Butterflies love Buddleja's but there are many other smaller scale plants that are just as effective, such as Echinacea, Veronicastrum and Michelmas daisies.
If you are choosing plants to attract butterflies to your garden, you will need to include two types of plants in your planting scheme:
1/ Nectar Plants - These are plants that provide nectar for butterflies to feed on
2/ Caterpillar Plants - These are the plants that butterflies lay their eggs on. They provide food for the emerging caterpillars, so be aware that they will get munched!
The top 5 butterfly friendly plants to include in your garden planting scheme are:
1/ Verbena bonariensis
2/ Sedum spectabile - Ice Plant
3/ Hedera Helix - Ivy
4/ Origanum vulgare - Marjoram
5/ Lavandula - Lavender
You will also need to include plants which provide food for the caterpillars. You may want to plant these in a less visable part of the garden so that you don't have to look at the holey leaves once they have been munched.
The top 5 caterpillar food plants to include in your garden planting scheme.
1/ Foeniculum - Fennel
2/ Urtica - stinging nettles are great too!)
3/ Trifolium - Clover
4/ Humulus lupulus - Hop
5/ Salix - Willow
For more information, visit MyButterflyGarden.co.uk
Butterfly plants | Garden wildlife | Bird boxes + nests | Plants for birds | Beekeeping | Ladybirds
