Plants for Butterflies

Lavender a great favourite with butterflies, and easy to grow in the right spot, which is sunny well drained soil on the dry side. As a Mediterranean plant, lavender will not tolerate winter wet. Lavender is a perennial although tending to need fairly regular replacement as it gets woody in later years. 

If your soil or conditions are too wet an alternative to grow is Nepeta, (see below) common name Cat mint. For advice on How to grow Lavender

Unlike Lavender, Nepeta will grow just about anywhere which includes wet and cold conditions which are not suited to Lavender. Nepeta is also a perennial which produces clouds of blue flowers and is very attractive to bees and butterflies, but also cats.

It is very easy to grow for tips, advice and images on growing Nepeta common name Cat Mint

Veronicastrum  and Veronica group of plants are attractive to butterflies. Easy to grow perennials, fully hardy will grow in full sun and partial shade. They are tall plants up to 2m and so best grown at the back of the border.

I have seen them planted on mass at RHS garden, covered in butterflies and pollinators. 

Heleniums are a group of clump forming perennials with open daisy-like flowers which are attractive to butterflies. Heleniums flowers are predominately red, orange, yellow and shades in between, and are easy to grow in a sunny position.

Heleniums are summer flowering and when planted on a good sunny site will flower for many weeks. Taller varieties may require staking and regular dead heading to prolong flowering.

Sedums are a butterfly's friend. Flowering in late summer and early autumn, they are attractive to butterflies providing a late summer source of nectar. Sedums are really easy to grow and make a great addition to the border.

Sedum will attract all types of pollinators, including a good number of butterflies. In the late summer, a good clump of sedum can have half a dozen butterflies on it at any time. I have them planted up in a wall near the pond so I can sit and watch the butterflies and pond life. Here is the video to prove it.

Myosotis, the simple forget-me-not, is a source of early nectar for butterflies flowering from late March/ April onwards depending on the conditions. Forget-me-not is easy to raise from seed and will self seed around the garden. It is sometimes considered a semi weed and a bit of a nuisance, but not buy the butterflies.

Forget-me-nots are worth growing as they produce clouds of lovely blue flowers early in the year, which mix in well with lots of spring bedding, and bring in the butterflies. 

Lonicera, the common honeysuckle, is good to grow for Butterflies. It is also one of the most attractive scented climbing plants, which is easy to grow and will provide nectar for the Butterflies and later, berries for the birds.

Verbeba borariensis is a summer flower perennial which Butterflies love.

It is a striking plant grown on mass,  easy to grow, and tall up to 2ms but does not usually require staking and goes very well with so many garden plants . It can tend to be short lived as it is  ** hardy which makes it susceptible in a bad winter.

Both Bees and butterflies are attracted to the Ceanothus shrub which has very striking blue flowers in either Spring or Autumn, depending on the variety.  Ceanothus does need particular growing conditions to do well, principally not too cold and in a sheltered spot. For advice on How to grow Ceanothus.

 The Butterflies just love Oregano and will flock to it. Oregano is easy to grow, a Mediterranean herb, but not not one which is fussy where it grows, although the more sun the better. The downside is that Oregano is a self seeder, and once you have one plant, you will have more.

To keep it in check, it is essential to pull out new seedings where they root.