Creating a Garden to Attract Hummingbirds and Butterflies

Attracting nature’s jewels to your garden is easy to do when you plant the right combinations, and offer the right elements in your garden. It is a joy to watch these fluttering beauties enjoy your garden as much as you!

Begin with the Basics Food/Nectar:

This, of course, is a life-sustaining necessity for butterflies & hummingbirds. Most often provided and preferred in the fashion of annuals, perennials and shrubs this will be the primary planting of your flutter garden. Nectar can certainly be supplemented by the use of a feeder, but clean the feeder regularly to keep bacteria from growing.

Water:

Animals, large and small, require water. For butterflies shallow dishes or saucers are preferred. Place a few stones, or a piece of wood in the center of a birdbath to give the butterfly a place to land and rest, making your water source more attractive. A mister is also enjoyed by both butterfly and hummingbird. Misting your plants in the morning (especially if the dew has quickly dried) is also a delight to these winged creatures.

Shelter:

Natural shelter is best. Both will seek shelter in trees and shrubs, and the butterfly may even be more creative seeking solace in a wood pile or house eaves. Hummingbirds build their nests, about the size of a walnut shell, up high using spider silk to bind it and lines it the inside with down to make it soft.

FLUTTER TIPS:

• Butterflies are drawn both visually and aromatically.
• Small butterflies have short “tongues” and prefer flowers with tight clusters of bloom. Larger butterflies have longer “tongues” and find deep-throated flowers more to their liking.
• Your garden should be a blend of nectar-producing plants and host plants, to keep butterflies around (not just eat and run!)
• Butterflies favor the colors purple and yellow, followed by blue, white, then red.
• Hummingbirds are territorial. If you use feeders, use several as far apart as you can.
• Hummingbirds are attracted to red.
• Hummingbirds feed on insects too! So don’t be too quick to smash that spider!

List of Nectar Perennials / Shrubs that Attract Butterflies and Hummingbirds

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List of Nectar Annuals that Attract Butterflies and Hummingbirds

Host Plants for Midwest Butterflies

Black Swallowtail Carrot // dill, fennel, parsley
Great Spangled Fritillary // violet
Monarch // milkweed
Pearly Crescentspot // aster
Pipevine Swallowtail // pipevine (Dutchman’s pipe)
Red-Spotted Purple // wild cherry, willow
Spicebush Swallowtail // sassafras, spicebush
Viceroy // cherry, plum, poplar, willow