Plant your garden to attract nature's delicate winged beauties.
By Mathew Tekulsky

A symbol of freedom and grace, the butterfly is one of nature's most mysterious and elusive creatures. Only on the wing for months, it takes four different shapes during its life as it travels hundreds, even thousands of miles.

Most butterflies, through evolution, have adopted a particular plant or family of plants on which their caterpillars feed exclusively. When the plant goes, so does the butterfly.

Butterfly gardening is an antidote for that. Butterflies need two sources of food: nectar for the adults and "foodplants" for the caterpillars. Most nectar sources are common plants that attract a variety of species. Lantana and butterfly bush (Buddleia) are very effective, as are red, orange, lavender, and yellow plants.

But caterpillars (arrayed in bright colors and intriguing designs) come first--and most plants will only support the larvae of certain species; for instance, milkweed is a favorite of the beautiful Monarch butterfly.

In planning a butterfly garden, make sure your nectar sources are planted in the sun, since butterflies are sun-loving insects. Water larval foodplants at the base, if there are eggs on them, so as not to disturb any.

If you do not have immediate success, don't panic--certain seasons, especially spring and fall, have more butterfly activity than others. And depending on factors such as weather conditions, the number of butterflies around may vary from year to year.

Will caterpillars have a field day with your whole garden? Not really. They tend to stick to their own foodplants and be kept in check by natural predators.

Once you have a good combination of nectar sources and larval foodplants, all you really have to do is wait for the butterflies to start flocking in.