More than 400 types of butterflies can be found in California! Keep California Beautiful and Guaranty Bank have partnered to raise public awareness of butterfly gardening and help beautify California communities.

About Butterfly Gardening:

• Site Selection
  
• Gardening Components
  
• Plant Selection
  
• Site Preparation and Upkeep
  

Educational Resources:

North American Butterfly Association
The Butterfly Website
The Butterfly Site
Virtual Field Trip Network

• Butterfly-friendly plants can be planted in a variety of locations, including landscaped parks or gardens. If you don't have space for a garden, you can plant them in window boxes or flower pots!
• The location should be primarily sunny and well-draining. Ideally, the site will receive close to 6 hours of sun per day, but it is possible to have a successful garden with much less. Because adult butterflies typically feed in direct sunlight, nectar-providing plants should receive full sun from mid-morning to mid-afternoon.

• Shelter: Butterflies need shelter for protection against strong wind, extreme temperatures, and predators. Butterflies also need good surface areas for sunning and sleeping. Shelter can take many forms, including vegetation, a brush pile, large rocks, etc.
• Water: Butterflies need water to drink and to help regulate their body temperatures, especially on hot summer days. Consider adding a water source, such as a bird bath or a shallow dish filled with water, to give the butterflies easy and reliable access to water.
• Select plants that both you and the butterflies will enjoy!

• Select native or naturalized plants. Most host plants for the caterpillars are native to the area where the butterflies live. Native plants also require less care and are less frequently disturbed by pests or diseases.
• Butterflies require different kinds of plants during different stages of their lifecycle. Optimally, a garden will include both plants that provide nectar for the adult butterflies and those that serve as host plants for caterpillars. This will encourage butterflies to remain in the area and reproduce, enabling the gardener to view the butterfly during its different life stages.
• To optimize the variety of butterflies that your garden can support:
  1. Choose plants of different heights to help provide shelter and different levels of feeding opportunities.
  2. Incorporate a range of flower colors, including yellow, orange, white, and blue, in addition to reds, pinks, and purples. It is a good idea to plant clusters of similarly colored flowers together to make them more visible to the butterflies.
  3. Provide a mixture of flower shapes, such as tubular and composites, to accommodate the feeding behavior and proboscis length of different species.
  4. Choose plants that bloom at different times to ensure that your garden remains attractive and provides food for the butterflies for the maximum time period.

• Preparing the soil by mixing in compost (decomposed organic material) can help provide essential nutrients, especially for poor soils.
• Placing mulch around plants willhelp hold moisture in the soil and deter weeds. Mulch should form a close ring around the plant, but not touch its stalk.
• Freshly planted seeds and new plants require care to become established. Water areas lightly where seeds are planted (if there is not rain) to help the soil stay moist. Water more thoroughly around new plantings to soak the plants’ roots.
• Using organic gardening methods in and around your garden will help protect the health of the butterflies and caterpillars.

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