Hi Fern,
Welcome! I can't tell you anything about the Buddleia since I life in California...but as far as quantity of host vs. nectar plants let me share MY opinion.

1. If you want to have butterflies in your garden, having host plants is crucial. Host plants provide the butterflies with a place for them to oviposit (lay their eggs). Keep in mind, though, that your host plants will be EATEN by hungry caterpillars! :) Butterflies will come to your garden if they know that their babies can be laid and fed there.

2. Nectar plants are great for those butterflies that like nectar. Bees and hummingbirds will also be attracted to your garden.

Host plants will ensure that you KEEP butterflies around. Nectar plants will mean butterflies will come by to visit but go to complete their lifecycle elsewhere.

So, depending upon what you want from your garden...you have to make the decision.

CalSherry aka tdogmom

Hi, Fern! Let me first say, welcome to the forum!

I reiterate everything CalSherry states, PLUS you must garden organically - meaning no pesticides, no chemicals. They will adversely affect the butterflies, their eggs, their caterpillars, etc. Actually, since I started butterfly gardening without using pesticides (a lot of people use BT for caterpillars w/o knowing what they are actually killing), I have more beneficial insects in my garden. It's a symbiotic relationship of various insects.

Read our FAQs, which will answer a LOT of your questions about good nectar and host plants (including what butterflies they will host).

I'm pretty new as well, and I've been growing milkweed (for the Monarch caterpillars), Rue (for both the Giant Swallowtail and Black Swallowtail), sennas fka cassias for the sulphurs, and many others.

I have heard mixed reviews about Butterfly Bush in Florida. I believe someone mentioned that the yellow flowering species/cultivars did the best (B. weyeriana). I found the attached thread at the Florida Gardening Forum discussing alternatives to the BB in Florida in the event you're interested.

Again, welcome to the forum!

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Buddleia in Florida

thank you tdogmom and susan.
will follow your advice.
susan, i followed your buddleia link and found to my disappointment that this plant does in fact not do well in my area and the reason appears to be the nematodes that are so prevalent in our sandy soils. am going to try starting from seeds that i found pretty inexpensively online and will grow in pot above ground.
i have a very large area (my entire front lawn) 50' x 200' i want to convert into my butterfly garden. i am sick and tired of weeding the lawn only to find even more weeds weeks later. i just gave up on keeping a great looking lawn. would rather prune some bushes and enjoy butterfles.
fern in fort myers

Hee Hee! I know what you mean by constantly weeding the lawn. After the first two years of incessant weeding of my lawn, I finally gave up. Some of those weed seeds can lie dormant for years and years. Once you pull up a weed, it exposes the dormant seeds to light and they germinate. So, it's an ongoing process.

Now, I'm discovering I have some native things that grow (not all weeds are noxious), that the butterflies love. I have a very dainty little daisy groundcover that I let grow this year, and I had hundreds of Dainty Yellows nectaring on the tiny flowers! What a sight it was! So, you may find things growing that may actually be a valuable nectar or even host plant! Kind of exciting to me.

I don't care as much for my backyard lawn at all. Let it grow this summer, and tons of flowering weeds provided nectar and has now provided cover for my overwintering butterflies. What a great thing! Who cares? The neighbors can't see it and the butterflies love it.

So, you might want to give it a year and let those "weeds" grow. You may have some very exciting things that the butterflies (and moths) will just flip over!

Susan

Susan has a good point. Our yard doesn't get treated because it's too stinkin' big and would break the bank.:-) The upside is being able to look out over the yard during the spring, summer, and fall and always being able to see butterflies and moths.

I'm very new to the idea of butterfly gardening and can't wait to see how the numbers increase when I start adding more nectar and host plants closer to the house.

randy

Hi Fern, I am also new to butterfly gardening. I am in the West Ft Lauderdale area so maybe we can learn together since we have approx same weather/gardening. I've had a lot of really good help books, friends, nursery folks. I just finished (almost) my small 6x6 garden. I planted about 50/50 host and nectar plants, I tried to plant lots of herbs for host plants(dill, parsely, rosemary) so I can replant cheaply if they don't work out, or if they do. Also scarlet milkweed. I added easy nectar plants (also easy to get) pentas, lantana, wild salvia, and my much anticipated beautyberry. I hope to bring hummingbirds in as well as I planted firebush in the front of my house (also easy to get). I found a relatively obscure plant called green shrimp that is supposed to be host for malachite butterflies so I am pondering..hmmm. It is a weed, but would be awesome to see these guys. I am so excited! I hope yours goes as well....

Sharron

Sharron - I'm trying to attract some hummingbirds, too. I am going to grow some hardy fuchsia as I've heard it is a good plant for the Hummers.

Since you're much warmer than I am, you have a lot more available to you in the way of hummingbird plants.

Also, besides hummingbirds, those plants will also likely attract the sphinx moths, who will be able to pollinate the flowers for you. So, you'll be attracting lots of flying wildlife to your garden! Hurrah for you!

Susan

Fern as Sharon suggested the pentas and lantanas should be real good for you as nectaring plants. They can take the heat and humidity of the south. I would not be without these two. I love fuchsias but they don't like our intense heat and humidity. I finally gave up trying to grow them. Bronze fennel is a good host plant that I don't believe has been mentioned. The Anise swallowtail and Eastern Black swallowtail use this as a host plant. It grows well in sandy soil.

A book suggested to me I think, by Miss Sherry a few years ago is Florida Butterfly Gardening by Marc C. and Maria Minno. Two other books are Butterfly Gardening for the South by Geyata Ajilvsgi and The Life Cycles of Butterflies by Judy Burris and Wayne Richards. I like all three but Life Cycles is a my favorite. All three can be bought from Amazon.com.

Absolutely read or buy Florida Butterfly Gardening by Minno and Minno - it'll give you SO much area specific information. All the Florida gardeners who post on this forum who have tried to raise buddleias have all had much trouble doing so. There are many other nectar plants that you CAN raise, however, and the above mentioned book has some great info at the back about them - pentas, lantana, Mexican flame vine, porterweed, butterfly weed, and Mexican sunflowers are some. I'd recommend that you plant some type of passionvine that isn't toxic to zebra or GF cats, like p. suberosa, which I hear is practically a weed in Florida, p. caerulea, and p. incarnata. You've GOT to try for those gorgeous zebra longwings! :)
And since you're in south Florida, you can plant aristolochia for polydamas/goldrim swallowtails - I get the impression from previous posts that the tropical types are easier to grow in your area, but you could also use our native North American types.
All this will be covered in that book, though - you'll love it!
MissSherry

I have the butterfly gardening in Florida book. Got it on Amazon for about 20 bucks I think. Wow, what a great book! It gives so much info on butterflies and their host plants. Does anyone have any input on wild lime tree? I am thinking of planting it this weekend. Any pictures of a mature tree?

Thanks, Sharron

I don't Sharron. The name brings to mind a good Key Lime Pie though.