Attracting Butterflies
Encourage Butterflies to Visit by Meeting their Needs
- Plant larval foods. Many caterpillars, which metamorphose into butterflies, require require specific host plants for food. By selecting particular species, you can provide the basic habitat requirements for specific species that you'd like to see as adults. Since highly preferred hosts may be unattractive or eaten until they have few leaves, plan an out-of-the-way place for these hosts. You might also want to provide host plants for some of the more attractive moths.
- Plant species with nectar needed by adults. Butterflies are attracted by sweet-, pungent- and acrid-smelling flowers that are orange, yellow, pink, purple and red. Plants with deep throated, drooping or enclosed flowers are unsuitable for nectar-gathering. Some of these, especially white flowers that are fragrant at night, may attract moths.
- Avoid pesticide use. Especially avoid use of Bacillus thuringensis, broad-spectrum insecticides, and any insecticide that is broadcast broadly in the environment.
Find Butterfly Plants for Your Landscape
The link below will generate a state-wide list. You can refine it by adding your location.
Monarchs & Milkweed in Florida
The striking orange-and-black monarch butterfly is more than just a beautiful sight in our gardens—it’s a pollinator with a perilous journey and a powerful dependence on one particular type of plant: milkweed. In Florida, native milkweeds are the essential host plants for monarch caterpillars. Without them, monarchs cannot reproduce or complete their life cycle.
Tropical milkweed (commonly sold in garden centers), Asclepias curassavica, is a FISC listed Caterogry 2 invasive species. Furthermore, tropical milkweed can disrupt monarch migration and spread disease.
Florida’s native milkweeds provide the safe, seasonal habitat monarchs truly need. If you want to support monarch conservation, planting native species is the most impactful step you can take.
Discover which milkweed species are native to your region and how you can create a monarch-friendly garden by visiting our
Monarchs and Milkweed page.
