Gardening for Butterflies and Other Pollinators

Choose a location for your garden

Three things to keep in mind:

1. SOIL

Well-drained soil will serve as a successful foundation for most garden. Test your soil by closing your fist around it. If the soil breaks up in your hand, it’s likely in great shape. If it doesn’t, add lots of compost to the soil bed and dig it in.

2. SUN

Nectar plants require approximately 4-6 hours of sun to promote blooming. Plus, most pollinators (especially butterflies!) are sunlovers and rarely feed on plants in the shade.

3. WIND

Ensure that your garden is protected from the prevailing winds to allow pollinators to more easily navigate the space. Creating your garden beside a fence, building, or tree-line can serve this purpose.

Try to choose plants with a variety of size, shape, colour, fragrance, and height, and if you have the room, mass plantings are especially attractive to pollinators in search of food.
Some other things to keep in mind when choosing your plants:

1. START WITH WHAT YOU’VE GOT

Taking inventory of what’s already in your space (and nearby) is a good place to start and from there you can fill in the gaps. Look beyond the borders of your property, too – if there’s a large field not far from your house that’s filled with goldenrod and asters in the fall, you could focus on spring and summer-blooming plants.
If you have an existing garden, take a look for any plants or features that already seem to be particularly attractive to pollinators. If the butterflies seem really attracted to the two stalks of obedient plant, why not consider planting more?

2. NATIVE PLANTS ARE BEST

Native plants are generally low maintenance since they are drought tolerant and disease and pest resistant. They also play an important role for wildlife. With natural habitats disappearing at an alarming rate, it would be beneficial to grow a diverse population of native plants. Even when choosing native plants, be sure to choose ones that suit the soil and climate of your garden! Grasses, herbs and some non-native annuals are still a great addition to your habitat and may attract egg-laying for butterflies, flies, and nesting bees.

3. NATURAL & ORGANIC IS KEY

Beware of hybrid varieties that have been cultivated to be showy but not provide any real food for pollinators. Notice the difference between the single- and double- flower hollyhocks. The nectaries in double flowers are extremely difficult for pollinators to access, so it is best to stay away from them altogether. Further, make sure you read the labels of plants before you purchase them to be sure they weren’t grown with systemic insecticides or herbicides.

4. DON’T HATE ON THE “WEEDS”

Many of our common “weeds” are actually wildflowers that are of great benefit to pollinators. For example, dandelions are a great spring nectar source, and goldenrod is beneficial in the fall. But remember, it’s your space – it’s okay to decide which plants you want and which ones you don’t.

5. GARDEN FOR THE SEASONS

Choose a variety of native perennials that have different blooming seasons. You can always plant annuals to fill in any blooming gaps.

SPRING

a. Rockcress b. Allium sp. c. Globe Thistle, d. Lupine

Early Summer

a. Centurea b. Bee balm c. Liatris d. Sweet William

Late Summer

a. Black-eyed Susan b. Milkweed c. Phlox d. Boneset

Fall:

a. Aster b. Sedum c. Goldenrod d. Borage e. Joe Pye Weed
Late blooming nectar plants are especially important for the migratory generation of Monarchs!

Host plants are where butterflies lay their eggs and provide food for caterpillars. Not many people know this, but caterpillars are picky eaters! Certain species of caterpillars will only eat certain plants, so the adult butterflies will lay their eggs specifically on those plants.

Nectar plants are food for adult butterflies, we’ll tell you more about nectar plants in the next section.

Common Butterflies and their Host Plants:

Gardening for Other Pollinators

Moths

Good nectar plants for moths tend to be pale in colour (white or yellow), bloom in late afternoon, dusk or evening, are heavily fragranted, and have long tubular flowers, in a cluster.
Plant Picks: honeysuckle, evening primrose, tobacco plant (nicotania), moonflower, morning glory, phlox, night-blooming jasmine, dames rocket, goldenrod, asters, and queen-annes lace

