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The Elegant Beauty of a Butterfly Garden

There are a number of different garden types, with the most poplar types being vegetable and flower gardens. There are also hundreds of flower varieties which you can plant depending on your taste and the climate of your area. There is also a type of garden where gardeners plant flowers that are known to attract butterflies. Have you ever seen a butterfly garden before?

My grandmother had a butterfly garden in her backyard before they became popular. When I was a child, I used to sit patiently near her garden as she worked, waiting for the butterflies to come along, and fly among the flowers. However, I was often disappointed because at my young age, I did not realize that while these gardens are designed to attract butterflies, there would not be hundreds hanging out there all the time.

I can't exactly recall the specific flowering plants that she planted in her butterfly garden, but I can remember that it was beautiful. My grandmother paid as much attention to it as her vegetable garden, and would sit out there in her spare time to enjoy the result of her efforts. Butterflies were indeed attracted to her butterfly garden, and I was inspired to have one of my own.

I don't have one yet, but I'm planning to start making one next year. If you are also interested in making your own butterfly garden, you can get information about it on the Internet. You can also talk with an employee at any garden shop, and they would be able to give you some information about the flowering plants that should be included in your garden.

If the butterflies are slow in visiting your butterfly garden, you should consider looking for other ways to attract them before you surrender. Milkweeds are known to attract Monarch butterflies. Monarch larvae eat the leaves of this plant, and attach to it when they make their cocoon. If you can get some of this plant nearby, your butterfly garden will soon be teeming with Monarch butterflies. You should also consider the location of your garden. If it is near a busy highway, or where children play often, the butterflies may not be attracted to your garden.

Enjoying a Live Butterfly Garden Kit in the Home

If you are looking for a way to bring science and nature lessons into the home, you'll want to invest in a live butterfly garden kit. Children enjoy observing animals and insects in their natural habitats. Butterflies are particularly captivating for young ones. Butterflies garden have become popular zoo exhibits, and now, you can enjoy a butterfly garden in your own home.

A butterfly garden kit provides many teaching opportunities. Parents can use the live butterfly garden kit to teach youngsters about the many stages insects go through in their development. Children can observe these stages within the butterfly gardens. Furthermore, parents or teachers can use the kit to explain vital life lessons to young ones as well. Enjoying insect lore's live butterfly kit in the home is an opportunity for all parents to explore.

First, one particular butterfly kits on the market is the Live Butterfly Garden by Insect Lore. The kit comes with a habitat for the development of the butterflies from larvae to painted ladies. The reusable mesh habitat is collapsible, so it can easily be stored when not in use. The kit also comes with detailed, easy-to-follow instructions, along with a feeder and mail-in coupon for five caterpillar larvae and food. Parents must provide sugar and water for the larvae. Children can enjoy the three-week process of watching their little larvae grow, form chrysalides, and emerge into beautiful painted ladies. After observing their butterflies for a few days, it is advised the children let their butterflies free into the world, back to nature.

A live butterfly kit provides powerful lessons for young children. First, children learn about the different stages of development for butterflies, along with all life forms. They learn that they, themselves, have grown and developed through different stages. Children learn to care for the butterflies in their various stages, and they learn to let their butterflies go out into the world. Children will love the real-life, hands-on approach they can take to learning all of these lessons. Parents and caregivers will enjoy the togetherness the activity provides. Parents love to teach to a captive audience, after all, and a live butterfly kit will have children energized and enthusiastic about all the lessons they can learn.

If you are looking for an ideal way to bring nature and science into the home, you must explore a live butterfly garden kit. By incorporating the developmental stages of a butterfly, you can teach your children valuable life lessons about nurturing life, watching growth and development, and then allowing life to enjoy freedom.

Children will gain a sense of pride as they care for their larvae, and they will be intrigued by the changes happening right before their eyes. Finally, they will learn to let go of their charges, as they release their butterflies back into nature. Of course, with a reusable habitat included in the kit, the process can be repeated again and again, or the habitat could be used for observing other insects or natural elements. A live butterfly garden kit provides a bonding and learning experience for the entire family to enjoy.

The Secret To Growing Beautiful Butterfly Gardens In Your Backyard

Setting up backyard gardens is the surest way to invite butterflies into your home. If you happen to have a big space at the back of your home, it would be a good idea for you and your family to start planning for your backyard gardens. Buy some books and magazines about backyard gardens to help you and your family to design your gardens in such a way that it will look inviting to different species of butterflies.

