After my butterflies post, Love2LearnMom asked:

Do you know of a good site or book for finding plants that attract butterflies (and perhaps hummingbirds) well?

We are big fans of ButterflyBushes.com. Lots of good information about both types of plants necessary to attract butterflies to your garden—nectar sources and caterpillar food sources. Each species of butterfly seeks out specific plants to lay its eggs on, so you need to provide these host plants or you’ll just have occasional passerby butterflies sipping at your flowers. For example, black swallowtail larvae like fennel, dill, rue, and parsley. Baltimore Checkerspots like Turtlehead (which has quite a pretty flower).

ButterflyBushes.com also sells hummingbird-attracting plants. Cardinal flower is our favorite!

I have ordered from these folks many times and have always been pleased with their plants. We bought several little four-dollar butterfly bushes from them a few years ago, and now they tower over my head! (And I cut them back almost to the ground every March.)

But even if you don’t want to order from them, their site is extremely informative. You’ll have fun browsing.

Tags: butterflies, nature