Flies

Flies are attracted to flowers that have strong odours. Flies are most attracted to yellow, white, and green, as well as purple or brown. Because they have shorter tongues than most bees and butterflies, shallow flowers with lots of small florets will be easier for them to feed on. Letting your yard be a little less tidy will also be more attractive to flies.
Plant picks: dill, parsley, ornamental onion, yarrow, mint

Bees

Unlike honey bees and bumble bees that live in colonies, most of our native bees are solitary and build individual nests for their larvae. Some use mud in their nesting cavities and some need open sandy areas to dig because they nest in the ground. You can help them out by leaving sandy and muddy areas in your garden, as well as leaving clumps of native grasses to provide home and shelter. For flowers, choose colours like blue, purple or yellow with flat or shallow blossoms to attract the most variety of bees.
Plant Picks: blanket flower, Russian Sage, goldenrod, asters, mint

Beetles

Beetles are usually attracted to paler coloured flowers (yellow or white). It is not necessary to get flowers that are heavily fragranted because they go by sight instead of smell. The flowers should be shallow, as many beetles don’t have a long tongue.
Plant Picks: milkweed, queen anne’s lace, goldenrod, yarrow

Hummingbirds

Who doesn’t delight at a hummingbird flitting in and out of their garden? You can attract hummingbirds with bright red or orange flowers of a tubular shape. They search for food by sight instead of smell, so flashy colours will draw them in. Although hummingbirds primarily have a sweet-tooth (or beak!) they will also eat insects, usually ones that are also attracted to nectar plants and even stealing insects out of spider’s webs! Having spiders around is good for hummingbirds during nesting, since the females use spider silk to glue their nest together with bark and lichen for camouflage.
Plant Picks: bee balm, columbine, fuschia, butterfly bush

Perennial Plants

Annual Plants

Some pollinators, such as Monarchs and hummingbirds, migrate south to USA and Mexico for the colder months. The others, however, need to find places to stay for the winter.

Having a messy garden full of dead plant material is the biggest single thing we can do to help – so leave your yard cleanup until the spring! Native solitary-nesting bees use plants with hollow stems, such as sunflowers, joe-pye weed and raspberries, for over-wintering homes. Fallen leaves, logs, and stumps provide habitat for bumble bee queens, wooly bear caterpillars and Mourning Cloak butterflies, one of the few butterflies to overwinter as an adult in Canada. There is a variety of moth caterpillars that specialize on eating leaf litter and debris; they’ll help to decompose and clean up your yard.
Leaving your garden messy over the winter can also help protect and prepare your garden for next year’s growth. A layer of leaves on bare soil can help prevent erosion and help feed microorganisms in the soil. Fall plantings such as rye, clover, and barley can protect the soil in winter and add nutrients when re-integrated into the soil in spring. Perennial seeds can also be sown in the fall – many of them need a cold period to grow successfully (think milkweed!), or can get a head start in the fall, to be better prepared for the spring.

SOLUTIONS:

1. Include plants that help repel pests:
   • Petunias, Marigolds, Chysanthemums
2. Include plants that attract beneficial insects like ladybugs, lacewings, and hoverflies
   • Dill, Cinquefoil, Queen Anne’s Lace
3. Manual removal – hand-pick, prune, or hard spray with the hose

NOTE: It’s okay to let some caterpillars eat your plants! Include host plants for caterpillars in your garden so they eat those specifically. Caterpillars are food for birds and mammals, so if you want to attract more wildlife, it’s essential to have a thriving insect population.

Once you’re registered, both organizations offer the option to purchase an official sign to post in your garden. Showing you’re certified helps raise awareness about the importance of pollinator gardens and provides inspiration for others to get involved as well.

Monarch Watch – Monarch Waystation Habitat

The Monarch Waystation Habitat program looks to ensure that your garden provides Monarchs with the resources they need to reproduce as well as sustain their migration, such as shelter, milkweed, nectar plants, and proper sun exposure.
For instructions on how to get certified, click here

Canadian Wildlife Federation – Backyard Habitat Certification

In order to be eligible for certification, the Backyard Habitat Certification program requires that your outdoor space meets the needs of wildlife by providing food, water, and shelter and that you maintain it using earth-friendly gardening practices. To apply online, click here