Host Plants for Butterfly and Moth Caterpillars
These plants provide the necessary food for butterfly and moth caterpillars to move through their lifecycle and become the flying insects we know and love.
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Purple Coneflower / Echinacea purpurea
One of the best native plants for the garden. It attracts a diverse group of bees and butterflies, is sturdy and upright, and is a clumping perenni...
View full detailsWild Bergamot / Monarda fistulosa
Wild Bergamot is one of the best pollinator plants a garden can have. Its gorgeous flowers are often surrounded by a cloud of insects of all sizes,...
View full detailsRose Milkweed / Asclepias incarnata
Rose Milkweed isn't just our favorite milkweed in the garden, it's adaptable to many soil conditions, gorgeous, and it's also - along with Common M...
View full detailsScarlet Bee Balm / Monarda didyma
Scarlet Bee Balm is an intensely bright red fireworks display of tubular flowers that attract hummingbirds, native bees, and butterflies. It thrive...
View full detailsSweet Joe Pye / Eutrochium purpureum
This woodland Joe Pye is an amazingly versatile plant. It can take full sun or shade, wet or dry soil. It can grow up to 7 feet tall, so if you hav...
View full detailsSmooth Aster / Symphyotrichum laeve
These plants offer beautiful lavender-hued blooms in the fall and are fantastic in the garden. They do have a tendency to flop over, so it would ma...
View full detailsCommon Milkweed / Asclepias syriaca
Common Milkweed has big, broad leaves and pretty pink globe-shaped flower clusters. In June, it draws a diverse group of pollinators. It's also rig...
View full detailsSpotted Joe Pye / Eutrochium maculatum
Like the other Joe Pye species, Spotted Joe Pye prefers moist soil and is a butterfly magnet. It has an elegant and beautiful whorled leaf structur...
View full detailsShowy Goldenrod / Solidago speciosa
Aptly named, Showy Goldenrod also brings the pollinators in droves for the fall. Along with the asters, goldenrods are keystone plant species and s...
View full detailsRattlesnake Master / Eryngium yuccifolium
Along with its interesting name, this plant brings in an amazingly diverse set of insects. It also has beautiful structure and eye-catching blooms,...
View full detailsPearly Everlasting / Anaphalis margaritacea
If you're looking for a plant that works well in poor soil or a gravel garden, look no further. Pearly Everlasting is a perfect addition to a dry o...
View full detailsNew York Ironweed / Vernonia noveboracensis
We're utterly enamored with ironweeds and New York Ironweed in particular is a lovely garden plant that can grow to around 6 feet tall. It prefers ...
View full detailsNew York Aster / Symphyotrichum novi-belgii
Like the other asters, New York Aster blooms in fall, but it tends to bloom even later than most and that late blooming supports many native bees i...
View full detailsHollow Joe Pye / Eutrochium fistulosum
Hollow Joe Pye is the giant among Joe Pye species, reaching up to 10 or more feet in moist soil conditions that it favors, with a dome of small pin...
View full detailsGray's Sedge / Carex grayi
Gray's Sedge, or Common Bur Sedge, is a wonderful garden addition, growing to two or three feet with incredible mace-like seed heads that last for ...
View full detailsGolden Alexander / Zizia aurea
Golden Alexander blooms in late spring and is the native host plant for Black Swallowtail butterflies in their caterpillar stage. It sports a numbe...
View full detailsBlue-Stemmed Goldenrod / Solidago caesia
A lovely woodland denizen that grows to three or four feet and elegantly drapes itself on other plants. Very well-behaved in the garden and a wonde...
View full detailsLate Boneset / Eupatorium serotinum
A beautiful plant with reddish-purple stems and sprays of small white flowers. An absolute powerhouse pollinator food source - it attracts the most...
View full detailsNew England Aster / Symphyotrichum novae-angliae
New England Aster is a classic garden plant for many reasons. They're gorgeous fall blooming plants that come in a dazzling variety of pinks and pu...
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