To see butterflies in your garden, you will need to entice them
with the right flowers. Adult butterflies feed on nectar that they
will take from a wide variety of wild and garden flowers,
particularly those growing in warm sheltered places. Butterflies can
be encouraged to visit gardens by growing a range of suitable
flowers from March until frosty weather ends the butterfly
season in October-November. Put some large rocks in a part of your garden that gets early
morning sun to encourage butterflies to visit. They need to be warmed
by the sun to be active and will quickly learn where warm rocks are.
Buddleia, while not a native plant, is great for encouraging
butterflies to a garden. Leave some nettles and thistles to grow in
hidden areas of the garden as they form a huge part of many of our
butterflies lifecycle.
Click here for a list of plants for butterflies, all of which can be grown in gardens.
Three more ways to help butterflies
Leave fallen fruit under
fruit trees. In late summer butterflies, such as red
admiral and painted lady, will feed on fruit juices in fallen
over-ripe pears, plums and apples
If possible, avoid the use
of pesticides, especially on or near plants that are in
flower
To increase butterfly numbers, it is necessary to cater for the needs of the caterpillar stage. The following
plants are the host plants of butterflies that do or may visit
gardens:
Alder buckthorn and
purging buckthorn: Eaten by Brimstone butterfly
caterpillars
Birdsfoot trefoil:
Food plant for Common Blue caterpillars
Cabbage, other brassicas,
nasturtium: Eaten by caterpillars of Small and Large
Cabbage Whites
Docks and sorrels:
Food plants for Small Copper caterpillars
Garlic/hedge mustard and
lady’s smock: Eaten by caterpillars of Orange-tip and
Green-veined White
Holly and ivy:
Holly Blue caterpillars eat holly flowers in late spring and ivy
flowers in autumn
Mixed grasses grown as a
meadow: Provides food for the caterpillars of Speckled
Wood, Wall butterfly, Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown, Ringlet and Small Heath.
Stinging nettle:
Eaten by caterpillars of Peacock, Red Admiral, Comma and Small
Tortoiseshell. Needs to be grown in a sunny position to attract
egg-laying females, preferably in large clumps
Thistles: Painted Lady lays eggs on welted
and creeping thistles, also on giant thistle (Onopordum
spp.)
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