GardenMaid| Butterfly Nectar and Host Plants

Nectar and Host Plants

Butterflies are attracted to your garden by two different types of plants. The nectar plants provide the food that the adult butterfly needs and the host plants provide the place where the female will lay her eggs. The host plants also provide the food that the caterpillars will need after hatching. To have a successful butterfly garden you need both types.

Nectar Plants
Nectar plants are flowering plants that produce the sweet fluid that many insects, including butterflies, use as food.

Butterflies seem to prefer plants that have pink, red, purple, yellow or orange flowers. They also appear to be attracted to areas with large masses of a single color, or closely related colors, rather than gardens with many colors mixed together.

Most butterflies must land in order to get to the nectar. They prefer plants having either clusters of short tubular flowers, or flowers with large, flat petals.

Butterflies are generally active from early spring through frost, and having plants in your garden that flower throughout this entire time will attract them all season long.

Host Plants
Host plants provide a place for the female to lay the eggs and an immediate ready source of food for the tiny caterpillars as they can't travel far to find food. The female will only lay her eggs on plants that the caterpillar can use as food.

Most species of caterpillars are particular about the type of plants they eat. Many trees and other plants already found in and around our yards are host plants for caterpillars. There is a wide selection of plants that can be included in a garden that make excellent host plants.

More Articles in this Section

●Nectar Trees and Shrubs
●Butterfly Host Plants
●Annual Nectar Flowers
●Wildflower Nectar Plants
●Location and Design