Butterfly Bed & Breakfast

Butterflies will visit your outdoor abode more often if you supply them with the necessities for all four of their life stages: egg, caterpillar, chrysalis and adult. Food (plants and flowers), water, shelter and host plants (to lay eggs on), are what the leaf-eating caterpillars and nectar-sipping butterflies demand. Provide these essentials with the following plants and they may consider an extended stay….

Painted Lady on Mexican Sunflower

Trees

• Hackberry (Celtis occidentalis) larval host

• Crabapple (Malus spp.) larval host

• Black Cherry (Prunus serotina) larval host

• Oak (Quercus spp.) larval host

• Willow (Salix spp.) larval host and nectar

Red Admiral on Purple Coneflower

Shrubs

• Butterfly Bush (Buddleia spp.) nectar

• New Jersey Tea (Ceanothus spp.) nectar and larval host

• Button Bush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) nectar

• Summersweet (Clethra alnifolia) nectar

• Honeysuckle (Lonicera spp.) nectar

• Lilac (Syringa spp.) nectar

Monarch on Black-eyed Susan

Perennials

• Anise Hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) nectar

• Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) larval host and

nectar

• Aster (Aster spp.) nectar and larval host

• Coreopsis (Coreopsis spp.) nectar

• Coneflower (Echinacea spp.) nectar and larval host

• Joe-pye Weed (Eupatorium spp.) nectar and larval host

• Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia fulgida) nectar and host

• Goldenrod (Solidago spp.) nectar and larval host