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Okay, after going through the amazing experience of raising butterflies, I felt like sharing how to make a butterfly garden with you guys. It's fun , easy, good for environement , and when the butterflies emerge, they will sometimes crawl all over you, making great photographs.

First, pick the butterflies or even moths that you want to attract. Research them a bit, to help figure out how to identify them and their larval stage. You can also try researching the hostplants and nectar sources.

Next, try figuring out how you want to attract them. There is two main ways : By using a hostplant or by using nectar sources. Nectar sources are flowers and flowering plants that have nectar to attract adult butterflies and some moths.Host plants are specific plants that the caterpillars feed on.

Try observing plants you already have in your yard. If you have trees such as Maple, Oak, Ash..etc then you will most likely be able to attract butterflies and moths with the help of adult food.

Here is a site with nectar sources and hostplants for common species :

http://www.thebutterflysite.co…..ning.shtml

To attract moths, you can also use the host plant, but most moths cannot eat/don't eat nectar. Here is a way to attract some moths : http://www.grandparents.com/gp…..kyard.html

Next, try figuring out how, where, and when to plant the hostplant or flower. If you plant it too late, there may be no caterpillars, and since you need to let it grow, try planting it early spring, or late winter inside your house. It's best to wait next year as well.

Learn how to care for the butterflies and caterpillars as well. Here are some links that can help :

http://www.wikihow.com/Take-Ca…..utterflies

http://www.wikihow.com/Raise-C…..terpillars

Here are some butterflies and moths I recommend (along with hostplant) :

Black swallowtail : Parsley, Rue, Dill, Fennel,

Monarch : Milkweed

Elephant hawk moth : Bedstraw, Willowherb , Fuchsias

Small emperor moth : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S…..ood_plants

Hummingbird hawk moth : Madders, Bedstraw or any plant in families Centranthus, Stellaria , Rubiaceae and Epilobium

Also, it works best if you try to plant native plants in your region , or plant plants with other uses to you, or plants that help endangered species ( Lupine, a type of flower helps 3 endangered species! )

Here is a album of pictures of the black swallowtail that I raised, if you haven't seen it :

http://www.facebook.com/media/…..038;type=1

Very nice! I really want to try planting a garden like that someday. It doesn't seem too difficult to figure out what plants are the best for the butterflies and for the environment. Do you get many hummingbirds as well? I know they drink nectar.

Awesome! We get a few hummingbirds here because they really like a wild plant that grows around our house. It has orange long bell shaped flowers and when you touch its seed pods they pop. It's really fun to do that! The hummingbirds really love them and the bleeding hearts we try to get every year.

that is sooo cool!!! i luv the glasswing butterfly

I agree. Nature is amazing and I can't even begin to understand it.

Found it online. I've never actually seen one myself.