SAN ANTONIO – We are in peak butterfly season for residential and migrating butterflies.
If you want to see butterflies of all kinds in your garden, you have to plant for them.
I love the fall because I can walk outside my door and always spot a handful of butterflies in my garden. During peak season (September through November) there can be 50 to 100 outside my door.
This didn’t happen serendipitously. I planted for the butterflies, and you can do it too.
Here is what you can plant to attract all kinds of butterflies to your garden:
- Sage: Any kind of sage will do, but I prefer native Indigo Spires. These are drought, heat, and deer-tolerant perennials that come back in the spring after a hard freeze. These attract big butterflies because of their big flowers, like swallowtails and monarchs.
- Zinnias: These are my favorite. They’re big flowers that attract big butterflies and they can’t get enough of the nectar. Zinnias are heat tolerant, but need water every couple of days, especially if it gets past 97 degrees. Then they’ll start to wilt but will shoot right back up after a quick watering. These are annuals and should be planted by seed every spring, but can be sowed through the summer or even early fall.
- Greggs Mistflower: This is like sugar to butterflies, especially queen butterflies, a cousin to the monarch. They seriously can’t get enough of it. These are native drought, heat, and deer-tolerant perennials that come back in the spring after a hard freeze.
- Lantana: These are small but mighty and can survive anything, and the smaller butterflies love it. These are drought, heat, and deer-tolerant perennials that come back in the spring after a hard freeze.
- Milkweeds: These are host plants for monarchs, meaning they need them to survive and lay eggs. Native milkweeds are best, but hard to plant from seed for even the seasoned gardener. Trust me I have failed planting native milkweed seeds plenty of times, only being successful after not yielding any sprouts many times. Native milkweed seeds can be fickle and also take a couple of seasons to bloom. More big growers are working to produce more of the native milkweeds as transplants to sell to local nurseries but this will take time. Places like Pollinatives in Converse usually has native milkweeds from transplants, and some of our other local nurseries may have them depending on the season. Tropical milkweeds are not native but can be found at almost every nursery. Tropical milkweeds do grow well in South Texas, being drought and heat-tolerant. There is controversy to planting tropical milkweeds in the science world with some experts saying planting it hurts the Monarchs, with others saying it’s better to provide a host plant for Monarchs than nothing at all if you don’t have access to native milkweeds. I have both in my garden. Tropical milkweeds keep a mature supply of milkweed for Monarchs when my native milkweed still needs time to establish itself.
- Passion Vines: These host plants to the Gulf Fritillary. You’ll know they have visited when you see these spikey red/orange caterpillars eating your leaves. You can let them eat the leaves since your leaves will grow back. Plus, passion vines make beautiful flowers and yummy fruit.
For beginner gardeners, I strongly suggest planting all of these from transplants. You can find all of them at our local nurseries. The only ones that grow best from seeds are Zinnias, and even beginners can do it.