Loudoun County Master Gardeners

Butterfly Garden / Perennial Bed                                                                                         Back

These gardens attract butterflies that flit and float into the area.  The butterfly garden is shaped like a butterfly and the plants in the garden are butterfly attractors.  You will actually find the butterfly bushes in the adjoining perennial bed.  Click to view the Butterfly Garden layouts in our garden at Ida Lee:  Butterfly Gardens flyer

Photos from 2006 to 2008

Rocks used for edging donated from a MG in 2008.
We have many butterflies passing through our garden.  The garden is one of the many places used for the official butterfly count in Loudoun County.  

                                              

 

Butterfly gardens should include both nectar plants (butterfly food) and host plants (larval food).

Different species of butterflies have different preferences for nectar, in both colors and tastes and for host plants. A wide variety of food plants will give the greatest diversity of visitors. Try staggering wild and cultivated plants, as well as blooming times of the day and year. Groups of the same plants will be easier for butterflies to see than singly planted flowers.

Our Butterfly Garden includes:

Catmint Nepeta catoria

Lamb's Ear Stachys byzantina

Joe-Pye Weed Eupatorium spp.

Lemon Balm Melissa officinalis

Globe Thistle Echinops

New York Ironweed Vernonia

 

Tall Meadow Rue Thalictrum spp.

Purple Coneflower Echinacea

Anise Hyssop Agastache

Goldenrod  Solidago

Bronze Fennel  Foeniculum vulgave

Johnny Jump-ups Viola cornuta

Dwarf Aster Asteraceae

Russian Sage Perovskia

Garden Phlox Phlox paniculata

Yellow Coneflower Rudbeckia fulgida

Stonecrop Sedum Sedum

Black-eyed Susan Rudbeckia

Bee Balm Monarda

 
Our Perennial Bed (pictured below) include:

Lilyturf Liriope muscari

Yarrow Achillea

Chrysanthemum Chrysanthemum

Chinese Peony Paeonia lactiflora

Tickseed Coreopsis

Siberian Iris Iris sibirica

Bee Balm Monarda

Butterfly Bush Buddleia davidii

Iris Iris

Lamb’s Ear Stachys byzantina

Aster Asteraceae

Sweet Woodruff Galium odoratum
 

Butterfly house build by Larry Burk in April 2009 - do they really attract butterflies to nest there?  Most likely not but it is a beautiful addition!

Reddish/salmon colored Irises. Liriope borders the bed.
 
For more on butterfly gardens see:

How to Make Butterfly Gardens

Butterfly Gardener's Page

Butterfly Gardens

 

 

 

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