Good plants for butterflies include: Hardenbergia violacea, Goodenia species, Buddleija, verbena, salvias, native grasses, daisies, herbs and 'weedy' plants such as nettles.
Some excellent plants to attract butterflies include bottlebrush, daisies, grevillea, lavender, and wattle. You can also entice them to lay eggs in plants such as crepe myrtle, snapdragons, and native violets.
If you live in an urban area, you've probably seen Monarch butterflies more than once. These majestic butterflies are not native to the Australian continent but they arrived here in 1871 when their host plant – Milkweed. Milkweed (or swan plant) came to Australia and New Zealand from Africa.
Excellent flowering plants include Everlasting Daisy (Bracteantha bracteata), Cut Leaf Daisy (Brachyscome multifida), Ageratum (Ageratum houstonianum), Sweet Bursaria (Bursaria spinosa), Rice Flower (Pimelea spp) and Daisy Bushes (Olearia spp). butterfly species will lay eggs only on specific host plants.
For butterflies, Joe-Pye weed, ironweed, coneflowers, goldenrod, and brightly-hued asters are nectar-filled favorites.
The number one step to attract butterflies is simply providing the food they like – which is generally plants. The adult butterflies are attracted to nectar plants from which they sip nectar. They are also attracted to their host plants which are the specific plants where the females lay their eggs.
To encourage butterflies to live in your garden, plant a range of native plants to provide nectar for butterflies and native grasses, peas and daisies for caterpillars. They also like shallow ponds for water and sunny, sheltered rocks for sun-baking.
Try gradually removing weeds and replacing them with native plants at the same time, so that there's always nectar on offer. Discover local plants loved by butterflies.
Butterflies are particularly drawn to blue, yellow and red, but are attracted to a wide range of colours.
Adult Wanderer Butterflies are orange-brown with black wing veins and a black and white spotted band along the edge of the wings.
Grevillea – For colourful plants that attract butterflies, you can't go past a grevillea.
Adult monarchs are attracted to flowers with orange, red, yellow, pink and purple blossoms. They also like blooms that have a flat top or are clustered with short flower tubes to protect the pollen.
Flowering annuals like alyssum, cosmos, marigold, sunflower and zinnia, and herbs including borage, thyme and rosemary are also great for attracting nature such as bees, butterflies and other beneficial insects to your garden.
Buddleia (Butterfly Bush)
Bright colors and a long bloom time (if deadheaded) make Buddleia the #1 plant for a butterfly garden. Every butterfly fan should grow Buddleia.
There is no plant more attractive to butterflies than the butterfly bush. Best colors are blue, purple or similar colors. The least attractive color is white.
A flat rock placed within the saucer provides a convenient spot for butterflies to land and rest as they take up water, minerals and nutrients. Muddles are easy to make. In addition to the container and stone, add some sand, mushroom compost and water to create a slurry mix.
Rolling meadows, pastures and heathland provide the perfect habitat for wildflowers to thrive for butterflies and moths.
They pollinate plants in your garden
Butterflies are great for your garden as they are attracted to bright flowers and need to feed on nectar. When they do this their bodies collect pollen and carry it to other plants. This helps fruits, vegetables and flowers to produce new seeds.
Butterflies feed on the nectar in flowers. Native plants like grevillea and bottlebrush will attract native butterflies to the garden. Caterpillars feed on host plants including groundcovers, grasses and shrubs. Butterflies drink nectar by dipping their straw-like tongue in flowers.
Planting shrubs like buddleia (known as butterfly bush), daisies, marigolds, sunflowers, kangaroo paw, lavender, verbena, banksia, tea-tree and wattles will offer an abundance of colour, scent and taste perfect for a butterfly and native bird sanctuary.
Flowers are butterflies' main source of food, and since there are not a lot of nutrients found in flower nectar, male butterflies of most species land at the edge of a wet area and feed on essential salts and other nutrients found in the sand or mud.
The greatest threats to butterflies are habitat change and loss due to residential, commercial and agricultural development. Climate change, widespread pesticide use, and invasive species are also threatening many species of butterflies, because of both direct impacts and indirect impacts on native host plants.
Afternoons: Afternoons are typically the hottest part of the day, and therefore the time when our butterflies tend to be very active.