Attracting Butterflies

There is a TON of info on this on the web. :-) I know, I've looked there myself. Personally, I mix Lantana and starflower, as well as butterfly bush. I do ok, but the wall of honeysuckles on one side of the yard do the best job! I'm trying to get more hummingbirds in so have planted trumpet vine, but it's taking forEVER to get going! :-P

Try here:

Have fun! :-)

Kat

I've always had the best luck with Mexican sunflowers. And they grow fast and easy anywhere. Zinnias are good too.

Joelle "The children who need love the most will always ask for it in the most unloving ways" ~ Words of a teacher quoted by Russell Barkley~

We have good luck with the butterfly bushes. No honeysuckles around though. As for the hummingbirds, have you tried one of those red feeders for them? You have to remember to take them down in the fall though or the little buggers kind of "forget" to migrate and hang around.

We have some and they return every year. Cool little devils to watch. They've actually gotten "semi" used to us and if we make no sudden moves they get rather brave sometimes.

For 'Monarch' butterflies you need 'swan plants'.

I've tried a few feeders, but have just never had good luck attracting many. We had a LOT of them when we lived in California!

I miss the little buzzers.....

Didja try the red one? For some reason, they're attracted to red. We get 'em in NY, my Mother used to get them in NW PA, and Nancy's Mom gets them on Cape Cod with them. All red ones.

Oh yes!

Most hummingbird feeders have red reservoirs and/or bases.

I think there is just too much for them to eat in nature around here... :-)

I was just browsing images and found this site. There's a plant covered with butterflies, I think it might be anise hyssop.

those flighty lil' critters. I don't know what they're called but I can find out if you'd like.

Sure, that'd be great. :)

Boy, my friend and I are stumped but we'll keep looking. I *think* that it's some kind of lavender. I originally thought that it was English Lavender but I'm not sure now. It appears to be in that family though.

il Thu, 20 Jan 2005 12:43:38 -0500, Steve Calvin ha scritto:

What about 'swan plants' (Asclepias physocarpa)? The Monarch butterflies love that one. They eat it to death if there aren't enough planted.

"belongs to the milkweed family, and like all milkweeds they attract the lovely wanderer butterfly to the garden. The downside is that the seeds spread very easily throughout the garden on the breeze, so the plant does have some weed potential. Another problem is that it exudes a poisonous, milky sap. However it tastes bad and is not really the sort of thing you'd want to eat. Swan plants reach around

Howdy:

I suggest you review the ag publication at the University of Florida EDIS site at:

If you click at the upper right hand corner you can download the formal pdf version.

GG Zone 9b

For butterflies (especially the Monarch I think) it's budlea, budlea, and budlea! perferably the ordinary light purple one. It can be heavily pruned back each year.

As you are near Australia, do a search on the Richmond birdwing butterfly. It's possible that in NZ you might have the climbing vine this threatened butterfly species needs to nourish its pupae. The species is being killed by the toxic Dutchman's pipe climber where the butterflies are wont to mistakenly lay their eggs. (I really don't know whether this butterfly makes its way across the Tasman, even.)