Time to talk about butterfly gardens on a community scale. Community butterflyscaping creates a wildlife corridor, where butterflies can travel down a street and flutter from house to house with a continual supply of plants providing food, shelter and places to lay eggs.
Florida has more than 200 species of butterflies that can be easily attracted using select landscape plants. Here are a few steps to get started with a butterfly garden in your backyard or within the community.
Choose a location with full sun. Ideally, a minimum garden size would be 5-by-5 feet to accommodate five to 10 plant species. However, butterfly gardens can be scaled to any size.
Include plants that provide shelter and food for butterfly caterpillars as well as plants that provide adult butterflies with nectar. If you had to choose just one plant to start with, choose milkweed, which provides food for monarch caterpillars and butterflies.
Choose a variety of native and nonnative plants to provide color and food for butterflies year-round. Many larval host plants are natives, as they have co-evolved with butterflies. Native plants are adapted to Florida’s conditions and can survive with minimal water, fertilizer and pesticides. Excellent choices of native plants for the butterfly garden include coreopsis—Florida’s state wildflower—black-eyed Susan for summer and Liatris for fall color.
Passionvine, a larval host plant for the Gulf fritillary and zebra longwing, is another to consider. Complement these natives with non-native annuals and perennials such as zinnias, cosmos and marigolds to provide year-round nectar sources to nourish adult butterflies.
For larger areas, plant a group of three or five of the same plant together for a stunning visual impact. Butterflies prefer large flat flowers and are most attracted to the colors red, orange, yellow and purple. Plant tall species such as firebush, firespike and plumbago in the back of the garden to capture the most sun and create a simple layered effect. Think beyond flowers and incorporate grasses, shrubs and trees to provide food and shelter for butterflies. Adding diversity to community landscapes will create habitats for our pollinators, birds, hummingbirds and bees.
Want to know more?
Read “Community ButterflyScaping: How to Move Beyond Butterfly Gardening to Create a Large-Scale Butterfly Habitat” at edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ep420. This article talks about butterfly gardens beyond the scale of individual yards and encourages communities to adopt the concept of community butterflyscaping.