How to Create a Butterfly Garden in Ontario

Butterflies, like people, require food, water, shelter, and a place for their their young to grow.

For food, they need nectar which comes from flowers. They are best attracted to colourful, native flowers which are easy to land on such as milkweed, butterfly weed, echinacea, goldenrod, bee balm and butterfly bush.

For water, they cannot drink from a big pool or lake, and instead they need mud puddles or the edge of a pond.

For shelter they like trees, especially those with lots of leaf or needle cover where they are safe. They like willows, pines, cedar and spruce, as well as honeysuckle vines.

For their young, they require what are called host plants, where they can lay their eggs and then have the caterpillars hatch out and eat the leaves. The host plants must be the right kind for each type of butterfly.

Here is a list of common Ontario butterflies and the host plants they need for their young:

Black Swallowtail - plants of the carrot family
Tiger Swallowtail - willows, cottonwoods, wild cherries, yellow poplar etc.
Cabbage White - mustards
Clouded Sulfur - legumes
Orange Sulfur - alfalfa and clovers
Eastern Tailed Blue - legumes
Spring Azure - dogwood, blueberries etc.
Fritillary - violets
Comma - hops, nettles
Mourning Cloak - willows, elms and poplars
Red Admiral - nettles
Painted Lady - daisies and thistles
Viceroy - willows, poplars
Monarch - milkweeds
Skipper - legumes, grasses