Butterflies thrill us with their grace and beauty. Their fleeting presence underscores the joy of a bright summer day. To make your garden more hospitable to these seasonal guests, simply provide the sustenance and shelter they need to thrive as adults and to produce their young (caterpillars).

Choose a sunny location. Butterflies use solar energy to heat their bodies and can’t fly unless they’re quite warm. You can help by providing warm surfaces to bask: a large rock, a tree stump or a wooden fence in a sunny location. Even the rim of a stone birdbath can serve this purpose, and provides necessary water as well. Also, most butterfly-friendly plants grow best with lots of sun.

Minimize wind. Strong winds make flying more difficult. Sheltered areas near buildings or shrubs provide protection. Because butterflies require a lot of energy for reproduction, they can’t afford to waste effort fighting the wind.

Provide nectar plants. Butterflies drink nectar from a variety of native and non-native plants. To save energy, they prefer plants with clusters of many tiny flowers. Some prefer tall plants, while others stay close to the ground. To attract a variety of butterflies, plant flowers of varying heights. Some easily available shrubs that butterflies love are mock orange, butterfly bush and lilac. Vines include hops, honeysuckle and passionflower. For medium-sized perennials try lavender, Shasta daisy or bee balm (monarda). Shorter candidates might be sweet alyssum, verbena or marigolds. These are just a few examples. Adult butterflies will feed on many species of flowers.

Grow larval food plants. Here, your options are more limited. Native butterflies have evolved hand-in-glove with particular species of plants. Although they feast at many "tables," each species of butterfly lays its eggs on the foliage of certain plants only. If you want butterflies to reproduce in your garden, it’s crucial to provide these plants. A good butterfly book can help you select appropriate plants to attract particular native species, but a few plants to consider are aster, nasturtium and ceanothus, which also are good nectar plants.

Don’t use insecticides and be cautious when using other pesticides. You gotta love those larvae! Remember that the larval stage of the butterfly is a caterpillar. You can adversely affect native butterfly populations by attracting them to lay eggs in your garden and then killing their offspring when they munch on your leaves. Plant enough of each of your larval plant varieties so that you can afford to share. Of particular concern is the cabbage white butterfly that lays its eggs on plants in the cabbage family, including broccoli and cauliflower. You can use row covers to protect vegetables and plant nasturtiums in another area of your garden to furnish a place for this butterfly to lay eggs.

Mud pies, anyone? Provide a moist area for butterflies to ingest minerals from mud or wet sand. Butterflies need such minerals for reproduction. In the summer, an open water source such as a birdbath or pond may help as well.

Butterflies need shelter, too. Trees play an important role in the life of butterflies, both as a place to find shelter (overwintering under the bark and perching at the center of the foliage to get out of the wind) and as larval food plants (Douglas fir, cottonwood, alder, maple and others). You don’t necessarily have to grow trees on your property as long as there are some in the neighborhood. Bark mulch can also serve as winter protection, or you can purchase or make a butterfly house.

If you plant it, they will come. You can plant a whole garden with butterflies in mind, or you can select a few plants to enhance an existing garden. Even a small planting — a container or a window box — can make a difference in nurturing native butterflies. Your efforts, combined with those of your neighbors, will help increase supportive habitat.

INTERDEPENDENCE OF BUTTERFLIES AND FLOWERS

Adult butterflies pollinate many different plant species, and many flowers have specific adaptations for attracting them.

Many butterfly attractors bear dense clusters of small flowers that enable the butterfly to sip nectar simply by moving its proboscis from one blossom to another. Such flowers allow the butterfly to conserve energy while feeding.

Most butterflies and many other insects can see ultraviolet, a color that is invisible to human eyes. Many flowers and butterfly wings include ultraviolet in their color mix. Within a species, the presence or absence of these markings typically helps to differentiate between males and females.

Flowers also use the secret communication line of ultraviolet. The flower’s color, form, aroma and nectar guides work in combination as signals and signposts to efficiently guide the butterfly or other insect to the source of nectar.

The blooms that we enjoy with our eyes and noses are also the beacons, landing platforms and launching pads for pollinators. In the process, insects get dusted with pollen, which they carry to other flowers. This, in turn, helps the plants produce seed and reproduce.

Most butterflies prefer flowers that are pink, red, purple or yellow and that are open all day. Most moths lean toward pale or white flowers that open in the evening.

There are orchids in Madagascar that are totally dependent on hawk moths for pollination.

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