This was one of my favorite books as a child given to me by my favorite Uncle Mick. We follow the very hungry caterpillar as he/she eats their way to becoming a butterfly. Boy do I wish humans worked like that eating your way to becoming a more beautiful person, well I guess you could do that with fruits and veggies….anywho I digress from the point I was trying to make with this post….which is what do you need to attract butterflies to your garden and then what to feed the caterpillars.
To attract butterflies you need to have plenty of colorful flowers. Some of my favorites are Salvias, Pentas, Porter Weed, Bat Face Cuphea, (most of these have smaller flowers but they make lots of them) and many more! Now for the food for the little guys aka the caterpillars: Monarchs will only eat Milkweed and Swallowtails prefer parsley. Most of the other caterpillars are less picky and will eat any leafy thing.
The best thing about butterfly gardening is that it is also hummingbird gardening so you get two beautiful creatures visiting your yard for the price of one.