Gardening Tips for Tidewater Virginia

      Habitat destruction is the butterfly's greatest enemy.  To help counteract this in a small way, plant butterfly nectar and host plants in a sunny protected space in your garden or even in pots on your deck or patio.  If you can, leave some grassy, weedy patches unmowed on your property.

      If you can't have but one nectar plant, make it a butterfly bush.  If you don't have room for but one kind of host plant, make it parsley or fennel.  If you get really interested in butterfly gardening (and it is fascinating), there are a number of excellent books on the subject.  

      Here are a few plant suggestions:

 Shrubs (Nectar Sources)

Butterfly Bush (Buddleia)

Can be used as a shrub or pruned as a small tree.  Colors: purple, blue, pink, white, and yellow.  Blooms from early summer to frost.  Prune in early spring as it blooms on new wood.

Vitex or Chaste Tree

Shrub or small tree with spikes of flowers.  Blue, purple and white.

Abelia (especially Abelia chinensis)

Hardy evergreen to semideciduous shrub.  Small bell-shaped white to pink flowers in clusters.

Clerodendrum trichotomum

Can be pruned as shrub or grown as small tree.  Highly fragrant pinkish white flowers in clusters.

Lantana or Shrub Verbena

"Miss Huff's Hardy" winters over in Tidewater. Orange and pink blooms.

Perennials (Nectar Sources)

Verbenas

V. bonariensis - clusters of small purple flowers on tall, rigid stems.

Garden Phlox (Paniculata)

Tall, bloom in midsummer.  Pink seems to attract butterflies especially well.

Sedum (Spectabile)

"Brilliant," a pink sedum, is extremely popular with butterflies.  Also "Autumn Joy," which blooms later.

Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa)

Bright orange blooms.  Interesting seedpods.  Member of milkweed family.  Besides being a nectar plant, is used by Monarchs as host plant if common milkweed is not available.

Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)

Blooms throughout summer.  Do not deadhead too soon as butterflies and bees continue to visit after petals have faded.

Joe Pye Weed (Eupatorium)

Some can be 6' tall, others not so high.  Huge pink blooms made up of many small flowers.  Gets mixed reviews in Tidewater - attracks butterflies in some gardens, in others does not.

Goldenrods

Nectar plants in fall, especially for Monarchs migrating south.

Annuals (Nectar)

Zinnas

Single Zinnas preferred by butterflies.  Pink seems especially attractive.  Do not deadhead too promptly as butterflies continue to visit after bloom has passed peak.

Impatiens

All colors.

Pentas

All colors.

Cosmos

All colors.

Tithonia (Mexican Sunflower)

Multi-stemmed plant about 3' tall.  Spectacular bright orange blooms.

Vinca

Butterflies seem to be especially attracted to red-eyed white.

Host Plants (Specific to Certain Butterflies)

Parsley

Host plant for Black swallowtails.  (Those are not "parsley worms."  They are butterfly caterpillars!)

Fennel

Preferred by Black Swallowtails over parsley.  Bronze gennel does not seem to attrack as well as green.

Milkweed

Including Common, Purple, Swamp, and Mexican milkweed (A. curassavica and Butterfly Weed (a. tuberosa).  Attract Monarchs both as nectar plants and host plants.  Milkweeds transmit a protective toxicity to Monarchs which makes them unpalatable to birds.

Violets

Host to Fritillaries.

Host Shrubs and Trees

Sassafras

Can be kept shrubby or grown as tree.  Host to Spicebush Swallowtail.

Spice Bush

Host to Spicebush Swallowtail.  Grows 6' to 12' high.

Paw Paw

Host to Zebra Swallowtial.

Wild Cherry

Can be kept pruned or grown as tree.  Host to Tiger Swallowtail and Red-spotted Purple.

Vines

Passion Vine (Passiflora)

Host to Gulf Frillary.

Wisteria

Host to Silver-spotted Skipper, Long-tailed Skipper.  Nectar for Juvenal's Dusky Wing.

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