Adding a few plants butterflies love to your garden is a must. Who doesn’t love the sight of a butterfly floating through a garden, landing on flowers on a lazy summer day?
Attracting butterflies to your garden is relatively easy to do, but it reaps great rewards. Not only do you get the joy of seeing these colourful winged insects flitting around your plot, but you are also ensuring their survival and increasing the biodiversity in your garden.
So what plants do butterflies love? Think nectar-rich, with open or tubular flowers, and you won’t go far wrong. ‘Overall, there is no strong preference for flowers of any particular colour, so any and all garden colour schemes are useful for them,’ says Anthony McCluskey from Butterfly Conservation.
1. Buddlejia
Butterflies and buddlejia go hand in hand – it’s even nicknamed the ‘butterfly bush’.
However, they aren’t necessarily the best choice, even if they are plants butterflies love. Buddlejias are very invasive, which is why they are classed as one of the perennials to avoid in the garden – even if you know when to cut buddlejia back, many people still struggle to control their growth.
Thankfully, there is a solution that lets you add this butterfly favourite into your garden. Potted, dwarf buddlejias – also known as patio buddlejias – are much more compact and won’t spread like their counterparts. Reaching a maximum height and spread of 0.8m – compared to 2.5-3m (8-10ft) of their larger counterparts – they are a great addition to a patio, balcony or container garden.
Favourites include the more traditional Buddleja Little Purple, available at Crocus, and the more unusual bright pink Buddleja Little Ruby, also available at Crocus.
2. Agastache
With elegant spires of blue, pink, purple or white blooms, agastache are definitely high on the list of plants butterflies love.
‘Agastache has an abundant nectar supply, making it highly attractive to butterflies. The tubular flowers of the plant, typically purple, blue, or pink, are especially adapted to pollinators by allowing easier access to the nectar,’ says Gloria Sims, florist and owner of Florist Empire.
If ease is a priority, using agastache to attract bees and butterflies will fit the bill as these best drought-tolerant plants are perennials that thrive on neglect, making it a pretty yet practical choice for low-maintenance gardens.
3. Coneflowers
A cottage garden staple, Echinacea are also one of the plants butterflies love. ‘These are perennial favourites for attracting butterflies such as red admirals and peacocks. Available in many different colours, Echinacea produce large, daisy-like flowers with large central cones packed with nectar, which will bring pollinators flocking,’ says Julian.
A great choice for those who want a low-maintenance, drought-tolerant addition, ‘echinacea copes well with dry spells once established and adds long-lasting colour and structure to sunny garden spaces, Emma Fell, Head of Horticulture at Hillier Garden Centres.
Echinacea flame – available from Crocus – would be a beautiful addition to a hot border, while the subtler Echinacea purpurea ‘White Swan’ – available from Hayloft – would sit harmoniously in a more demure planting scheme.
4. Dianthus
Dianthus is a beautiful group that includes sweet william, carnations and pinks – all of which are plants butterflies love.
‘Dianthus is excellent for butterflies because its bright, open flowers produce abundant nectar and pollen, attracting pollinators for a long flowering season from spring to autumn,’ says Julian Palphramand, Head of Plants at British Garden Centres. ‘Dianthus has a sweet, spicy fragrance which is often compared to cloves or cinnamon and helps lure these insects, supporting biodiversity in the garden.’
Julian advises looking for varieties with more open flower shapes as these are especially favoured by butterflies. Dianthus Pink Kisses – available from Crocus – or Flutterby – from Thompson & Morgan – are both good options.
5. Primrose
‘Butterflies and bees hibernate in winter, so don’t need to forage when it is truly cold, but it is good to think of having a food source in your garden from March to November,’ explains Sarah Raven. For this reason, incorporating blooms into your winter garden is essential.
Primroses are some of the best winter plants for wildlife. Flowering from February to April, primroses extend the supply of nectar, something that is essential for the survival of these insects during the more hostile winter conditions. The added nectar is also invaluable, providing them with the energy to fly and mate.
As if these benefits weren’t enough. ‘Primroses are the foodplant of the caterpillars of the rare Duke of Burgundy butterfly, which is a Priority Species under the UK Post-2010 Biodiversity Framework,’ adds experts from the Wildlife Trust.
Native primrose plants can be bought ready established in pots or as seeds for a more budget-friendly option – both available at Crocus.
6. Statice
Our garden editor Sophie King fell in love with statice when she visited Bloom & Wild’s flower fields last summer.
‘We were stunned by the number of butterflies fluttering over the statice section of the flower field – I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many in one place,’ says Sophie.
Not only are they plants butterflies love, but they also make a beautiful, long-lasting cut flower – a must-have addition for a cut flower patch.
There’s no reason not to order a packet of seeds and try them for yourself – the Limonium gmelinii Kew Flowerhouse Seed Collection from Thompson & Morgan will reward you with beautiful lavender-purple flowers or Suttons’ Statice ‘Special Mixed’ produces an array of coloured blooms.
7. Wildflower mixes
Want an easier and more effective solution to make your garden more butterfly-friendly? Wildflower seed mixes – like this Butterfly Seed Mix from Amazon – include a mix of plants butterflies love, letting you fill your garden with their favourites, without having to seek out specifics and invest too much time or money in your plot. Plants include Yarrow, Red Campion, Musk Mallow, Cornflowers and Forget-Me-Nots
You can add these mixes to borders, lawn area or pick up Seedball’s Butterfly Mix Seed Bombs on Amazon and create a butterfly haven in a pot.
8. Stinging nettles
While you’re unlikely to purposefully plant these in the garden, if you’re gardening for butterflies, it’s a good idea not to get rid of all your nettles when weeding, as these are high on the list of plants butterflies love. This isn’t an unusual school of thought; in fact, many professional gardeners also recommend stopping weeding to help garden wildlife.
Comma, peacock and red admiral butterflies all lay their eggs on nettle leaves – providing valuable food for the caterpillars once they hatch. Leaving a small patch of nettles in a sunny spot – perhaps alongside your compost heap – can attract butterflies to your plot as they look for the perfect spot to lay their eggs.
‘Nettles are imperative for the survival of some of our most striking garden visitors. Without nettles, the peacock, red admiral, and comma butterflies would only be occasional visitors in our gardens,’ says Andrew Mitchell from Northumberland National Park.
If you’re still unsure about letting the nettles grow, planting hops and bird ‘s-foot-trefoil are also popular with some varieties of butterflies.
Which of these plants will you be adding to your garden to invite more butterflies in this summer?
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