Skip To Content
Winter is for Planning a Butterfly Garden
Published: 1/23/2025
Featured Image
In the dead of winter, when butterflies are either far south of here or hibernating, it’s time to think of how you can help them this spring, summer and fall. Instead of pondering on the depth of the snow, think instead about a warming spring when you can plant things that will provide a welcome home or meal to returning monarchs or emerging mourning cloaks, skippers, fritillaries, sulphurs, red admirals, American ladies and swallowtails.

First, think about where in your yard you could add a mix of plants that will be sunny enough to stimulate the plants, large enough to attract their interest, and near a source of water to get the plants established and keep a small dabbling pool damp for the butterflies to get water and nutrients from the mud or sand you can put in it.

Second, visit the website of the Southeast Michigan Butterfly Association to see the resources available to you to help you plan your butterfly garden, and inaturalist to see colorful photos of butterflies found in Michigan along with information about each of them.

Third, make a list of the butterflies you’d like to attract, a list of nectar plants that will provide food from early in the spring to late in the fall so there is always food for the adults, and a list of larval host plants for the butterflies you’d like to have grow up from caterpillars. These all work together to help you decide what you want in your butterfly garden. Once you know the plants you need to get the butterflies you want, get out some graph paper and draw up a garden with at least 7 of each plant you want to have, so there is enough food for them to make it worth flying to your new garden. You will probably need to cut down the number of species from your wish list to start, but you can always expand your garden in the future to include more species.

Do make sure you have blooms throughout the growing season. Focus on using plants native to Michigan because they are naturally more appealing to butterflies and other pollinators in the area. If you’re just starting out, start relatively small (like 10 feet by 10 feet or so), so you can actually install what you plan, and take good care of the garden as it gets started without over-extending yourself. Next year, you can add more if you’d like. Keep in mind that young perennial plants spend most of their energy the first year building a good root system, so they won’t bloom as much as they will in the future, but you’ll still get some flowers, and some butterflies. If you do all of the above, and add it to your yard, you should have a nice addition, from the flowers, and their vistors.