Heights of Butterfly Plants

Tall Butterfly Plants

• Place tall butterfly plants at the back of the flower bed or give them their own space. Try butterfly bush, which produces spikes of colorful blooms and grows 8 feet high, or New England aster, which grows 3 to 7 feet high and produces 1-inch violet flowers throughout the summer and fall. Iron weed grows 6 feet high and produces purple flowers, while Jerusalem artichoke can grow 10 feet high and has cheery, yellow flowers.

Medium-Size Butterfly Plants

• Many common landscaping plants attract butterflies, such as black-eyed Susan, coreopsis, cone flower, yarrow, lavender and catmint. All these plants stand between 24 and 48 inches high. When choosing plants for the butterfly garden, select plants that bloom at different times during the season so a food source is always available for butterflies.

Small Butterfly Plants

• Place small plants at the front of the bed or use them as ground covers under trees. These plants stand 3 inches to 2 feet high and may have a spreading habit. Try wild geranium, Virginia bluebell, violets and wild lupine. Group plants with similar growing conditions together. For example, don't plant violets, which prefer moist, rich soil and partial shade, with wild lupine, which thrives in dry, poor soil.

Herbs

• When planning the butterfly garden, consider herbs as well. Some butterfly larvae, such as the black swallowtail, subsist primarily on herbs including dill and parsley. Flowering herbs attract butterflies as well as beneficial insects like lacewings and lady bugs that consume aphids and other leaf-sucking bugs. Try mint, dill, parsley, bergamot and lavender.