i live in ohio and would like to plant a garden to attract butterflies. what plants are best?

Hi alida!

Adult butterflies are attracted to sweet, sharp and fragrant smells and the colors orange, yellow, pink, purple and red. All varieties love wild flowers.

Here's a nice selection: Azalea, Bee Balm, Butterfly Bush (buddleia ), Liatris (Blazing Star), Verbena, Golden aster, Coneflower, Blue sage, Salvia, New England Aster, Forget-me-not, Achillea, Dianthus , Maltese Cross, Honesty (Lunaria), Hardy Geraniums, Lavender, Daylilies, Gaillardia, Black-eyed Susan, Shasta daisy, Sweet William, Marigold, Violets and Zinnia.

Select your plants by the type of butterflies you wish to attract. If your favorite butterfly is the Monarch, you must have Milkweed for these caterpillars to feed on. If you like Black Swallowtail, plant dill and/or parsley.

Good luck! I'm from Ohio, too.

My biggest success for attracting butterflies is the buddleia plant. They come in three colors, I believe. I have a yellow one and a purple one. They also attract hummingbirds. This plant is also known sometimes as a butterfly plant. It will grow huge and the blooms are like a long stem bloom. Just pick off the bloom once it begins to turn brown and another will replace it.

I have noted as well that the butterflies and the bees enjoy my lavender plant. Since bees are becoming a scarcity, (at least where I live) I am glad of that. I don't worry about getting stung by them, because I use Skin-So-Soft and they don't bother me. I also have a lot of dianthus plants around. Mine survived the winter somehow.

Best of wishes.

Butterfly bushes are the best. There's also a perennial flower with reddish orange flowers called a butterfly flower. That attracts them fairly well. Try picking flowers that have a bunch of little flowers clustered together in bunches. Butterflies tend to like those kinds of flowers. They also seem to like Echinacea and Gaillardia flowers although not as well as butterfly bushes. I always have a ton of butterflies each year with butterfly bushes. I noticed at the butterfly gardens they put out orange slices for them to eat on.

You want to plant nectar sources and host plants.

Visit our website for butterfly gardening ideas at-

http://www.gardening-at-the-crossroads.com/butterf...

Good Luck and Happy Gardening from Cathy and Neal!

I have butterfly bushes and I can guarantee they work, look out for what you ask for though, lots of butterflys mean lots of caterpillars too.

Butterflys live much longer than a few days, Monarchs migrate to Mexico each winter, they'd have to fly real fast to get there in days.

butterflies have a life span of just a few days. In order to have them around, you can raise them and release them to the wild. Then, just plant any thing that flowers to hold them around.

liatris, also known as gayfeather, butterfly bush, milkweed believe it or not is becoming a hot commodity in Michigan to attract butterflies, especially Monarch butterflies that thrive on them and you can now get milkweed in several varieties....