Going for annuals Mexican Sunflower is a fabulous butterfly attractor. Plus it attracts hummingbirds and goldfinches also. And it looks so pretty and just blooms and blooms with those stunning orange flowers. Cosmos also attract butterflies and goldfinches. Zinnias are another must have annual. The butterflies just love them.

For perennials my favorites are the common orange Milkweeds and purple coneflowers.

I have buddlea, nicotiana, zinnias, cosmos, pentas (the pink ones are great for the pretty ones) - also a few pink roses, asters. It is vibrant with life out there. :)

Hi LL!!! I finaly got a new laptop...so im back!

I notice them on my yarrow , catmint and butterfly bush. Also scabiosa. The bees are on my catmint allday till night, ive noticed them sleeping on it too. I think your butterfly garden sounds fabulous! :)

Rita and Cindy- Thanks for the great ideas! Those flowers would be great in the butterfly garden :)

Lilyfinch- You're back! I'm so glad you got a laptop...how's your garden...did you get your roses....are they blooming? I've missed you and would love to see pics of your garden :) I'm almost done with the fairy garden, so I'll post pics as soon as I finish! The butterfly garden is for the potager/kitchen garden, which will hopefully be looking pretty good in a few more weeks. I may have gotten a little carried away with my garden designs this year. LOL

The above listed plants are great for butterflies, we have tons of them.

We also grow Cilantro and the butterflies are all over the blooms.

Origanum vulgare or Wild Majoram attracts "heaps" of butterflies and bees. I have one in the corner of the veggie garden that is about 3'W by 21/2'H. I noticed a lot of butterfly and bumblebee activity so poked it with a stick and a least 30 to 50 butterflies and moths? flew off.

Zinnias have been a main attractor this year.
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They also like lilies which surprised me.
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I have both butterfly weed and swamp butterfly weed and they like that.

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Lantana is also an attractant.
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But if you could get only one plant, get butterfly bush!

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kay

The swallowtails have been loving the "Blue Fortune" agastache. It's the only reason that plant will be invited to spend another season in the garden. I was so disappointed in the color, which often looks gray to me.

Totally Confused

Butterfly bushes for certain. They will die down to the ground in your zone but regenerate in spring. They love the purple ones so much more than the other kinds.

Also Verbena bonariensis which is an annual for your zone but will reseed itself and so you will get these lovely airy plants each summer.

Agastaches

Coneflowers

Dill -- they attract swallowtails and encourage the butterflies to lay they eggs there. The caterpillars are so 'cute'. They'll eat the dill & parsley but the outcome is spectacular. My daughter still recalls the time we captured one of the caterpillars and put it in a jar and fed it with dill until it formed a crysalis and eventually became a butterfly.

If you don't want a giant butterfly bush in the garden they now come in a small form. I got a Lo and Behold and have seen the butterflies on that. Everything we mentioned can be grown from seeds too! I wintersowed a bunch of the butterfly plants this year and what a difference in the amount of butterflies I am getting. Good luck.

Another who thinks they love agastache 'Blue Fortune'. I can easily see 3-4 butterflies at a time on one agastache! It took three years for mine to stop looking grey and more blue--still not blue like a salvia. It also likes more water than I thought and that also helps. Deadheading will produce fresher, but smaller blooms.

Joe pye weed 'Little Joe' is fabulous at 4 feet instead of 7 feet.
Butterfly bush, of course.
Lantana
Zinnias
Verbena bonariensis (self-sowing annual for cold zones)

Cosmos is another plant the butterflies love. But they may get too tall and hide the birdbath.

I'd love to have a birdbath in my bed but the wasps would go to it like a magnet!

Hi Lavender!
My butterfly garden has to be deer resistant too. I count on butterfly bush (purple, lavender and white), yarrow, catmint and agastache "Blue Fortune". Bees love the agastache as well. My son calls it the bee filling station. We have a small field of milkweed in the untamed part of our yard but I do let a few stay in the butterfly garden and cut the heads before their seeds blow around.

Adult butterflies do not eat the same things that their larvae eat. If you want to keep the butterflies around longer, plant foods for both. Do a search for the full rundown. Some suggestions are willow, nettle, dill, grasses, milkweed. Some people are alarmed to see caterpillars all over their plants and flowers, but that's the way it works.

A rule of thumb is that butterflies like 'landing pad' shaped flowers - daisy, zinnias, cosmos, etc., and hummingbirds like tube-shapes, like pennstemon (among others). This is just a general rule, with many exceptions.

Butterflies also like fruit, mud, manure (horse/cow) and some like carrion (dead animals).
-Sprout

Kay- Thanks for the beautiful pictures! They're a real inspiration :)

Sprout- If they like manure...I am SO going to have butterflies! LOL We have so many weeds and native plants out in the pasture, I just want to plant a few things to bring them into the garden...mostly for the nieces and nephews to see when they visit. I do like them, too, but the kids love seeing them. We have dragonflies by the creek that I wish I could get to come up into the fairy garden.