Designing Your Backyard Gardens

There are many things that you need to consider when designing your backyard garden. First, you need to take into consideration the present condition of your backyard. If you backyard already have existing plants, you need to take an inventory of the plants and decide which ones you are going to keep and which ones have to go.

The second thing that you need to consider when designing your backyard garden is your budget. You need to ask yourself how you can afford to spend on your backyard garden. To know how much money you can spare for your garden, check your monthly income and savings against your usual monthly expenses. Make sure that you do not drain your finances just to make your backyard garden look beautiful. Yes, a beautiful backyard garden is important but you don't really have to go broke just to create a lovely picture at the back of your home.

The third thing that you need to consider when designing your backyard garden is the type of plant that you need. If you want to invite butterflies into your garden, you need to use plants that are attractive to butterflies. Some plants that are attractive to butterflies are milkweed, aspen, chokecherry, dill, parsley, marigold, aster, lilac, cottonwood, pansy, clover and others. To attract a variety of butterflies into your backyard, try planning different types of plants. Add native plants into your list of planting materials. Native plants are good at attracting species of butterflies that are endemic in your area.

Nothing signals the coming of spring more than butterflies flitting through your yard. Watching them waltz from flower to flower can bring endless pleasure. If you want to entice more of these colorful guests to your yard, consider planting a butterfly garden. A butterfly garden that is planned and planted correctly will bring a wide variety of butterflies to your yard year after year.

Butterfly Gardens Are Diverse

There are many types of butterflies in the world and each type prefers specific flowers to gain nutrients, lay their eggs, and feed their young. If you want your butterfly garden to attract many different kinds of butterflies, make sure that you plant many different kinds of flowers. Scientists aren't sure why, but they have found that certain color butterflies prefer certain kinds of plants. Perhaps they are drawn to like colors for their camouflaging abilities or perhaps certain colored plants taste better to them than others. Whatever the reason, you will see many different butterflies in you butterfly garden, if you plant many different plants.

Some wonderful plants to include in butterfly gardens are coneflower, blackeyed susan, marigolds, butterfly bush, lantana, hibiscus, verbena, lilacs, lavender, and rosemary.

Butterfly Gardens Provide Shelter

There are butterfly predators in your neighborhood and as a result, butterfly gardens should contain suitable shelters for your winged friends. A butterfly hutch is the perfect safe resting place for the butterflies in your garden. You can purchase one at a local nursery or even make one yourself. You can leave it plain or decorate it in a whimsical fashion. The main things to look for in a good butterfly hutch are slits that are big enough to let the butterflies in but too small for nasty predators to gain access and an interior that contains pieces of bark for the butterfly to nest on.

Butterfly Gardens Give Nourishment

If you want a butterfly garden that will attract many butterflies and nourish your soul make sure you provide food and water for the many butterflies that will descend on your yard. Many of the flowers you plant will provide nectar for your butterflies, but you can also help nature along by providing feeders full of sugar water. You can even leave out little bits of sugar water in saucers scattered around your plants or place a piece of over ripe fruit in your garden to attract many butterflies. Butterflies also need water, so placing a small birdbath in your garden is a great idea.

Simple Tips For Designing an Attractive Butterfly Garden

Among the several different types and kinds of gardens, a butterfly garden is considered to be the most attractive and the most compelling one because of the aspects and features it involves. Butterflies are something that can bring smile on anybody's face and having them in your garden in an ample amount will surely bring lots of smile on the faces of your children and other family members as well. It is not just about being compassionate but it also provides the sense of being elegant and making a style statement for your house.

Adding butterflies to your garden to make it a butterfly garden is very simple and you can carry it out if you are a consistent gardener and your techniques and basics are strong enough. In this article, I am going to tell you some simple tips for designing an attractive butterfly garden which you can implement if you want see some butterfly flying in your own garden.

First of all, you need a sunny area. However, if you don't have a location where you think doesn't gets enough amount of sunlight then you can consider thing option of having artificial sunlight or LED's but make sure your atmosphere is warm enough for these little creatures to survive. It shouldn't be too hot or warm because that would take away the life of the butterfly garden. April and may are the best months to consider if you want to plan a butterfly garden because the soil is warm and the annual seeds are easy to approach within these months as well.

You should provide a little bit of safety to your butterfly garden for the days when the climate is a bit stormy and windy. Butterflies won't hold up in this type of weather and you might end up losing their beauty if you don't install some sort of shrubbery or even a green house within your butterfly garden.

