Invite beautiful and exotic guests into your yard by creating a butterfly garden. There are differences among butterflies, skippers and moths. Butterflies fly in the daytime, have clubbed antennae, smooth bodies and are brightly colored. Skippers fly during the day, have clubbed antennae with a hook on the end and have smooth bodies, but a skipper’s coloring is dull. Moths are nocturnal. They have feathery antennae, hairy bodies and are not as colorful as butterflies.

Common butterflies in the Front Range include black swallowtail, checkered skipper, checkered white, clouded sulfur, Edwards fritillary, European cabbage butterfly, gray hairstreak, hackberry butterfly, Melissa blue, monarch, orange sulfur, painted lady, two-tailed swallowtail, variegated fritillary, Weidemeyer’s admiral and many more. There are over four hundred species that visit the Front Range.

Butterflies have four life stages. Eggs are usually laid on the underside of a leaf of a host plant. The egg stage typically lasts a few weeks. Eventually the larva chews its way out of the egg sack and begins eating the host plant, chomping leaf after leaf. Be wise and plant some vegetation for the hungry caterpillars and some for yourself.

There is nothing like finding a caterpillar in your steamed broccoli, and depending on your personal palette, you may wish to use Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) to kill European cabbage butterfly larva on vegetables like broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower.

When the larva matures, it will pupate by spinning a cocoon (moths) or chrysalis (butterflies) and attach upside-down to a nearby branch, leaf or host plant. The time of emergence as an adult depends on the availability of host plants for future lifecycles.

Adult butterflies have sucking mouthparts and spend a great deal of their lives seeking nectar, rotting fruit, tree sap and even animal droppings. The remainder of their time is spent mating and laying eggs. Some butterflies overwinter in Colorado, but the majority complete their life cycle by the end of the growing season.

Many people have plants in their gardens that will attract butterflies. Trees like aspen, cherry, cottonwood, elm, green ash, hackberry, hawthorn, linden, oak, plum, and willow are butterfly attractors. Shrubs include butterfly bush, choke cherry, cotoneaster, lilac, blue mist spirea and viburnum. Perennials like aster, butterfly weed, coreopsis, gaillardia, globe thistle, cone flower, daylily, hollyhocks, lavender, liatris, joe pye weed, phlox, scabiosa, sedum, shasta daisy, rudbeckia, monarda and yarrow attract many butterflies. Annual plants include candytuff, cosmos, marigolds, nasturtium, petunia, salvia, snapdragon, statice, sunflower, verbena and zinnia.

Herbs like catnip, chives, dill, mint, oregano, parsley and fennel can be planted for caterpillars. Species prefer different plants, so plant a wide variety to attract many butterflies. Canadian thistle and dandelions are weeds that attract butterflies; Monarch caterpillars only eat milkweed.

To start a butterfly garden, have a soil test done to determine if you need to amend the soil in the area you wish to plant. You may need to incorporate rich organic matter. When planning the garden, provide shelter from wind, rocks for the butterflies to sun themselves on and a water puddle to drink from. Butterflies need nectar plants for adults and host plants for caterpillars. Be cautious with pesticides as caterpillars are very susceptible.

Put plants with similar water needs together. Select enough plants of each variety to form a mass of color so butterflies can spot them. Give plants plenty of space so they do not become over crowded when mature. Try to plant flower varieties with different bloom times for a constant nectar source. Place tall plants at the back or center of the garden and gradually decrease size toward the front. Mulch the plants and water well until they are established.

Now you can sit back and enjoy the colorful show of butterflies flitting through your yard.

For more information on butterflies, refer to Colorado State University Cooperative Extension Fact Sheet #5.504, “Attracting Butterflies to the Garden.” You can access this Fact Sheets and hundreds of others, by visiting www.ext.colostate.edu

The authors have received training through Colorado State University Cooperative Extension's Master Gardener program and is a Master Gardener volunteer for Larimer County.

Gardening and Insect Fact Sheets are available on-line by clicking HERE.

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This page updated:  September 28, 2006