It's not hard to entice hungry butterflies with a well-planned garden that considers all aspects of a butterfly's life cycle. Butterflies are particular about where they choose to live. The key is to plant flowers that are bright and colorful and gushing with nectar alongside host plants that butterfly caterpillars feed on. And never ever use pesticides or insecticides in your butterfly garden. Common host plants are violets, snapdragons, passionflowers, milkweed, hollyhocks, spearmint, dill and parsley.
Caterpillars eat leaves, seeds and seed pods, and very few caterpillars are agricultural pests.
The females will seek out host plants to lay their eggs. Wherever there are females, males are not far behind. Once you've provided host plants, finding delicious, showy flowers for the adult butterflies will encourage them to feed and gain strength for mating. Purple, yellow and orange are like signal flags for hungry butterflies. Short-petaled flowers, like sunflowers, are easy to land on.