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Create your own Butterfly Garden

Our Australian butterfly fauna, with about 400 species, represents about 2 percent of the world fauna. Many of our butterflies are unique to Australia. To invite butterflies to your garden, you will first need to understand their life cycle. Butterflies have four stages of development: egg, caterpillar (or larva), chrysalis, and winged adult. Accommodate the needs of each stage for greatest success.

Adult butterflies lay eggs on host plants so the larvae will have the necessary food to mature. At the end of this larval stage, they need a sturdy, protected place to attach and form the chrysalis. Adults survive eating sweet flower nectar.

Accommodating Each Stage

Host Plants

Most butterfly caterpillars have specific food preferences. Monarchs, for example, only lay eggs on milkweed. Black swallowtails lay eggs on any member of the carrot family, such as parsley, fennel, and dill, but no other plants. Once a caterpillar eats its first plant meal, it cannot survive on any other plant.

Pesticides

To avoid harming butterflies, which are insects, be careful when applying chemicals on or near plants. Spot treating pest insects with insecticidal soaps or oils leaves no chemical residue to harm caterpillars. You can handpick some pests, such as beetles. A regular, hard blast of water can remove other plant pests, such as aphids, that cause unplanned plant damage.

Another advantage of decreased garden chemical use is the presence of other garden helpers, which pesticides can kill. These are beneficial critters, such as spiders, lacewings, ladybugs, and ground beetles that eat the plant pests. There are also other pollinators, such as honey bees, that benefit from reduced chemical use.

Location

Butterfly gardens should be in full sun. All insects are cold-blooded. Their body temperature is dependent on the environmental temperature. Enhance the suns warming energy with stepping stones or a gravel path. Butterfly adults will bask in these areas to warm themselves from the radiant heat. Your garden will also benefit, because most of the plants used by butterflies grow best in full sun.

Shelters

Include a few blooming shrubs in your butterfly garden or have evergreens nearby for shelter. Butterflies will hide in these areas on cloudy days or at night and find protection from the rain and wind when needed. Your garden might even be located near the garage, gazebo, or garden shed. These permanent structures also give shelter and protection.

Chrysalids also benefit from these places. After a couple weeks (varies by butterfly species), the caterpillars seek something sturdy for chrysalid attachment. If the host plant is sturdy, such as fennel, they’ll likely just use a rigid, inner stem. However, not all host plants satisfy this need. If you plan accordingly, woody stems, benches, arbors, or other solid supports will be ornamented with various chrysalids

Puddles

Male butterfly adults need to puddle. They obtain water and minerals from the shallows of these wet places. To make a permanent puddle, bury a shallow pan of wet gravel or sand to its rim. Fill it with liquids, such as fruit drinks or plain tap water. You might even sprinkle it periodically with liquid fertilizer when boosting the garden plants. Some butterflies, such as the viceroy, like to drink from rotten fruit. Locate the compost pile nearby and allow rotting fruit to occasionally stay on top.

Flowers

Flowers provide the nectar food adult butterflies need. Choose a variety of plants, including annuals, perennials, and woody shrubs, to have flowers continuously through the seasons. This plant diversity also attracts a greater variety of butterfly visitors. Many of our native butterflies more often visit purple, red, orange, and yellow flowers.

How many insects have you noticed flying in a straight line? Remember, butterflies are insects. Their compound eyes have poor vision for distinguishing tiny details. Large sweeps of each flower are most attractive to these near-sighted creatures.

Also, consider their mouth parts. Butterflies suck liquid food with a straw-like mouth. Tubular-shaped flowers are ideally suited. Butterflies prefer clusters of tubular or flat-topped flowers, but remember to have variety. Different species have different preferences for flower size. Compound flowers, such as verbena, daisies, and butterfly bushes, offer numerous nectar containers for sipping in a single stop.

Nectar

Butterflies have a highly developed sense of smell in their antennae. They seek flowers with rich nectar. Surprisingly, some of our newer plant varieties have little sugary nectar due to the breeding and selection process for other plant traits. Choose open-pollinated, fragrant, flowering plants with a single petal row rather than double. Fragrance is sometimes a nectar signal that you can easily detect.

Keys to choosing flowers in your butterfly garden are long bloom time, a variety of plants, large areas of a single color, tubular-shaped and compound flowers, and rich nectar.

11 Tips To Accommodate Butterflies

1. Make things easy for butterflies as well as for yourself. Begin by grouping diverse clumps of attractive plants together in a sheltered sunny spot. Try to maintain diversity in height, colour and blooming periods. Leave some weedy patches and long grass nearby for egg-laying.
   
   
2. Design this to be a wild area, as butterflies enjoy natural environments.
   
   
3. Butterflies prefer gardens that are sheltered from prevailing winds.
   
   
4. Place a shallow dish of muddy water in a sunny spot.
   
   
5. Avoid using poisonous pesticides in your butterfly garden. 
   
   
6. By planting plenty of nectar-rich flowers, you can attract lots of butterflies. Plants including pentas, ageratum, nicotiana, sunflower, verbena, alyssum, marigold and heliotrope are among their favourites.
   
   
7. Also add plants that are typically pollinated by butterflies. Typical flowers include: Bottlebrush, Buddleia, Daisies, Grevillea, Kangaroo paw, Lantana and Lavender.
   
   
8. Try some plants in containers for increased flexibility.
   
   
9. Experiment and learn which flowers your local butterflies prefer. Get to know what their caterpillars look like. 
   
   
10. Each type of caterpillar has its favourite plant for food. Find out what they are and plant them. Don’t worry about the chewed leaves – the colour and grace these beautiful butterflies will give your garden will make up for it!
    
    
11. Try keeping a brief journal of your butterfly-watching experiences. Buy a good field guide to help you identify your butterfly visitors as well as their eggs and caterpillars. Butterfly gardening can be a lifelong adventure that becomes more exciting as your knowledge grows.

Brown Soldier Butterfly


Blue Tiger Butterfly


Orange Lacewing Butterfly


Australian Lurcher Butterfly


Blue Triangle Butterfly


Yellow Admiral


Spotted Jezebel


Ochre Butterfly


Ageratum


Penta


Sunflowers


Nicotiana