Butterfly & Hummingbird Garden

BUTTERFLY AND HUMMINGBIRD GARDEN

Gardens & Nature

As well as being beautiful, gardens can be a place where humans meet nature in a unique and positive way. Some of the most exciting visitors you can have to your garden are butterflies with their beautiful patterns on their wings, and hummingbirds with their cool beaks and really fast wings.

Butterflies and hummingbirds exist naturally over most of the populated areas of our continent although species vary from region to region. By planting flowering plants that are their favourite food sources you greatly increase the chances of them visiting your yard. Putting out their favourite plants in areas where you will sit by often makes it much easier to view them up close. It is not uncommon for hummingbirds to feed on flowers as close as 5 feet away from you! The biggest key is consistency though as if they find out you have lots of their favourite plants they are more likely to come back year after year!

What Attracts Them?

Butterflies are guided by scents and smells. Certain kinds of flowers give off a fragrance that butterflies find attractive, a signal that the plant might be a source of sweet nectar for them to feed on. 

Hummingbirds prefer more tubular and long flowers due to their long beak. They also are most attracted to the colour red. (This is the reason why most hummingbird feeders you can buy at the store are red) When picking out plants for hummingbirds you want to make sure you have atleast one of these qualities in the flowers of your plants for best results.

What is the Best Site?

Select a location that gets full sun for at least 6 hours a day. Both butterflies and hummingbirds appreciate the warmth from the sun, and will favor plants which are placed in it. Conveniently nearly all the plants on our list prefer full sun exposure. Shelter from strong winds is also beneficial as this well help keep the flowers from falling off and make it easier for both hummingbirds and butterflies to fly.

How Soon Will They Come?

Butterflies and hummingbirds are usually migratory, particularly in the northern part of the continent. Since they often spend the winter in warm, sunny places, you shouldn't expect to see them return until the weather begins to warm up, usually no earlier than May. As soon as the plants you have put in the garden being to flower, you can expect to see some activity. Sometimes hummingbirds will find a Fuchsia basket only minutes after you hang it up!

Don’t give up looking! If you don’t see much action the first season, wait another year or two and just enjoy the flowers in the meantime. Vary the times you go our in the garden until you figure out the favourite feeding times. And remember to keep as quiet and still as possible.

Why Isn’t it Working For Me?

Okay, you’ve planned it all out with the right plants, they are flowering away and STILL no sign of your guests. A few possible reasons:

• Dogs or cats (or restless humans) may scare away hummingbirds
• Wet rainy weather can keep butterflies from being active
• Lack of nesting sites, few trees or shrubs for hummingbirds to hide in or to nest
• Nearby use of chemical insecticides may kill butterfly larvae (caterpillars) and reduce insect food sources for hummingbirds
• Your neighbour's garden may be even MORE attractive!

What Else Should I Know?

Butterflies are the adult stage of an insect that starts life as a creeping caterpillar. You might not like that, but remember…no caterpillar, no butterfly. If you use insecticides regularly in your garden, chances are that you may kill off these caterpillars before they can develop into the very butterflies that you are trying to attract. Food sources for the caterpillars should also be planned for in the garden. Some of the best are native shrubs and trees such as willow, cherry, birch, poplar and elm.

Don’t Catch the Butterflies!

Each one that you catch will never be able to reproduce and create the next generation. Enjoy them for the moment, but let them live and prosper so you can get even more later!

So Where Do I Start?

The following plant list will give you a starting point for deciding which perennials to include in your garden, and we’ve also listed some annuals and other plants that are favourites. Get the whole family involved! This kind of interactive nature project is an ideal way to introduce kids to the garden, and they may have already studied this at school.

What Should I Plant?

Botanical Name	Common Name	Hardiness Zone	Attracts
Perennials
Achillea	Yarrow	2-9
Agastache	Anise-Hyssop	2-9
Alcea	Hollyhock (red,purple)	2-9
Allium	Ornamental Onion	3-9
Aquilegia	Columbine	2-9
**Asclepias**	Milkweed	4-9	Best for monarch butterflies as they lay their eggs on them.
Aster	Michaelmas Daisy	3-9
**Buddleia**	Butterfly Bush	5-9	Great for butterflies.
Caryopteris	Bluebeard	5-9
Chelone	Turtlehead	3-9
Coreopsis	Tickseed	4-9
Delphinium	Delphinium (Dark colours)	2-9
Dianthus	Pinks, Sweet William	3-9
**Echinacea**	Purple Coneflower	3-9	Great for butterflies.
Echinops	Globe Thistle	2-9
Hesperis	Dame’s Rocket	2-9
Heuchera	Pink or Red Coral Bells	3-9
Kniphofia	Torchlily, Red Hot Poker	5-9
Laveandula	Lavender	4-9
Leucanthemum	Shasta Daisy	4-9
Liatris	Blazing Star	2-9
Lobelia cardinalis	Cardinal Flower	4-9
Malva	Mallow	3-9
Monarda	Bee Balm	3-9
Perovskia	Russian Sage	4-9
Plox paniculata	Summer Phlox	3-9
Physostegia	Obedient Plant	2-9
Rudbeckia	Cone-Flower	Various
Salvia	Perennial Sage	3-9
Scabosia	Pincushion Flower	3-9
Sedum	Autumn Stonecrop	2-9
Solidago	Goldenrod	2-9
Thymus	Thyme	3-9
Common Name	Botanical Name		Attracts
Annuals
Ageratum
Begonia, Tuberous
Canna (Red)
Cleome (other than white)
Cosmos
Flowering Tobacco	Nicotiana
**Fuchsia**			By far the best annual for attracting hummingbirds!
Geranium	Pelargonium
Gomphrena
Heliotrope
Lantana
Monkey Flower	Mimulus
Nasturtium
Petunia
**Salvia (Red)**			Great for hummingbirds.
Snapdragon
Sunflower
Sweet Alyssum
Verbena
Zinnia
Botanical Name	Common Name	Hardiness Zone	Attracts
Shrubs / Vines
Campsis	Trumpet Vine	5-9
Cotoneaster	Cotoneaster	Various
Hibiscus	Rose of Sharon	5-9
**Lonicera**	Red Trumpet Honeysuckle	4-9	Great shrub for attracting hummingbirds.
Ribes	Flowering Currant	4-9
Spiraea	Spirea	3-9
Syringa	Lilac	2-9
**Weigela**	Weigela	4-9	Great shrub for attracting hummingbirds.