© Janet Davis
September 2005
I never grow tired
of watching
butterflies in the garden. On warm summer days when the sun is shining
brightly and there is little wind, I can often be found with my close-up lens
trained on the beautiful wings of a monarch, Eastern swallowtail, great
spangled fritillary, painted lady or some other common Ontario butterfly. And
if the insect is really intent on nectaring, I find I can usually approach
quietly and click away to my heart’s content. In fact, in mid-July I shot an
entire film of a monarch feeding on the beautiful, bright-orange flowers of the
aptly named butterfly milkweed.
In my experience, three plants are absolute standouts at attracting butterflies. No matter how many other flowers might be in the vicinity, this trio will always attract the lion’s share of visitors. So if you want butterflies in your garden, avoid using pesticides and place the following champion butterfly plants on your “to buy” list.
BUTTERFLY MILKWEED (Asclepias tuberosa) I mentioned this beautiful, tallgrass prairie native in an earlier
column on drought-tolerant perennials, but as its name suggests, it is also
known as a butterfly lure. Like all the milkweed species, its leaves are the
larval food for the monarch butterfly, so there’s a good chance that apart from
feeding the adult
insects, your garden may also host the caterpillars. Butterfly milkweed loves fertile, sandy soil in full sun, so if
you have clay soil, make sure you amend it thoroughly with builder’s sand
before attempting to grow this plant (and be patient, it takes a few years to
become established.)
MEADOW BLAZING STAR (Liatris ligulistylis) The blazing stars or gayfeathers have tall spikes of fuzzy, magenta-purple flowers that make great cut flowers. This species (also known as Rocky Mountain blazing star) is native to the Canadian prairies and the U.S. Midwest, and its unusual, button-like flowers are butterfly magnets. I photographed a two-hectare meadow in early August that was jam-packed with millions of native wildflowers, yet I knew that if I stood beside the single specimen of L. ligulistylis in that entire field, I would soon have company. Sure enough, a monarch sailed over the fields, dipping and rising and gliding over the tops of various blossoms until it landed exactly where I stood waiting—on that one plant in that paradise! And at the Chicago Botanic Garden last September, the monarchs and swallowtails were elbowing each other out of the way in a bid to get at the best blossoms on the meadow blazing stars. This plant won’t be easy to find, but it’s definitely worth searching out.
‘WHITE PROFUSION’ BUTTERFLY BUSH (Buddleia davidii) Although there are many buddleia varieties in shades of purple, pink and even yellow, I have found that the sweet-scented, white cultivars of this shrub are generally superior at attracting butterflies. Buddleia ‘White Profusion’ is readily available and grows to about 1.8 metres in rich, moist soil. Butterfly bush is often only root-hardy in parts of southern Ontario (meaning upper growth will die back to the ground in winter but the roots will send up new growth in spring) and occasionally, plants will succumb entirely in a bad winter. However, the shrub is so inexpensive that it’s worth treating it as an annual, if necessary. Keep the blossoms deadheaded to encourage a long flowering season. If your shrub does make it through winter, prune it back close to the ground in spring, which will result in more vigorous growth.
Adapted from a column that appeared originally in the National Post