What are the best plants for attracting butterflies?

Butterflies need sugar-rich nectar from flowers from March to October and they love warmth.

To attract butterflies into your garden you need to grow a selection of plants that will provide food for a variety of species from spring right through to the autumn.

Choose a sunny, sheltered spot to plant them out of the wind, ideally it should be south or south-west facing. Make a visible display that will give off a strong enough scent to attract the butterflies.

Providing food plants for caterpillars is another way of attracting butterflies. Popular food plants include holly, ivy, cabbage, nasturtium, honesty, long grasses, cuckooflower, blackthorn.

Avoid using chemicals to kill garden pests as they will also kill caterpillars. Household detergent is quite effective against greenfly/blackfly.

Use the following lists to create your butterfly haven.

Spring flowers:

• Aubretia
• Forget-me-not
  
• Heathers
  
• Honesty
  
• Lilacs
  
• Primroses
  
• Yellow alyssum
  
• Wallflowers
  

Summer flowers:

• Alyssum
• Buddleia
• Candytuft
• Cornflowers
• Echinops
• Lavender
• Herbs – marjoram, rosemary, thyme
• Sweet William
• Valerian
  

Autumn flowers:

• Golden rod (solidigo)
• Helenium
• Ivy
• Michaelmus daisy
• Scabious
• Sedum (ice plant)
• Winter savoury