Butterfly Gardening

To give Manitoba’s butterflies a helping hand try Butterfly Gardening! Grow plants that provide food and shelter for butterflies and their caterpillars.


A garden full of wildflowers
will be full of butterflies, too.


 
Fritillaries feed on Swamp Milkweed, a good
host plant (Monarchs) and nectar source.

Nectar Sources

Native wildflowers, such as Purple Coneflower, Black-eyed Susan and Goldenrods, are good nectar sources. So are some garden annuals, like Zinnias, Nasturtium, and Cosmos.

Click the monarch image.


Host Plants

Caterpillars will only feed on certain plants, called their host plants. Milkweeds are host plants for Monarch caterpillars, Violets are hosts for Fritillaries, Alfalfa is a host for Orange Sulphurs, and so on.

Click this image.


Get Growing!

We can't have beautiful butterflies without caterpillars chewing up leaves! Start your own butterfly garden. Follow this link for more information on Nectar and Host Plants for Manitoba Butterflies.


Other Ways to Help

Don’t use pesticides in your yard. What’s a few chewed leaves when the result might be a beautiful butterfly!

Talk with your neighbours about butterfly gardening, try to get them involved.

Encourage schools and community groups to make school yards and parks more butterfly-friendly.

Donate money to conservation groups that protect habitat in Manitoba.

Click for more.


Remember

The future of Manitoba’s butterflies is in our hands.


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