CREATE A BUTTERFLY HAVEN

Think like a butterfly. That's the secret to enticing these beauties. Cold-blooded and protective of their fragile wings, butterflies flock to a sunny, wind-sheltered yard. Food means plenty of easy-access nectar flowers. Choose flowers with lots of tiny blossoms packed close together for quick sipping. Plant late blooms, too, because new generations emerge every few weeks, making summer to fall peak butterfly season. Add plants for hungry caterpillars and fruit to tempt more species. Then sit back and enjoy the show.
FOCUS ON FLOWERS: Flowers and butterflies have long depended on each other. The unspoken bargain is that the flower supplies a sip of nectar, and to get it, the butterfly brushes against the flower, transferring pollen so that the flower can reproduce. Many flowers use color to entice pollinators. Red and orange draw hummingbirds, while white blossoms attract moths. And purple is the siren song for butterflies.
PLANT PURPLE. Butterflies so love purple that using this guideline along nearly guarantees success. Though they will investigate flowers of any color, a garden filled with purple will get much more action, much sooner.
Any shade of purple, from the warm pink of liatris to the deep violet hue of heliotrope, will catch a butterfly's eye, but the best purples for attracting butterflies are those in the middle. You can't go wrong with flowers in lavender-blue, such as some pincushion flowers or Russion sage, the mauve of Joe Pye weeds, or the warmer tones of purple coneflower.
GO FOR THE GOLD. Golden yellow flowers also garner butterfly attention. Mix some yellows in with the purples, and you'll catch the eye of even the fussiest wandering butterfly. Good choices include coreopsis, yarrows, marigolds and goldenrods.
DEPEND ON DAISIES. A garden filled with daisies is a garden alive with butterflies. Since butterfly flight is more like maneuvering an overstuffed minivan than a zippy Porsche, do your winged friends a favor and choose flowers, such as those in the daisy family, that face the sky and provide easy landing pads. The faces of coneflowers, asters, gaillardias, shastas, and black-eyed Susans are oriented upward, unobstructed by foliage, so butterflies can sit securely while they eat. And there's plenty to eat, because the center of a daisy is really a collection of tiny individual flowers, each one brimming with a sip of nectar. Small daisies, such as fall asters, have big appeal too. And while they may not look like it to us, French marigolds and gemon dandelions are easily recognized by butterflies as the double-flowered daisies that they are.
LOAD UP ON LITTLE BLOSSOMS. Look for plants with multitudes of tiny flowers arranged in spikes or clusters. My butterfly bush is mobbed all summer long thanks to its easy-access flowers packed together by the thousand. Butterflies will seek out tiny blossoms held on spikes (goldenrod, veronica) or in a cluster (yarrow, sedum).
SCORE A HIT WITH HERBS. Lavender, anise hyssop, basil, oregano and many other herbs hold thousands of just-the-right-size blossoms that bring in sulphurs, coppers, metalmarks, and other small-to-midsize butterflies. Big, gorgeous swallowtails can't resist a patch of oregano in bloom.
ADD FRUIT, GET MORE BUTTERFLIES. Lots of butterflies never visit flowers. They eat from a different menu, with fruit as an irresistible favorte. Because their proboscises don't have much puncture power, butterflies seek out overripe or split-open fruits. The mushier, the better--and a touch of fermentation is even more desirable.
Watching butterflies at a fruit feeder is not as appealing as seeing them dance over your flowers, but you'll draw in butterflies you'd otherwise rarely see, including mourning cloaks, red-spotted purples, question marks, and gemas. Monarch-look-alike viceroy,s striking red admirals, tawny golden blackberries, and some other butterflies enjoy both fruit and nectar.
The core from a summer pear tossed into the grass is fine from a butterfly's point of view, but you'll have more fun watching if you nail a plastic dinner plate atop a post a little below eye level. Stand quietly and it'll feed just inches away. Pears, peeled bananas, melons, and peaches are all reliable magnets.
Add a dwart fruit tree to your yard and let some of the harvest hang or drop to tempt the fruit lovers. Ornamental crabapples are also a draw.
PROVIDE FOR THE NEXT GENERATION. A brand-new butterfly is breathtakingly perfect, with intense colors and unblemished wings that haven't yet been rained on or nipped by birds. To ensure that they hatch right there in your garden, you must provide the food plants caterpillars crave.
Grow "host plants" -- plants that butterflies lay their eggs on, and that caterpillars eat--that appeal to butterflies. Make sure to include plants native to your area. American plants evolved along with American butterflies, and what I've discovered is that nearly every native plant plays host to some species of butterfly or moth. And remember that the payoff of growing host plants means watching butterflies hatch before your eyes!
DON' FORGET THE EXTRAS. Flowers, fruit, and food for future generations will guarantee you a garden brimming with butterflies. But there are a few other amenities your butterfly guests will need:

Water. Butterflies drink best from a thin film of water on paving or the edge of a puddle. Spray your pavers with the hose on a hot, sunny day, and you'll soon have sippers fluttering in. Or line a saucer with gravel and add water for a butterfly drinking spot.
Mud. Male butterflies gather at mud puddles to replenish chemical elements needed for reproduction. Make a homemade mud patch in an open area, keep it moist, and watch how many visitors show up.
Manure. Some of the most glorious butterflies dine on the most unappetizing substances. Bagged manure, wet down with a hose, may tempt them to your yard.
And here's one last tip that always works for me. Got a spare dollar? Invest it in a pack of plain old zinnia seeds, and you'll have dozens ob butterflies fluttering about once the colorful flowers open. The old-fashioned tall variety in any color, or a color mix, lures them right in. In the fall, snip some seedheads and save them for next year, and your investment will be self-renewing.
ENJOY!