r/GardenWild • u/SolariaHues SE England • Feb 02 '16

Resource How to attract butterflies (North America)

https://www.ftd.com/blog/share/how-to-attract-butterflies
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u/[deleted] Feb 03 '16

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u/aftonwy Feb 22 '16

I am a gardener who collected butterflies as a girl. One thing that concerns me is the question of whether new cultivars, which are always being pushed by the garden industry, will support the butterfly species that the original (less showy) flowers/plants do. Many of these cultivars are hybrids, sometimes involving multiple species. Has anyone looked at this?

In my mind there are at least two questions that researchers should ask - one is about the nectar/quality of nectar, the other is about whether the vegetative parts support the caterpillars to the same degree.

One thing I've observed, for example, is that certain Heuchera cultivars attract the bees and others do not (and it is not related to how showy the flowers are). The fact that bees are constantly visiting, to my mind, has to mean that these particular cultivars flowers are good nectar sources.

I mention Heuchera in particular because these are billed as "native wildflowers" (of course the base species are). The flower spikes aren't suitable for butterfly nectaring, of course. But another genus with many highly bred cultivars, that does have the floral shape good for butterflies, is Echinacea - also billed as a "native" species.