Choose Your Plants With Care and
Butterflies and Hummingbirds Will Come

• Butterflies will come to stay year after year if conditions are right. Provide nectar sources and plants that provide food for butterfly larvae. Add taller plants to offer shelter from the wind. Preserve a bit of sun and an undisturbed area—then sit back, relax and enjoy the show. Common food plants for butterfly larvae include dill, parsley and Queen Ann's Lace for the Black Swallowtail, and cabbage, kale, and arugula for the Cabbage Whites. Monarchs breed on milkweed and West Coast Ladies prefer the Mallow family. Nectar plants include Yarrows, Buddleia, Echinacea, Lavenders, Daylilies, Rosemary, Rue and Black-eyed Susans.
  
  
• Hummingbirds are attracted to tubular flowers rich in nectar. They can spot red, orange, and pink from a half mile away. Plants should be out in the open to allow feeding in flight. Taller plants provide perches where hummingbirds spend up to 80% of their time. Nectar-rich plants include most of the sages, penstemons, buddleia (which butterflies also love), California Fuchsia, foxgloves, comfrey, saponaria, and cardinal climber.