Creating a garden or habitat for butterflies can be an exciting and rewarding project for you and your family. These beautiful insects add active beauty to the garden as they feed, roost and fly from bloom to bloom. Many of the flowering shrubs, annuals and perennials that provide food and shelter for butterflies can be found at a convenient Pike Nursery.

Creating a Butterfly Habitat
A habitat for butterflies is an environment that provides food, shelter and other things necessary for the complete life cycle of the butterfly from eggs to larvae to pupae to adult. Several of the key components to this habitat are as follows:

• Sunny Areas: Butterflies are cold-blooded and need sunlight to absorb warmth for flight and other activities.
• Water and Moist Areas: Most butterflies obtain water and nutrients/minerals from the moist areas found in and around your garden. Tiber Swallowtails and other varieties will congregate around the edges of shallow depressions filled with water. This behavior is commonly referred to as "mud-puddling".
• Shelter Areas: Butterflies seek shelter on shrubs, log piles, stone and mortar walls, anyplace where they can bask in the sun, seek refuge from bad weather and predators or hibernate.
• Flowers: Butterflies are attracted to a wide variety of flower shapes, colors and nectars. Mass plantings make it easier for the butterflies to discover the flowers.

Host Plants for Butterflies
After mating, the female butterfly searches for the proper "host" plant on which to deposit her eggs. These host plants meet the needs of the butterfly during all four stages of its life cycle: egg, caterpillar, chrysalis and adult. Several host plants that you can provide are:

• Butterfly Weed (Monarch)
• Dill, Parsley, Fennel, Rue (Black Swallowtail)
• Tulip Tree (Tiger Swallowtail)
• Passion Flower (Gulf Fritillary)

Other host plants include willow, clover, Queen Anne's lace, milkweed and sassafras.

Nectar Flowers for Butterflies
There are many, many flowering shrubs, annuals and perennials that supply food (nectar) for butterflies.

• Annual flowers: penta, zinnia, marigolds, lantana, cosmos, impatiens, verbena, salvia, wave petunias, dianthus and ageratums
• Perennial flowers: coneflowers, asters, black-eyed susan, coreopsis, verbena, butterfly weed, cardinal flower, primrose, corn flower and goldenrod
• Flowering shrubs & vines: azaleas, butterfly bush (buddleia), hibiscus, white or pink viburnum, wisteria, honeysuckle, lilac, mock orange and bougainvillea

Planting Your Flowers and Shrubs
Your local Pike Nursery can supply all of the plants and materials necessary for attracting butterflies to your garden. Professional advice from our horticulturists or Georgia Certified Plant Professionals and reference materials are also available.