Grow a Butterfly Garden

There are more than 400 butterfly species in Australia. They love visiting flowers that are rich in sugary nectar and are particularly fond of brightly coloured yellow, orange, red and purple flowers. It’s ideal to grow plants in your garden that flower at different times of the year and include a wide range of flowering plants to attract a wider variety of butterflies. Butterflies can also help pollinate flowers and some vegetables and fruit and nut trees, so they’re fantastic garden helpers too. 

Butterfly-attracting plants can be grown in a sunny garden bed and also in pots on balconies and patios. Both the flowers and the butterflies will put a smile on your face! Here are our top tips for creating a successful butterfly garden.  

Some of the best nectar plants that will attract adult butterflies into your garden include: 

• Ageratum – easy to grow with soft and fluffy blue flowers. 
• Alyssum – compact plants with masses of tiny honey-scented flowers.  
• Cornflowers – beautiful blue, pink or white flowers that are simple to grow from seed.  
• Cosmos – tall plants with feathery foliage and lots of vibrant flowers. 
• Marigolds – these bright orange and yellow flowers are a magnet for butterflies.  
• Phlox – provides colour and butterfly food during summer.
• Sunflowers – sunflower varieties like ‘Yellow Empress’ and ‘Bronze Shades’ with large, open flowers make it easy for butterflies to access the nectar.   
• Zinnias, like Yates Zinnia Sunrise Mix, have vibrantly coloured flowers which butterflies find irresistible.

• Achillea – also known as yarrow, this hardy perennial comes in a range of pretty colours. 
• Asters – both annual and perennial Asters are gorgeous additions to any garden. 
• Australian native plants like Melaleuca, Banksia, Grevillea, Wattles and eucalypts have flowers that are ideal for feeding native butterflies. 
• Buddleja – also known as butterfly bush, butterflies love buddleja’s fragrant flowers.  
• Catmint – a cottage garden favourite with dainty mauve flowers. 
• Daisies – there is a huge variety of daisies that appeal to butterflies, including Marguerite and Paper Daisies.   
• Echinacea – also called coneflowers, Echinacea are butterfly-attracting perennials that you can grow from seed. 
• Lavender – butterflies will be competing with the bees for the nectar! 
• Monarda – despite its name, bee balm is not just for the bees. 
• Pentas – these summer flowering perennials are often grown in butterfly enclosures.  
• Salvias – from cool blues, pretty pinks to vibrant reds, salvias have nectar rich flowers. You can grow some Salvias from seed, including Salvia ‘Blue Bedder’.  
• Sedum – ‘Autumn Joy’ is a hardy succulent that flowers from late summer and into autumn 

If there are no caterpillars, there will be no butterflies, so it's also important to include caterpillar host plants in your garden. Some of the best food plants for caterpillars include:

• Asclepias – butterfly weed (milkweed) is a favourite food of Monarch butterfly caterpillars. The adult butterflies will also feed on the flowers.  
• Citrus – swallowtail butterfly caterpillars eat the leaves of citrus trees like oranges and lemons. Their caterpillars look a little like bird droppings 
• Dianella – flax lillies are Australian native strappy-leafed perennials that are a source of food for the native Southern Dart butterfly caterpillars. 
• Scaevola – also known as fan flower, this Australian native ground cover provides food for native caterpillars.  

Butterflies will need access to water, so providing them with a water source is another way to encourage them to stay in your garden. A shallow pot plant saucer is perfect. You may often see butterflies drinking from muddy puddles. Not only do they use puddles for hydration, but also the minerals found in the water. You can recreate this (called a Butterfly Puddler) by adding some soil, beach sand and flat stones to a shallow dish of water. Soil and sand add minerals and the stones provide a place for the butterflies to land. Place your butterfly puddler in a quiet, sunny spot in your garden that has shelter from wind. 

An easy way to grow a patch of flowers that butterflies will love is to sow a packet of Yates Butterfly Beneficial Insect Mix seed. This mix contains a vibrant blend of nectar rich flowers to attract and provide food for butterflies and also food for caterpillars. 

Here are the simple steps to create a butterfly garden with Yates Butterfly Field seed mix: 

1. Choose a bare sunny spot in the garden and dig some Yates Dynamic Lifter® Soil Improver & Plant Fertiliser into the soil. 

2.  Scatter the seed thinly over the soil and rake lightly into the surface. Firm down, water gently and keep moist throughout the germination period. 

3. Tiny seedlings will emerge in 10-21 days. 

4. Water the flower patch regularly and feed with liquid fertiliser like Yates Thrive® Roses & Flowers Liquid Plant Food to help the plants grow and encourage lots of colourful flowers. 

5. You’ll start to see the first flowers after around 10 weeks, though results will vary depending on the climate and time of year. 

So, create a butterfly friendly garden by growing some of their favourite flowers at your place, and enjoy watching these magnificent insects when they visit.