I want to thank everyone for the excellent suggestions. I have several butterfly bushes throughout the gardens (deer resistant and make the yellow jackets happy AWAY from the house) and I also have catmint and lots of lavender and salvias. Yarrow, tansy, wormwood and some sort of chamomile looking weed grow all over the pastures and barnyards around our area...pretty much anywhere that isn't being watered in the summer.

I moved the birdbath to another part of the kitchen garden, but I do need to move a Therese Bugnet rose...do you think that would make a nice centerpiece for the butterfly garden? I could put lots of zinnias and other plants around it, but I need to hide it from my deer :)

The butterfly garden is in the kitchen garden, too...it's kind of become the "catch-all" garden, but it's looks nice, especially where I've weeded! LOL

Thank you again for all the great ideas! Any other suggestions?

lavender lass- If you get a bag of Milorganite from a garden center and scatter it around your plants, it will repel deer, rabbits and other rodents from your gardens. It also acts as a good fertilizer. It's under $10 for a big bag. I usually apply it once in the spring and it lasts me most of the season. It is refreshed with the rain, and it does not harm food crops. Golf courses use it on their beautiful greens. I have used it for years and I highly recommend it!!
-Sprout

Here is a link that might be useful: Milorganite FAQs

Sprout- Thanks for the info :)

I've decided to move the Therese Bugnet roses into the herb garden (a perimeter bed in the kitchen garden LOL) and I found a birdbath for the center of the butterfly garden! I've been looking at it for a year, but it went on sale yesterday at Lowe's and I couldn't resist. If anyone's seen them, it the little birdbath with the rabbit on the front with the flowers...very cute.

I got a few pincushion flowers and some coreopsis to go with them...along with some other flowers I already had on the porch. Thanks for all the suggestions. I have 8 butterfly bushes in the kitchen garden already, so that should bring in some butterflies. There are two in each corner, on either side of a John Cabot rose with catmint.

ll, be aware that Therese Bugnet spreads from underground runners and will become a thicket unless you keep them cut out.

The butterfly magnets here now are the Robert Poore Phlox and zinnias.

Lavender, slightly off topic, but I believe you are trying to start a fairy garden, yes? Did you include fairy roses? They are the best!

Gldno- Good to know about Therese Bugnet, but with our short summers, I think I can keep them a little more under control...hopefully :)

Krycek- I do have a fairy rose in the fairy garden! I'm going to take some pictures this week of the fairy garden and a few other areas and try to figure out how to post them. The kitchen garden is still "under construction" (LOL) and needs a lot of weeding, so hopefully, I'll be able to take pictures of that area within a few weeks.

If you don't know how to post pictures, just set up a post in one of your favorite forums and ask how to post pictures. I think we are all eager to see pics of your house that you talk about (on the old/small house forum I think) and your gardens!!!! I'm sure others and myself can hop in and help you out.

FYI, Picasa is a good software to be able to embed images in your posts.

Krycek- I finally posted some pictures...with a lot of help from Schoolhouse :)

I don't know if you really want to see the old house (scary! LOL) but I will post some pictures of the gardens.

I grow the flowers/plants listed above too, but one I didn't see listed (maybe just missed seeing) is SALVIA - all of mine are butterfly magnets big time. Black and blue Salvia and Sages of all kinds attract butterflies and feed Hummingbirds.

Garden Phlox of any kind is also another butterfly magnet in my yard - BIG TIME!

I have several kinds of willow trees and Hackberry trees which are also good for butterly nurseries.

This won't help you in zone 4, but for those on here who may live in the desert or other arid regions of N. America, who want to have butterflies and hummers, may I also suggest these: the Mexican Bird of Paradise bush (Caesalpinia gilliesii or Poinciana pulcherrima) is beautiful and attracts hummers and butterflies. I just love them. Chaste trees with their beautiful blue-violet flowers, Red flowering Yucca is gorgeous - beautiful. Cactus flowers, flowering shrubs & Tamarask Trees (Salt Cedars) attract butterflies and hummers too. These will all grow here in zone 6b-7, but the cactus must be brought indoors in winter.

Hollyhocks attract butterflies.
Coneflowers
Butterfly Weeds
Milkweeds
Dills
Parsley
Fennels
Asters
Sunflowers
Bachelor Buttons
Pentas (big time butterfly magnets)

Besides Zinnias and Petunias of all sizes, varieties and colors, don't forget Marigolds of all sizes, Sweet Allysum, and Periwinkles for three other inexpensive annuals that butterflies just adore!

That's a few more.
~Annie