Add stepping stones to your garden because this is supposed to add frisking options for the butterflies; these organisms are cold blooded and will provide the butterflies with a little warmth. Water and proper ventilation is also essential and necessary. Appropriate food components also need to be involved within the butterfly garden because these tiny creatures start from being eggs, then they become caterpillars and finally the colorful winged butterflies. Through this whole developmental round, they need food for their development and growth. During their different life stages, they need different materials to be fed upon so make sure you are making that available to them as well.

DIY Butterfly Garden For Your Deck

Learning how to make a DIY butterfly garden for your deck is a great way to combine the joy of gardening with the beauty of butterflies right outside your backdoor.

Plan Your Garden: Whether you are creating your own plans or modifying some existing designs, a plan is always the best way to begin and do-it-yourself (DIY) to save money. You may wish to use freestanding pots and planters or get window boxes or deck rail planters that hang from the rail to bring your butterfly garden up to eye level to create an ideal butterfly garden.

Flowers: The key is to plant a variety of native flowers, as well as those that can attract different kinds of butterflies. Flowers that look good and are easy to use in window boxes are "butterfly bushes," daylilies, asters, marigolds and lantanas. For the butterfly larvae you should think about growing milkweed plants, parsley and dill.

Types of Butterflies: Some of the most common butterflies found through North America are the Monarch, Mourning Cloak, Red Admiral and Common Wood Nymph butterflies. These may be a good starting place for beginners, but you may wish to do further research to see what species are most common in your area.

Butterfly Houses: Butterfly houses are a nice way to attract some species of butterflies and some can be mounted on top of your deck railing posts. Be sure to get one that has one or more glass sides, so you can watch them interact in a more intimate way. Add a piece of tree bark or some twigs, for the butterflies to use as a roost. You may even try to build your own DIY butterfly house. It is possible that some of the non-migratory species of butterfly might decide to spend the winter on your deck in your butterfly garden.

Butterfly Feeders: You can easily make a homemade butterfly feeder by using a plastic plate. For your DIY butterfly feeder punch three holes around the sides amd hang it with wire or string. Decorate wire with large faux flowers and hang near real flowers to increase probability that your feeder will be found. Alternatively, you can make a terracotta feeder, by taking any small sized terracotta pot and same sized saucer and turning them upside down. Apply glue to the bottom of the pot, and glue it to the bottom of the saucer. Once the glue dries, begin decorating the exterior of the pot and saucer with paint and/or by gluing tiles to make mosaic flower patterns. The pot will serve as the stand and the saucer will be the feeder.

Butterfly Food: Old bruised bananas, fermented apples that have fallen from one of your fruit trees and many others over ripened fruits can be used as nutrient sources for attracting some butterflies. Replace the fruit when they become dried out. You can make a homemade butterfly food nectar source by combing 4 parts water and 1 part granulated sugar and boiling until dissolved. Cool and serve in your homemade butterfly feeder.

Butterfly Puddles: Butterflies pull minerals and moisture out of damp soil, known as puddling. Males are known to draw from these puddles frequently, seeking salts and minerals. Create your own homemade butterfly puddle by burying a bowl filled with sand. Fill bowl with water, a sweet drink or stale beer, until sand is completely soggy. Butterflies love the sun, so add some large stones to create places for the butterflies to sun bath in your butterfly garden.

Building a DIY butterfly garden on your deck is an enjoyable and affordable do it yourself project. The combination of flowers and butterflies will create an environment that is excellent for entertaining guest or enjoying quietly on your own.

How to Create a Butterfly Garden

People who love to garden also tend to enjoy watching butterflies flitting about. After all, butterflies are just as pretty to look at as the flowers that they visit. Gardeners can entice even more butterflies to visit their gardens by creating gardens specifically for butterflies.

It's quite easy to create a butterfly garden. You may even find that you already grow some flowers that attract butterflies. With just a little effort you can create a beautiful haven for these lovely winged creatures, and the butterflies will appreciate your efforts.

If you're starting from scratch and will be creating a new planting bed for your butterfly garden, you'll first want to learn how to properly create a planting bed for your plants. You can find information on preparing raised planting beds at freeplants.com

When deciding where to locate your butterfly garden, choose a spot that is not isolated from other plants. Butterflies will be more likely to find your garden if there are other flowers nearby to lead them to your butterfly garden. But if your butterfly garden is the only patch of flowers in a vast sea of grass, butterflies won't have much reason to be in the area. If you have a border of flowering shrubs and other butterfly-enticing plants are scattered around your yard, the butterflies are much more likely to spend time in your garden.

