Have you ever noticed how butterflies and hummingbirds in your yard seem to fly around certain flowers. Butterflies and hummingbirds like certain flowers and certain areas of a yard. Growing flowers and plants that attract them is easy, just pick the right flowers and the right spot in your yard.
Picking the Right Spot for Butterflies and Hummingbirds
Butterflies can be picky and picking the right spot for butterfly attracting flowers is important. An area that has high traffic like next to a door with everyone running in and out is not the best spot.
And you don’t want an area that is also the dog's favorite spot. Butterflies don’t like a windy area where they have to constantly fight the wind either.
They do like a sunny area for at least part of the day, with 5 or 6 hours of sunlight which also helps the flowers. Butterflies need to warm up by resting in a sunny area, which is why you don’t see as many butterflies on a cool cloudy day.
Putting flagstones throughout the garden or some wood such as railroad ties also makes for nice butterfly resting areas. Butterflies need water as well; putting some source of water will keep them from having to fly away looking for water.
You could build just a little holding area of water out of stones or a couple of these within the flowers.
Flowers that Attract Butterflies
When you plant your flowers, don’t bunch them up tightly, let the air flow through them with areas in between the flowers for the butterflies to get their water and sit in the sun.
Make it a colorful display of flowers since butterflies are attracted to certain colors. Their favorite colors are red, pink, purple, yellow and orange.
Since butterflies like to land or perch on flowers, they like the types of flowers that are flat and open. Butterflies are attracted to the following flowers:
Aster | Fleabane | Red Clover |
Allium | Goldenrod | Redbud |
Blanket Flower | Grape Hyacinth | Rosemary |
Bee Balm | Ice Plant | Shepard's Needle |
Black-eyed Susan | Joe Pye Weed | Snapdragon |
Buddleia | Lantana | Strawberry |
Butterfly Bush or Butterfly Weed | Lavender | Sweet Alyssum |
Chickweed | Mallow | Sunflower |
Coreopsis | Marigold | Thistle |
Cosmos | Milkweed | Verbena |
Cushion Mum Daisy | Mustard | Vetch |
Daylilies | Pepperbush | Viburnum |
Dogbane | Phlox | Violet |
Dogwood | Privet | Wild Rose |
False Indigo | Purple Coneflower | Winter Cress |
Zinnia |
Flowers that Attract Hummingbirds
The flowers that attract butterflies aren’t necessarily the same that attract hummingbirds. Hummingbirds like the color red and they like bell or tube-shaped flowers. Here is a list of hummingbird favorite flowers:
Bee Balm | Silk Tree |
Red Columbine | Petunias |
Delphinium | Butterfly Bush |
Hollyhock | Begonia |
Rose of Sharon | Bougainvillea |
Trumpet vine | Hibiscus |
Trumpet Honeysuckle | Indian Paintbrush |
Cardinal Vine | Dahlia |
Lantana | Coral Bells |
Fuchsia |
The butterfly bush is good for attracting both butterflies and hummingbirds. I also remember as a kid, we had flowers called Four O’Clocks (Mirabilis) that hummingbirds were always around.
Flowers that Attract Birds
It is not so much the flowers that attract birds; it’s the seeds they like. Zinnias are very good to attract butterflies and hummingbirds but birds love the seeds.
To attract birds to your garden, don’t deadhead the flowers. Let the seeds stay and the birds will come to them. Deadhead the flowers in the following early spring to get them ready to bloom again. Birds are attracted to the following flowers:
Zinnias | Snapdragon |
Asters | Calendula |
Sunflower | Cornflower |
Cockscomb | Cosmos |
Larkspur | Larkspur |
Purple Coneflower | Coreopsis |
Starting a Flower Garden
Many of these flowers are perennials and might have a tendency to spread and be invasive. And the Lavender can become a small bush, so think about how you want the flower garden to look years later.
It is important that you don’t use any kind of pesticides in your garden; you don’t want to harm the butterflies and hummingbirds. And many times the birds in your garden will take care of the harmful pests without you having to use any kind of chemicals.
If you don’t have room for a full flower garden, planting a container flower garden and some hanging baskets would work well and look great.
Copyright © 2008-2019 Sam Montana
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