somewhere of butterfly plants and really, Home Depot and Lowes have their .88 pots. Five dollars could get you half a dozen to get started.

Fuschia seems to attract butterflies to my yard... of course it attracts hummingbirds too, so I'm not sure if that's something you watn around your peach. The butterflies also seem to enjoy dianthus and snapdragons (I got my seed at the local dollar store) which kinda just needs a bit of water and some sun. Good luck!

Creating Butterfly friendly garden at:

http://www.thegardenhelper.com/Butterflies.htm


What plants attract butterflies?

I have no luck with fuschias. :( i do have 4 hummingbird feeders and all sorts of flowers to attract them, including dianthus and snapdragons. I guess I have a butterfly garden and didnt even know it! :LOL:

zinnias are good too constantly visited.
species cannas& the others too but they really go for the species ones.
BES
monarda/bergamont
cleome
passionvine
coneflowers
gaura
salvia's(think they like the LIR better than forest fire.LIR puts out more flowers& reblooms faster)
they don't go for the catnip necter wise but do feed on the foliage...greatly.
They go for my lime basil as I let bloom but I don't let the purple ruffles bloom yet
sunflowers

I have a old birdbath filled with sand with a rock for them to drink from and they come out in flocks when watering(landing on the grass...fly thru drink bar if turn hose to mist