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Make room for butterflies

How to create a butterfly garden

Butterflies bring colour and movement to any garden, and you don’t need much room to attract them. A few pots on a sunny balcony, a courtyard corner or a small front garden bed is enough to get started.

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Start with these checks

  • Pick a sheltered, sunny spot.
  • Include flowers for butterflies and food plants for caterpillars.
  • Add a flat rock and a shallow dish of damp sand.

Start with your Southern Plants™ care label

Southern Plants™ puts care into its labels to help you choose a suitable home for each plant.

Check the light, soil, water and mature size information for each variety. Choose plants that suit your space, and include both nectar flowers and suitable caterpillar food plants.

Find your plant’s growing information →
An orange and brown butterfly feeding on pale purple flowers
Nectar-rich flowers give adult butterflies a reason to visit.

Why attract butterflies?

Butterflies and their caterpillars are a joy to watch, and many are strikingly colourful. They also do real work in the garden:

Pollination

When butterflies feed on nectar, they carry pollen from plant to plant, which helps your plants set seed and fruit.

A healthy ecosystem

A garden designed for butterflies will also attract plenty of native bees and other native insects.

Natural pest control

A garden that supports beneficial insects will also support their natural predators, which keep pest insects at bay or in much smaller numbers.

Food for wildlife

Caterpillars and butterflies are a food source for frogs, lizards and small mammals.

A garden for the whole life cycle

What butterflies need

Plants for caterpillars

Some butterfly species are fussy about the plants they visit, especially when laying eggs. Their caterpillars need a suitable food source as soon as they hatch, so the eggs have to go on the right plant. That means putting up with a few chewed leaves, but without caterpillars there won’t be butterflies. If there’s a particular species you’d like to attract, look up the butterflies in your local area and the plants they favour.

A Dainty Swallowtail caterpillar on a green stem beside a leaf
Make room for a few chewed leaves — without caterpillars there won’t be butterflies.

Flowers for nectar

Adult butterflies feed on nectar, so they visit flowers that are easy to drink from. Look for flat, open flowers that give them somewhere to land, or short, tubular flowers they can reach into. Butterflies are drawn to red, orange, yellow, purple and pink blooms. Planting these in bold groups makes them easier to spot.

A place to rest and warm up

Butterflies like to bask in the sun to absorb its warmth. Flat rocks and sand or gravel paths in a sheltered, sunny spot make ideal resting places.

A safe drink and a mineral top-up

Butterflies collect moisture and the salts they need from damp mud, which is why you’ll often see them around the boggy edges of ponds. Damp sand or gravel lets them drink without any risk of drowning. No pond? A shallow dish of damp sand does the same job, even on a balcony.

Go easy on the sprays

Pesticides and herbicides harm caterpillars, butterflies and the beneficial insects that keep your garden in balance. Avoid them where you can, and if you must use them, use them sparingly.

Your first butterfly corner

Start small

Pick a sunny spot and add a few nectar-rich plants in butterfly-friendly colours. Include a plant for caterpillars to feed on, and set out a flat rock and a damp sand dish. Then wait for the visitors.

Plan your planting

Butterfly-attracting plants

Use these ideas as a starting point. Links show matching plants in our catalogue; availability varies. Caterpillar food plants depend on the butterfly species, so check the butterflies in your local area and the plants they favour.

Flowers and plants that attract butterflies 73 plant ideas
Caterpillar food sources 21 plant ideas

Butterfly-attracting plants from our range

Explore a selection of matching plants currently available from Southern Plants™. Open a plant profile to check its growing requirements.

Argyranthemum Assorted Argyranthemum Assorted Argyranthemum frutescens Assorted Blade Runner Native Wisteria Blade Runner Native Wisteria Hardenbergia violacea 'HA2020' 'Blade Runner' Callistemon LIttle John Callistemon LIttle John Callistemon viminalis 'Little John' Coastal Rosemary Coastal Rosemary Westringia fruticosa x eremicola 'Wynyabbie Gem' Cut-Leaf Daisy Cut-Leaf Daisy Brachyscome multifida Eremophila Silver Ball Eremophila Silver Ball Eremophila glabra 'Silver Ball' Goodenia Gold Cover Goodenia Gold Cover Goodenia ovata 'Gold Cover' Grevillea Deua Flame Grevillea Deua Flame Grevillea rhyolitica 'Deua Flame'
Explore the Plant Finder →

Your next step towards growing with confidence

You do not need to know everything at once. Start with your plant’s growing requirements, try the steps that suit your garden, and build confidence as you see what works.

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