The butterfly garden should include a variety of plants that attract butterflies, and those plants should be in a variety of colors and heights. Consider planting azaleas, rhododendrons and lilacs for height. Fragrant 'James McFarland' lilacs seem to be especially attractive to butterflies. Weigela, with its flowers like dainty trumpets, is another good shrub for attracting butterflies.

No butterfly garden should be without Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa). Not only will the bright orange blossoms attract many butterflies, but the plant will also provide food for caterpillars. Without the caterpillars there would be no butterflies. Dill and parsley also provide food for butterfly caterpillars. If you're lucky, you may even have Monarch butterflies laying their eggs on the milkweed and you can watch the entire life cycle, from caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly.

Many other commonly grown flowers will attract butterflies, including hollyhocks, purple coneflowers (Echinacea), Black-eyed Susans (rudbeckia), cosmos, huechera, zinnias, beebalm and cleome. Buddleia, also known as butterfly bush, is a must in any butterfly garden. If you have room for this large plant, Mexican sunflower (tithonia) will attract many butterflies and hummingbirds with its sunny orange blooms.

Plan your butterfly garden so there are blooms all season long. The rhododendrons, azaleas and lilacs will provide a spring snack for butterflies, followed by summer-blooming plants such as the buddleia and asclepias. In the fall, butterflies will sip nectar from asters and 'Autumn Joy" sedum.

In addition to providing food for butterflies, your butterfly garden should also provide a resting place along with shelter from the wind and cold. Include flat rocks in your garden where the butterflies can sun themselves. It's even better if the rocks have shallow depressions where water will puddle and provide a place for butterflies to gather for a drink.

A small log pile will provide shelter from the weather for butterflies. You can also purchase butterfly shelters that look rather like tall, narrow birdhouses with several slots for entrances. These may attract butterflies, but in my experience wasps tend to move in, discouraging any butterflies from entering.

One final thing that every butterfly garden should include is a comfortable bench placed where you can sit and admire the beautiful butterflies. After all, you've created this garden not only for the butterflies but also for your own enjoyment.

How to Grow a Butterfly Garden

Do you love the sight of blooming flowers with beautiful butterflies fluttering around them? Plant a butterfly garden! With a little knowledge and a nice area to plant it is really very simple to plant a butterfly garden or just turn your existing flower gardens into beautiful butterfly gardens.

To attract butterflies, you will need to keep a few things in mind. Butterflies need sunshine to keep warm, and most of the flowers they like best need sunshine, too. Make sure that you select a sunny location (preferably in a wind protected area) for your garden. For best results, plant the tallest flowers behind the shorter ones--so you'll be able to see all the flowers and butterflies that appear in your garden. Adding rocks and bricks for the butterflies to bask in the sun will keep the butterflies close to your yard. Rocks are convenient perches for butterflies to sun themselves and are also a very decorative addition to your garden. They also need still water on the ground - a birdbath or even a jar lid will work for that.

Adult butterflies are attracted to sweet, sharp and fragrant smells and the colors orange, yellow, pink, purple and red. A variety of blossoms offer nectar to adult butterflies, while leafy food sources, such as parsley or bronze fennel, nourish the larvae.

When selecting your plants, choose a variety of plants so there will be flowers blooming at all times during the summer. If you plant only one type flower and they bloom and die, the butterflies will leave. Here are some of the plants that butterflies are the most attracted to: Daylily, Iris, Lavender, Milkweed, Petunia, Phlox, Asters, Butterfly bush, Heliotrope, Cosmos, Clover, Zinnia. Some other plants that I've found that they like in my garden are Purple Gayfeather and Bee Balm. Not only do the butterflies love them, but hummingbirds are attracted to them also.

Butterflies also love it when you put out rotting fruit, such as watermelon. If you have a problem with ants you may not want to do this, but it really does attract the butterflies. Another thing they seem to love is to have a water mister out during very hot days. They love to fly through the water and the birds love it too!

It's important to remember to refrain from the use off chemical insecticides, which will kill the butterflies you attract.

Remember, the general requirements for butterfly gardening are: sunny, preferably a wind protected area, some water, nectar source plants, larval host plants, & a pesticide-free environment. Once you have planted your butterfly garden, sit back and enjoy it for years to come.

