Butterfly Garden Plants for Florida

Plants for Butterflies

• Aster is a wildflower that blooms in the summer and fall. It is a small plant with bright white, blue or pink flowers. Black-eyed Susan is a wildflower that has a black center and yellow, star-shaped petals. It grows in summer and fall, and produces nectar that butterflies love. Butterfly bush is a shrub that grows like a large tuft of grass. The bush produces large, purple droopy flowers. Butterfly bush was named for the butterfly-attracting powers that it seems to have. Adult butterflies use the butterfly bush for perching and drinking nectar. The cosmos plant is a small weed-like plant that produces bright, small flowers. The color of the blooms can be white, pink, purple or orange.

Plants for Larvae

• Some plants provide the nutrients and leaves that butterfly larvae need. Butterfly weed is a small, weed-like plant that produces bright orange flowers in the spring and summer. The plant attracts almost all butterflies. Butterfly weed is a host for butterfly larvae as well as adult butterflies. Wolly Duchman’s pipevine is a type of plant that is an ideal larvae host. This large-leafed vine can be trained to grow on the ground or to climb a wall. Mock bishopsweed is a type of weedy plant that is thin and tough looking. It blooms with tiny white flowers. The plant is also a host for many types of butterfly larvae.

Plants by Region

• Since Florida has a wide landscape variation including swampy areas, dry areas and beach-like regions, not all plants will grow in every region of the state. Butterfly plants should be chosen by region as well as by their butterfly-attracting qualities. North Florida can sustain asters, Black-eyed Susan, the butterfly bush and ironwood. Central Florida provides a flourishing environment for cosmos, black-eyed Susan, asters, butterfly weed and ironwood. South Florida provides the perfect soil and environment conditions for butterfly weed, cosmos, turkey tangle fogfruit and blue porterweed.