Butterfly gardens contain not only lovely plants but they are designed specifically to attract butterflies. Butterfly gardens can be grown anywhere but they are particularly suited to North America as most at butterfly attractive plants are native to this area. You don't need a full garden of butterfly plants but can attract butterflies with only just a few containers of butterfly plants.

Some general requirements for a butterfly garden are to have nectar plant source, larval host plants, pesticide free environment, full sun and some local butterfly fauna. Many butterfly attractive plants are native to North America and need little attention to grow or thrive. You should plant your garden in the spring with younger plants. This will give the plants the time to mature and be very strong the following year.

It is important to have more than one nectar source in your garden. Planting many nectar source will encourage many butterflies to visit your garden and will also give the butterflies many places to lay eggs. Butterfly eggs tend to hatch about 3 to 6 days after they are laid and it will take the caterpillars about 6 weeks to emerge as full butterflies.

Some popular butterfly attracting plants are the Azalea, Black-eyed Susan, Butterfly Bush, Butterfly Weed, Egyptian Star Flower, Ironweed, Joe-Pye Weed, Lantana, French Marigold, New England Aster, Purple Coneflower, Swamp Milkweed, Blazing Star, Vervain and Zinnia.

You should design your garden so there is plenty of available sun. The butterflies like the sun because it warms them up and the plants need the sun for food and energy to produce nectar. You should also plant colorful flowers, as butterflies are attracted to purple, orange, dark pink, yellow and red. Butterflies tend to hover around these colors. An interspersion of strong scented flowers and colorful ones will not only attract butterflies but will be very pleasing to the eye as well.

Butterflies also enjoy puddles and will frequently congregate at small puddles. It is easy to make small permanent puddles in your garden. You should use sweet liquids like sweet drinks, stale beer and water. Butterflies like sweet foods so you c an encourage them to congregate by leaving overripe fruit by the puddles as well. Butterflies like to feed off of overripe fruit.

Host plants need to be planted besides nectar producing plants. These plants are where the butterflies will lay their eggs and once the caterpillars emerge they will feed on the host plant. Your garden should also be pesticide free, as most pesticides will kill the butterflies. Some natural plants that repel pests and are not harmful to butterflies are mint, herbs, petunias and marigolds.

You will need to determine your local butterfly fauna so you can plant the proper host plants. The Milkweed attracts the Monarch, the Fennel attracts the Black Swallowtail, the Senna attracts the Cloudless Sulphur, the Hop Tree attracts the Giant Swallowtail, the Spicebush attracts the Spicebush Swallowtail, the Pawpaw attracts the Zebra Swallowtail, the Black Cherry attracts the Tiger Swallowtail, and the Willow attracts the Red Potted Purple.

You can learn more about butterflies and butterfly gardens at botanical gardens, zoos, garden centers and nurseries, butterfly houses, libraries and on the Internet. You can find everything you need to know about creating a butterfly garden in your area.