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    Basic rules when starting a successful butterfly garden:

      - Choose a sunny area
      - Protection from wind
      - Select nectar plants for the butterflies and host plants for the caterpillars
      - Choose hardy plants that grow in your growing zone
      - Do NOT use any Pesticides
      - Butterflies prefer to visit flowers with strong colors such as orange, yellow, and purple.
      - Color and shape are important but the fragrance of the flowers is what really draws the butterflies to a garden.
      - Butterflies prefer composites (daisy-like flowers), panicles (large clusters of blooms on a stem), and umbels (flat topped flowers that originate from a single apex).
Butterfly Size Nectar Plants
Mourning Cloak 3-3½" Aster - Aster spp.

Bergamot - Monarda spp.

Blanketflower - Gaillardia spp.

Blazingstars - Liatris spp.

Butterfly Weed - Asclepias tuberosa

Chives - Allium schoenoprasum

Chrysanthemum - Chrysanthemum spp.

Clover - Melilotus spp., Trifolium spp.

Coreopsis - Coreopsis spp.

Cosmos - Cosmos bipinnatus

Daylily - Hemerocallis spp.

Dogbane - Apocynum spp.

Goldenrod - Solidago rigida

Hollyhock - Alcea rosea

Ironweed - Vernonia spp.

Joe-Pye Weed - Eupatorium spp.

Lupine - Lupinus spp.

Mallow - Malva spp.

Milk Vetch - Astragalus spp.

Milkweed - Asclepias spp.

Wild Onion - Allium spp.

Partridge Pea - Cassia fasciculata

Phlox - Phlox spp.

Pinks - Dianthus spp.

Prairie Clover - Dalea spp.

Purple Coneflower - Echinacea spp.

Pussy-toes - Antennaria spp.

Rudbeckia - Rudbeckia spp.

Sedum - Sedum spp.

Shasta Daisy - Chrysanthemum maximum

Sunflower - Helianthus spp.

Violets - Viola spp.

Yarrow - Achillea spp.

Common Sulphur 1½-2"
Clouded Sulphur
Cloudless Sulphur 2-2¾"
Orange Sulphur 1½-2½"
Dogface
Little Yellow 1-1½"
Monarch 3-3½"
Sleepy Orange 1½-2"
Painted Lady 2-2¼"
Queen
Question Mark 2½"
Comma 1¾-2"
Great Spangled Fritillary 2-3"
Gulf Fritillary 2½-3"
Meadow Fritillary 1¼-2"
American Copper 1"
Viceroy 2½-3"
Pearl Crescent 1-1½"
Atlantis Fritillary
Silver-bordered Fritillary
Variegated Fritillary
Silver Checkerspot 1½-1¾"
Baltimore 1½-2½"
Anicia Checkerspot
Field Crescent
Buckeye 2-2½"
Brown Elfin
Little Wood Satyr
Common Wood Nymph
Northern Golden Skipper
Roadside Skipper 1"
Silver-spotted Skipper 1¾-2½
Tawny-edged Skipper
Woodland Skipper ¾-1"
Harvester 1-1¼"
American Copper 1¼-1½"
Purplish Copper 1-1¼"
Coral Hairstreak
Mormon Metalmark ¾-1¼"
Snout Butterfly 1½-2"
Sachem 1-1½"
Satyr
Milbert's Tortoiseshell 1¾-2"
Appalachian Eyed Brown
Hackberry Butterfly
Northern Pearly Eye
Prairie Ringlet
Dun Skipper
European Skipper
Fiery Skipper
Northern Cloudywing
Common Sootywing
Juvenal's Duskywing
Eastern Tailed Blue
Banded Hairstreak
Gray Hairstreak
Silvery Blue
Spring Azure
Checkered Skipper
Checkered White
Veined White
Sara Orange-tip
Flacate Orange-tip
Red Admiral
White Admiral
Weidemeyer's Admiral
Anise Swallowtail
Black Swallowtail
Giant Swallowtail
Pipevine Swallowtail
Spicebush Swallowtail
Tiger Swallowtail
W. Tiger Swallowtail
Zebra Swallowtail
California Sister

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