Creating a butterfly garden is an enchanting way to invite vibrant pollinators like butterflies, bees, and even hummingbirds into your outdoor space. By planting a mix of colorful perennials like bee balm, butterfly bush, black-eyed Susan, and milkweed, you not only create a visually appealing garden but also support the vital ecosystems that these pollinators depend on. For example, yellow-blooming perennials and purple coneflowers are especially attractive to monarch butterflies, providing both nectar and host plants.
Whether you’re a seasoned gardener or a beginner, choosing hardy plants like asters, yarrow, and phlox can help transform your garden into a year-round sanctuary for pollinators. These plants don’t just add beauty with their colorful blooms—they offer essential support to the creatures that make our gardens thrive.
Best Perennials for Butterfly Garden
1. Blanket Flower
Blanket flower is the perfect pick for a butterfly garden. It grows best in well-drained soil, full sun, and warm summers. Blanket flowers need as much sun as you can give them, they will continue to thrive through hot summer temperatures.
Blanket flowers in pots usually need to be watered daily by the time summer heat arrives. established plants don’t need much watering, so don’t forget to water for the first few weeks after planting if rainfall is scarce. Once you see steady new growth, reduce watering and rely on rainfall to keep plants irrigated.
It is used as ornamental with its firework-like looks, and it is long blooming. It also has medicinal use, the tea of root is used for gastroenteritis, chewed powdered root is used on skin disorders, nursing mothers have taken baths in this tea to relieve soreness and has also been used for sore eyes.
2. New England Aster
This aster is particularly attractive to the Pearl Crescent butterfly since they will lay their eggs on the plant to feed their caterpillars. These are some of the great garden plants that serve as both a host plant and a nectar plant for the butterflies.
The requirements for growing New England aste is full sun.It needs acidic soil and Water when the soil dries out.
Asters have been used for centuries in Chinese medicine for treating of pain, fevers, diarrhea and weak skin. Flowers and leaves can be eaten fresh or dried. Native Americans harvested wild aster for the roots of the plant, which they used in soups.
3. Joe-Pye Weed
It is a butterfly magnet. Joe Pye Weed is among the best plants for pollinators. Native to wet meadows in the eastern half of the US, Joe Pye Weed nurtures butterflies and bees and is the host plant for more than three dozen species of moth and butterfly caterpillars.
Joe Pye weed needs well-drained, moist, fertile soil and tolerates an acidic, neutral, or alkaline pH. To enrich your soil, work in some compost. Keep them watered deeply, but don’t let the soil get soggy. Also, don’t let the soil dry out for more than a couple of days during hot spells.
A tea of the roots is used to treat fevers, colds, chills, sore womb after childbirth, diarrhea, and liver and kidney ailments. A wash of the root tea is also used for rheumatism and as a diaphoretic.
4. Garden Phlox
Its sweet perfume lures a variety of butterflies. Tall garden phlox (P. paniculata) is a low-maintenance plant that adds a burst of color and interest to the summer garden.
Both varieties of phlox enjoy full sun, although the upright Garden phlox can take a little afternoon shade. Phlox is tolerant of most garden soils, but well-drained soil is preferable, particularly in northern areas where spring snow is slow to drain. They should receive about an inch of water per week during the growing season. To keep foliage healthy, water in the morning and at the root zone.
Mostly grown as ornamental and as a ground cover. The roots of this plant also used to treat diarrhea, the entire plant was used to treat problems with the stomach.
5. Purple Coneflower
Purple coneflower is well known for being a butterfly magnet. It attracts many different species of nectaring butterflies. We grow the native variety, so the nectar production is not varied by hybridization, and it is mostly carefree.
It requires full sun or partial shade; the soil type is best well-drained with a neutral to acidic soil pH. These easy-care perennials require only the basics: regular watering of about an inch per week.
Purple coneflower is an herbal medicine that has been used for centuries, customarily as a treatment for the common cold, coughs, bronchitis, upper respiratory infections, and some inflammatory conditions.
6. Tickseed
it’s an excellent choice for a pollinator garden. Plant it alongside other pollinator-friendly plants like Milkweed and Coneflowers. Use Coreopsis to have a dramatic effect on mass plantings.
Full sun brings out the best in Coreopsis, especially in well-drained soils. Water during drought, but Coreopsis is quite drought-tolerant once established. Fertilizer/Soil and pH: Coreopsis is not fussy about soil and will bloom exuberantly under a variety of conditions.
Amerindians used root tea for diarrhea and as an emetic. They also drank dried tops in tea to strengthen their blood. They boiled the plant to make a drink for internal pains and bleeding. Use Other: It was used as a source of yellow and red dyes.
7. Blazing Star
The blazing star has clumps of feathery purple or white flowers on long stalks that bloom in summer, usually from July to August. The flowers bloom from top to bottom along the stalks. It has grass-like leaves.
They will thrive best in a place with full sun and well-draining soil with low to medium fertility.Water new plantings weekly in dry weather until a strong root system is established. Once plants have matured, they will tolerate dry spells because the corms naturally retain water.
The blazing star had several medicinal uses among the North American natives. The roots were ground and used as a pain reliever for headaches, arthritis, and earaches. The roots were also used to treat fevers, and the leaves were used as an antiseptic wash and a treatment for upset stomachs.
8. Goldenrod
Goldenrod supports specialist bees and attracts butterflies, moths, beetles, and solitary (non-stinging) wasps. Solidago seeds are a good winter food source for birds. Every pollinator garden should have a major section planted in goldenrod.
Goldenrod is easy to grow and does not need feeding or watering. It should get all the water it needs from rainfall. Goldenrod craves full sun for optimal flowering. The plant will tolerate a bit of shade, though a shady location can reduce its blooms.
Goldenrod has also been used to treat tuberculosis, diabetes, enlargement of the liver, gout, hemorrhoids, internal bleeding, asthma, and arthritis.
9. Butterfly Weed
Monarch butterflies use many different varieties of milkweeds to feed their caterpillars.
Butterflyweed needs full sun to thrive. This plant needs full sun to bloom. Although it prefers sandy soil,butterflyweed grows in almost any type of soil, including gravel or clay, as long as it is well-drained. It is very drought tolerant once established.giving it about one inch of water per week through combined rainfall and irrigation.
The butterfly weed roots are used as a cure for pleurisy and pulmonary ailments. The fibers from the dry stems are used for building twine and the flowers can be crushed up and mixed with oils to put on bruises and cuts to promote quicker healing.
Conclusion
In conclusion, cultivating a butterfly garden with the best perennials is not only a delightful and rewarding endeavor but also a significant contribution to supporting local ecosystems. By choosing plants like Echinacea, Black-eyed Susan, bee balm, sedum, echinacea purpurea, Asclepias tuberosa, and Phlox paniculata for sunny spots and shades in the garden, you create a vibrant, sustainable habitat that attracts and nurtures butterflies year after year.
These perennial annuals not only offer stunning visual appeal before the first frost but also ensure that your landscape remains a haven for pollination for bees and hummingbirds through the seasons of autumn, spring, or fall. Embrace the beauty and ecological benefits of perennials in clusters; your butterfly garden doubles the joy of the fluttering colors to attract visitors who grace your yard with life and color.
