What Flowers Are Best for Butterfly Gardens

Butterflies are delicate and beautiful, and they love to sip the nectar from flowers that are just as colorful as their vibrant wings. If you’re wondering how to attract butterflies to your yard, it’s important to plant flowers that will feed them and host plants where female butterflies can lay their eggs. Luckily, these plants attract butterflies and are lovely additions to your landscaping.

Butterfly Bush

The Butterfly Bush is a fast-growing deciduous shrub that butterflies love. It’s a low-maintenance plant, but make sure you plant it in a spot where it has space to grow. They’re perfect additions to your perennial border, cottage garden, or island bed. Just place them in an area where they can sprawl and grow up to 12 feet tall.

Garden Phlox 

This bright perennial makes the perfect addition to your mixed bed or border. The fragrant blooms are ideal for cutting and putting in vases, and they grow in abundance so that butterflies can enjoy them. Hummingbirds also love to drink the nectar from these vibrant flowers. 

Coneflower 

Coneflower can grow up to four feet tall and comes in various colors, including light purple, white, orange, and yellow. Plant them in your garden to attract butterflies and bees, and watch them bloom in late summer when other flowers begin to wane.

Lantana 

Lantana is a low-maintenance and unique plant to grow in your garden. Their blossom heads are filled with tiny flowers in multiple hues, creating a rainbow of color in your landscaping. Butterflies love to drink nectar from the blooms that can be lavender, orange, red, rose, gold, or white. These flowers are deer and rabbit-resistant since their leaves are scratchy and smelly to critters.

Bluestar

Named after its lovely blue, star-shaped flowers, this plant is unique. Blue flowers are rare, and these blooms look beautiful in any garden space. They grow two to three feet tall, and they’re one of the best flowers that attract butterflies.

Marigolds 

Bright and beautiful, marigolds come in various colors, including yellow, white, orange, red, and gold. They’re easy to grow and are great at keeping pests away from your garden. Butterflies are attracted to the vibrant flowers and like to land and drink nectar from marigolds.

Black-Eyed Susan

These bright yellow flowers are perfect for growing in a garden since their blooms begin in early summer and last throughout the fall. They grow 24 to 36 inches tall, and their bright yellow petals attract bees and butterflies alike.

Blazing Star Flowers 

Blazing star flowers have lovely lavender and white blooms that grow tall and reach their peak in late summer. Butterflies are attracted to their bright blooms and land on them to feed and rest their tiny wings.

Lavender

Fragrant and bright, lavender is a perennial growing in a shrub-like shape. Lavender’s beautiful purple blooms draw butterflies, making them an excellent addition to your garden. These are also a flower that deer avoid.

Swamp Milkweed

Tiny, rose-colored flowers grow in clusters on this gorgeous plant, giving a delicate look to your garden. Butterflies are attracted to the bright blooms, where they feed on the nectar inside.

Learn About Butterfly Flowers at Texas Discovery Gardens

To learn more about the plants that butterflies love most, visit us at Texas Discovery Gardens. We offer family memberships so everyone can enjoy the butterflies at our facility. Contact us today to learn more about butterflies and the flowers they love most. We hope to see you at our two-story butterfly house soon!