How About a Butterfly Garden?

Butterflies tend to add to the color and beauty of a garden. Because of this, you may be interested in creating a garden that is designed to attract more butterflies. These are known as butterfly gardens, and there are a few special things that you need to know about, in order to create the perfect haven for the butterflies that you want to attract.

First, you will want your garden to be in almost full sunlight. You must carefully select plants for your garden that enjoy full sunlight, as this is what butterflies enjoy the most as well. This doesn't mean that there cannot be some shaded areas of your garden; it simply means that if your garden is to be a butterfly garden, the majority of the garden must reside in sunlight.

The area that you select must also be shielded from the wind as much as possible. Butterflies do not fare well - or want to be - in areas where they are subjected to a great deal of wind, or constant wind. You can use a variety of methods to block the wind from your garden. For example, you can build a solid fence, and whatever you use to block the wind from your garden can also be used to add to the overall beauty of the garden.

The butterflies that visit your garden will appreciate a source of water. This can be in the form of a small pond, buckets of water, or even a bird bath. Butterflies also need minerals, such as those found in salt. Areas that are moistened and covered with salt minerals are very beneficial for butterflies, and will make your butterfly residents quite happy.

Flowers are an essential part of a butterfly garden. They will enjoy a wide variety of flowers, but unlike many other types of insects, they won't cause any harm to the flowers when they feed on them. In fact, many scientists who do research concerning plant life agree that the butterflies are actually as beneficial to the flowers, as the flowers are to the butterflies.

You must also remember that all butterflies start out as caterpillars. Caterpillars can do minor damage to flowers, so you want to make sure that you have other sources of nutrition for the caterpillars that will become butterflies. This is done in the form of leafy greens. The caterpillars will eventually become butterflies that grace your garden, and as they die out, more caterpillars will turn into butterflies to replace them.

You must make absolutely sure that you do not use any pesticides that will harm the butterflies. Additionally, if you use natural means of pesticides, you could still harm the butterflies as well. Garden enthusiasts agree that if you plant a wide variety of flowers and plants, you will have fewer problems with unwanted insects. You should also be aware that anything that attracts butterflies will additionally attract some birds, such as hummingbirds. If you do not want birds in your garden, you may have a hard time designing a butterfly garden.

You can finish the beauty of your butterfly garden off by adding a place to sit and enjoy the flowers and the butterflies. It does you little good to do all that work and not be able to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Make sure that you create a sitting area either on the edge or within the boundaries of your garden area. People seldom bother butterflies, and sitting out in your garden to enjoy the butterflies will not scare them away - as long as you aren't chasing after them.

Get more garden tips at http://www.gardentips.co.za.

How to Design a Live Butterfly Garden

So you want to create a live butterfly garden in your yard, but you're feeling a little intimidated. What kind of plants and flowers should you plant? How large or small should the garden be? And what if the butterflies don't come?

Well, relax. Building a garden for butterflies can seem like an enormous project that ought to only be handled by experts, but in fact it's actually quite easy. It's also a lot of fun, for children and adults alike.

Start by selecting a spot for the garden - look for a place with plenty of sunlight. Butterflies like the sun because they are cold-blooded creatures, and the sunlight warms their blood, allowing them to take flight. And the plants like it because for the most part they tend to function really well with it. That's how they grow!

How big should your garden be? To be honest, it can be very very small - even just a few plants in pots, if they're the right kinds of plants, will probably attract some butterflies. The question is how big a scope do you want? Are you after lots of species? Do you want an explosion of color that will last all summer through early fall? Or are you content with just a few winged visitors?

I often suggest that people go with a ten by ten foot garden. This is large enough to allow you to add a number of plants and shrubs that are friendly for butterflies, but it's not so large that taking care of it will take hours a day. You can always add a little space to a vegetable garden.

Start by doing what you would do for any garden. Till the space, add some good compost, maybe some lime. Supplement the soil in ways that will bolster the growth of plants. Then go ahead and start adding plants.

What should you plant? This is the hundred thousand dollar question. A basic list that will bring you a fairly broad variety of butterflies, while not burdening your with hard-to-care-for plants, includes: sunflowers, milkweed, violets, daisies, asters, roses, marigolds, butterfly bushes, and zinnias.

Bunch flowers of similar colors together - just as we are attracted to butterflies for the color of their lovely wings, so are they attracted to flowers for their colors. If you create too much of a patchwork quilt effect, they'll get confused. So keep your reds with your reds, your yellows with your yellows, and your purples with your purples.

