There are many wonderful plants to attract butterflies. What you may not know is that it is best to provide plants for more than one stage of the life cycle of the butterfly. For instance, the larval stage of the butterfly or caterpillar has a different kind of mouth part than the adult stage of the butterfly. The caterpillar has chewing mouth parts and needs the nutrients of leaves to fatten up the body and the adult has sucking mouth parts that enable them to suck the nectar from flowers. In the case of the Monarch Butterfly, the adults enjoy many different flowers in the Aster Family and the caterpillar enjoys the fresh leaves of a Milkweed plant. Also, many butterflies are host specific, which means they need a particular plant species to complete their life cycle. The Blue Karner butterfly (endangered) is host specific to the Wild Lupine. By creating habitat and providing the right plant species you can help preserve our native butterflies! If you do not have time to do the research, let us help you choose the plants. Also, check out our Butterfly Garden Packages under the Plant Packages category!