Florida Plants to Attract Butterflies

Perennials

• To maintain a garden of plants that come back every year, plant perennials and start with the butterfly bush. This bush grows to 6 feet and blooms from summer into fall. This is a nectar plant for Anise swallowtail, cloudless sulphur, queen, giant swallowtail, monarch, fiery skipper, painted lady, spicebush swallowtail, tiger swallowtail and the Gulf Fritillary. The Blackfoot daisy, a Florida wildflower, will bloom all summer if watered and attracts skippers and Horace's duskywing along with a few other butterflies. To keep monarch butterflies around year after year plant a milkweed such as butterfly milkweed. This plant has nectar that attracts the adult and is a source of food for the larvae. Inserting fennel into the garden gives the black swallowtail a place to lay her eggs.

Annuals

• For the gardeners who like to make changes in color year-to-year, the verbena and cosmos are nectar plants for the buckeye and the cosmos attracts the cloudless sulfur. Dianthus, an annual and a perennial, blooms in early spring attracting swallowtails and many skippers and hairstreaks to its nectar. Spanish needles are nectar plants of the state butterfly, the zebra longwing.

Shrubs

• The lantana is a nectar plant for Julia, swallowtails, buckeye, cloudless sulphur, monarch, and gulf fritillary. It is also favored by the zebra longwing, which is found throughout Florida. Checkered skippers will appear on your hollyhock shrub when it's time to lay her eggs. The azalea, gold rim and fire bush will also attract a variety of butterflies. The large orange sulfur and cloudless sulfur are attracted to the nectar of the hibiscus.

Trees

• Tawny emperor, hackberry emperor, snout and question mark feed on the nectar of the hackberry tree blooms. Question mark also enjoys elms. Bay trees hold an attraction for the spicebush swallowtail. The red spotted purple both feeds and lays eggs on oaks, wild cherry and willow trees. The viceroy also favors the willow tree for nectar and as a host to her eggs.