Hey there! Looks like a nice list of plants there. Lots of good "host" plants. I have 10 of those plants myself. I think that all of them are potential host plants, depending upon which species of butterflies you get in your yard. Monarchs will lay on any type of Milkweed, including Butterfly Weed. Black Swallowtails will lay on "carrot family" plants. I have the most luck here with Fennel, but they also lay on Dill, Queen Anne's Lace, Parsley, and Common Rue. (Ruta graveolens) Just recently learned on this forum that they will lay on Golden Alexander, and that prompted me to quickly buy that seed!
I suspect that you will find that MANY people here at this forum have had LOTS of experience with these plants as host. :o) Good luck with that garden! ~~Angie

you may want to add a late blooming milkweed like tropical milkweed. It seeds so it MAY come back eyery year like a perennial in your zone. maybe someone knows from experience?

our common milkweed starts blooming in late spring and the tropical takes over when it's finished. In fact, the tropical is STILL blooming and it's October 9th. Unfortunately, the monarchs are already gone.

I think black-eyed susans attract butterflies with their bright color, but it doesn't appear to be a popular nectar source in Minnesota.

Our two BEST attractors:

1. Mexican sunflowers (torch tithonia) attracts hummingbirds, swallowtails, monarchs, hummingbird moths, bumble bees started blooming in early summer...STILL blooming although most of it is done. it's an annual we grew from seed. got to be about 5 feet.

2. Liatris ligulistylis- best monarch attractor!!!

the common milkweed attracts mourning cloaks, monarchs(host and nectar), painted ladies, swallowtails, and even saw an 8 spotted forrester moth! (not supposed to be located here)

tropical milkweed attracts monarchs (host plant AND nectar for adults), and wasps but they were surprisingly well behaved.

don't forget annual Zinnias! (not the double varieties) had great success with lilliput and come & cut again...adding some california giant next season. also simple to grow from seed.

Good luck with your garden, Tony

Hello!

Thanks you so much for both of your responses! So helpful! @bandjzmom, I would love to plant fennel, but I hear that it is allelopathic and other plants won't grow near it!

@coolbutterfly, those mexican sunflowers are something else! What a great plant. And I just may have to look into that Liatris after seeing pics of five monarchs on one plant!

I am quite new to butterfly gardening but I can offer you those in my first year garden that were successful. I am in Maryland so most of my native butterflies and plants are not that much different than yours.

These were those that were successful:
American Holly (Ilex Species)
Blue False Indigo (Baptista Australis)
Butterfly Weed (Asclepias Tuberosa)
Common Milkweed (Asclepias Syriaca)

Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias Incarnata)
Tropical Milkweed (Asclepias Currascivica)
Dill (Anethum gravens)
Parsley (Petroselinium crispum)
Bronze Fennel (Foeniculum Vulgare)
Cabbage (Any)
Crowfoot Fox Sedge (Carex Crus-Corvi)
Golden Alexanders (Zizia Aurea)
Pearly Everlasting (Anaphalis Margaritacea)
Purple Prairie Clover (Petalostemum Purpureum)
Snapdragon (Antirrhinum Majus)
Wild Senna (Cassia Hebecarpa)

This is 16 out of 35 that successfully hosted butterflies. Perhaps that number will increase as the plants mature and as I, hopefully learn a little more.

All mine were raised from bareroot plants (Prairie Moon was the source) or as potted plants (Lazy SS Nursery).

I hope that is some help.

Bob

jibd- if you decide to try the liatris ligulistylis make sure you get plants, because they won't flower the first year from seed. Also, if you can find plants now, they are good for fall planting!

for about 6 weeks, we had between 10 and 20 monarchs in our yard daily!

Hmmm..that is interesting re the fennel. Out of curiosity, I am going to have to research that. I have heard that you should not try to grow dill near to fennel, but not the bit about any other plants. There are several plants which grow happily alongside my fennel every year. My neighbor grew bronze fennel in her butterfly perennial bed this year alongside lots of other plants too.

