Here you can learn how to create a beautiful butterfly garden using drought tolerant plants (drought tolerant does not mean just cacti). Many plants zoned for New England and drought tolerant are colorful, lush, and fragrant. Several even attract butterflies to your garden! See the list below for plants that will attract butterflies and even hummingbirds to your garden.
Butterfly Attracting Plants & Bushes
- Buddleia - The rich blossoms of this extraordinary cultivar are attractive to butterflies. Watch them flock all over the large spikes!
- Carpet of Snow - Alyssum perfect for lining walkways or in window boxes.
- Coneflower - An exceptionally hardy perennial that is heat and drought tolerant.
- Coreopsis - Butterflies adore this versatile Tickseed cultivar, adaptable to most soil types.
- Delosperma (Ice-Plant) - Makes an excellent ground cover for dry locations.
- Four O'Clocks - Fragrant, 2 inch trumpet shaped blooms come out in late afternoon, grows best in full sun.
- Gomphrena - Distinctly unique and great for fresh and dried arrangements.
- Liatris - Excellent for cutting and for attracting butterflies, and it loves the sun!
- Phlox - Butterflies will flock to this fragrant flower all summer long.
- Sedum - A carefree plant, it is very long-lived. Plant where full sunlight can be obtained.
- Shasta Daisy - Hardy, long blooming if dead-headed, best in part-full sun.
- Sunflower - An easy flower that blooms annually. Plant where sunlight is abundant.