Shoot to vary the plants a bit - you want some with broad leaves that will allow the butterfly to hide beneath it at night. You want some with fairly long stems so that the butterfly can rest in the sunlight after it has helped itself to the nectar.

It's a good idea to put some sand at various spots and dampen it from time to time. Butterflies aren't actually inclined to drink water, but they do appreciate moisture.

What's the best time to view your butterflies? Well, when the sun is up they will be far warmer and a lot more active. That's when they'll be fluttering about in the garden.

But early morning has its charms for butterfly watching as well. For example, butterflies who are waking up are not able to fly yet - this is the ideal time to get in close and really see them. It's a good time to snap a few photographs as well.

Building a butterfly garden can be a lot of fun - it's labor intensive at the outset, when you are turning over the soil and planting the flowers. But by the time the middle of summer rolls around, you're pretty much just sitting back and appreciating the show!

Plan a Butterfly Garden

We hear a lot about "going green" and organic gardening, but the reasons given are sometimes broad terms, like "save the environment" or "preserve the ozone." These are very wonderful goals from a generalist view. However, being just one little person, the attempt to save the environment or preserve the ozone seem pretty far out of reach for me as an individual. And besides with everyone else doing their part, I'm sure it will get done. Wrong!

But I believe if we can determine a real need that we as individuals can perform and accomplish, then the overall goals can be reached. So having done some research on how important butterflies are to our environment and to our health, and how endangered they are. I decided to plan a Butterfly theme for my garden.

First some facts about butterflies:

Butterflies don't sting, or bite, or carry disease.

Butterflies most important job is as pollinators.

Butterflies are indicators of the balance of nature.

There are over 300 species of Butterflies.

Butterflies can smell and locate the kinds of plants they prefer from a long way off, long before they can see the bright colors.

So how do you plan a garden that will attract butterflies. Remember visiting the countryside and seeing dozens of beautiful butterflies flitting from one flower variety to the next in the large open field. Well as housing developments and industrial building begin to appear and the wide open meadows disappear, the butterflies have fewer options. This has endangered the proliferation of the butterflies as well as loss of bees. Two major pollinators necessary to feed our population. Loss of wide open fields and meadows are not the only problems butterflies encounter, there are also many predators just waiting to feed on the larvae and caterpillars they evolve into a beautify butterfly.

It is important to realize that butterflies need two specific types of plants for their livelihood. One type of plant for storing their larvae and one type to provide nectar. So what to do? Don't just start planting.

The plan:

Determine the available space, and how much shade and full sun there is in this space. This is important to the success of plant growth. If garden space is limited consider using pots or barrels strategically placed. Depending on your climate consider planting citrus trees in pots so they can be taken inside during the cold weather. Citrus trees are a butterflies' favorite.

Determine how much money and time you have available for this project and be realistic. Planting perennials is a real money saver as they will return the following spring. Lantana, black-eyed Susan, purple coneflower, yarrow and butterfly weed are a few perennials especially attractive to butterflies. Annuals such as salvia, zinnia, verbena, penta and cosmos attract butterflies, but will have to be planted each year. Organic nurseries or nurseries' that specialize in native plants are excellent places to search for "butterfly attracting" plants. Butterflies love vines! Plant as many as you can, passion flowers, honeysuckle, Carolina jasmine. These also return year after year when properly mulched in the Fall. Remember that butterflies require water for drinking and hygiene. Provide a soft flowing garden fountain or logs with small hollows that capture rain water for them. Some butterflies are attracted to red and orange blooms, others like white, yellow, purple and pink. So just plan for lots of different colors. Plant your flowers in dense clumps, not spread out. This gives the butterfly camouflage protection from predators.

About the predators. The butterflies' predators include birds, spiders, parasite wasps that actually use the caterpillars to lay their eggs inside, and insecticides. Extreme care should be used when using insecticides against butterfly predators. Some of these will actually kill the butterfly you are trying to protect. This is why developing an "organic" butterfly garden it so important. It just allows nature itself to provide a balance between predator and butterfly.

Do your research. Check out websites such as http://www.uky.edu/Ag/Horticulture/butterflypages/butterflyinfo.htm.

Get the kids involved through websites such as http://www.kidsbutterfly.org/.

I really think I may be reincarnated from a butterfly. What I have just described is the very type of garden I myself enjoy most. Hope you do too. Remember "Butterflies are FREE!"