I've had Monarch caterpillars on my swamp milkweed and also bloodflower.I counted 8 black swallowtail babies in my dill this year.They vanished overnight and I think the yellowjackets took them to feed to their grubs.I'm going to plant a large row of dill next year so the caterpillars have denser foliage in which to hide.My rue has been a host for black swallowtails also.I'm not sure about false nettle;but my stinging nettle attracted a lot of Red Admirrals who laid their eggs.I've had Painted Ladies on the pearly everlastings and also on globe thistle.

jibd, Here's my experience with your listed plants:
Coral Honeysuckle (Hummingbird Clearwing Moth)-I've never tried, but it's certainly worth a shot.
New England Aster-I have these for the Pearl Crescents; very pretty and hope to find cats on them someday.
Purple Coneflower-without a doubt one of the most favored plants in my garden for nectaring; don't know if I've ever had a Silvery Checkerspot cat on them or not. I definitely wouldn't be without this plant!
Shasta Daisy-the butterflies never showed any interest in mine so I ripped them out.
Butterfly Weed-the milkweed here that is laid on the least, but the butterflies love it for nectaring.
Common Milkweed-I've never tried, didn't want it popping up all over the place.
Swamp Milkweed-2nd most liked milkweed here by the Monarchs for laying eggs; first most is tropical milkweed (annual).
'Silver Brocade' Artemisia-don't know if this is the kind of artemisia that I have but I get American Lady cats on it.
Sunflower-my first attempt at planting these was this year and they didn't come up, probably because of the drought.
Parsley-Black Swallowtail cats lay eggs on it here.
Dill-BST cats lay eggs on that here too.
Native violets-I get lots of fresh-looking Great Spangled Fritillary butterflies here every year; I'm guessing that they come from all of the violets that we have here.
Hollyhock-I tried this plant for 3 years, but every year the sawfly larvae would have the plants skeletonized before I even saw any Painted Lady butterflies here. I ended up ripping it out.
Black-eyed Susans-I've had Silvery Checkerspot cats on mine but not this year.
False Nettle-this is only the first year that mine has been growing and because of the drought my plants haven't done well (even with watering). I saw Red Admiral butterflies, but I can't blame them for not wanting to lay on the plants.

Other host plants that I have and have had luck with are:
Blue False Indigo (Baptisia australis)-I get Wild Indigo Duskywing and Clouded Sulphur cats on this.
Wild Senna (Cassia hebecarpa)-I also get sulphur cats on these plants.
Wild Indigo (Amorpha fruticosa)-I get Silver-spotted Skippers cats on my plants.

I also have various typed of trees and bushes planted for host plants for the butterflies, but you didn't mention trees on your lists so I didn't know if you don't have the room for them...so I won't mention those. Best of luck with your garden!
Cathy

Greetings,
As a "natural" (ie. cheap) gardener, I try to cultivate native and naturalized "weeds" to feed my cats. I've been blessed with acerage (and weeds ;-) so I make the weeds work for me! I rely entirely on cudweed to raise American Painted Ladies; annual and perennial plantains to raise Buckeyes; weedy malvas for Gray Hairstreaks, and native willows for Viceroys. I grow an annual winter weed called Pellitory for Red Admirals... and false nettle works great for spring/summer broods. I am grateful to the Clearwing Hummingbird moths for keeping Japanese Honeysuckle in check, and let's not forget all the native grasses the Skippers depend on--go Mother Nature!

Here is a link that might be useful: American Painted Lady on Cudweed

Hi all!

Wow! Great responses! First of all, Bob, that's very impressive; 35 successful host plants! Congrats! Coolbutterfly, I'd love to, but that seems to be a hard plant to find at local nurseries : / About the fennel, I am hesitant to plant it because I already have a black walnut tree to contend with, so I am hesitant to plant any more plants that will limit my plant options. Jaybirdy, I researched bloodflower (aka tropical milkweed) and found MANY sites that offer free seeds for it! If it's free, it's for me. Adding it to the list! Caterwallin: wow! Thanks!! Very helpful! Will look into the senna. Alas, the indigos will not grow near the nearby black walnut tree. You were right in saying I do not have room for trees. I do, however, have room for bushes, and I plan on buying one or two spicebushes at New Jersey Audubon's native plant sale next spring (I highly recommend this event for any gardener living in NJ, especially those gardening for wildlife). Seedmoney, agreed, the best gardening is "natural" gardening. Already can't wait 'til spring to get started!!!