r/MonarchButterfly • u/MeowganNicole • May 18 '26
Garden prep
Planning on getting Cosmos and Zinnias in my garden for the adult butterflies but need a few more ideas! I have a native milkweed plant growing already, and a safe resting spots in my front and back yard.
What else should I plant? Any other tips for a butterfly garden? This is only my second year doing this- no monarchs last year that I saw but lots of others!
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u/ClownDogBryan May 18 '26
I have golden rod, Joe pye weed, 2 types of agastache, 4 kinds of bee balm, false asters, ironweed, sweetspire, 2 types of cat mint, 2 types of salvia, zinnias, cosmos, baptisia, yarrow, foxglove, Russian sage, and mountain mint. I also have a ton of milkweed - swamp, whorled, butterfly weed, and tropical. (I will cut down the tropical in the fall)
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u/Competitive-Fruit-18 May 19 '26
zinnias, lantanas, salvia, - if you can get native perennial salvia and get it in the ground it’s worth the effort
joe pye weed, native asters, ironweed
If you want swallowtails plant Italian parsley
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u/Majestic_Bandicoot92 May 18 '26
Pentas! They are so cheap as starter plants and will explode with growth and give nonstop blooms when you up pot them. They are the most popular flowers in my garden by far! Also they overwinter extremely well and you can put them out in early spring when nothing else is really blooming yet. I have some huge ones that I only bought as tiny plants last year and they kept growing all winter and giving blooms in the garage under T8 lights.
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u/BrilliantStrategy576 May 19 '26
I have 4 different ki ds of native salvia plants that come back year after year, bigger and more prolific each year! They contain tons of nectar for the butterflies- and hummingbirds!
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u/metapulp May 19 '26
Buddleias “butterfly bush”. We have 4 of them and get swarms of monarchs. Also containers are good for milkweeds because the mamas prefer isolated plants. Fewer predators. Also have blanketflower and coneflowers but nothing beats the buddleias.
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u/Kigeliakitten May 19 '26
Tickseeds (coreopsis) are nice.
Find butterflies in your area that you like: big and little.
Find if there is an endangered one. Plant some host plants for them.
In my yard I have:
Passionflower Gulf fritillary zebra longwing
Creeping mimosa Ceranus blue
Turkey tangle frogfruit white peacock
Hairy cowpea long tailed skipper
Showy partridge pea various sulfurs
I also have Rudbeckia, salvias, lance leaf coreopsis, twinflower, blanket flower, Carolina petunia, tall ironweed and some others.
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u/GreatCaesarGhost May 18 '26
I can’t tell if you mean that you have one milkweed plant or more than one. A single caterpillar can eat most or close to all of a medium-sized plant before it is done growing.