Butterfly Host Plants: Create a Complete Butterfly Garden

Nectar Plants (Adult Food)

Full sun, sheltered from wind. No pesticides. Add basking rocks, shallow water dish.

• Butterfly bush, Joe Pye weed, caryopteris, lantana, butterfly weed, coneflowers, cosmos, Shasta daisy, zinnias, bee balm, flowering almond.

Stagger bloom times spring–frost.

Host Plants (Caterpillar Food)

Essential for reproduction. Butterflies lay eggs on specific hosts. Caterpillars eat leaves until chrysalis.

• Monarch – Milkweed
• Black Swallowtail – Carrots, rue, parsley, dill, fennel
• Tiger Swallowtail – Wild cherry, birch, ash, poplar, apple, tulip tree, sycamore
• Pipevine Swallowtail – Dutchman's pipe
• Great Spangled Fritillary – Violet
• Buckeye – Snapdragon
• Mourning Cloak – Willow, elm
• Viceroy – Pussy willow, plum, cherry
• Red Spotted Purple – Willow, poplar
• Pearl Crescent/Silvery Checkerspot – Aster
• Gorgone Checkerspot – Sunflower
• Common Hairstreak/Checkered Skipper – Mallow, hollyhock
• Dogface – Lead plant, false indigo, prairie clover
• Cabbage White – Broccoli, cabbage
• Orange Sulphur – Alfalfa, vetch, pea
• Dainty Sulphur – Sneezeweed
• Painted Lady – Thistle, hollyhock, sunflower
• Red Admiral – Nettle
• American Lady – Artemisia
• Silvery Blue – Lupine

For tree hosts, use dwarfs or site garden nearby. Balance nectar + host plants for success.