How to Raise Monarch Butterflies the Easy Way

Plants for a Small Butterfly Garden

Passion flower vine (purple only) - larval host plant for Gulf fritillary and zebra longwing
Milkweed (with yellow flowers) - larval host plant for monarch and queen
Fennel - larval host plant for Eastern black swallowtail
Pentas - a butterfly favorite with flowers full of nectar that blooms from spring to fall
Zinnias - nectar plant that everybody loves, easy to grow from seed
Dill or curly leaf parsley - also a larval host plant for the Eastern black swallowtail
Lemon tree (and other citrus trees) -larval host plant for the giant swallowtail
American wisteria (amethyst falls) - larval host plant for the long-tailed skipper
Salvia - nectar plant, perennial, a favorite of butterflies AND hummingbirds
10.) Vinca - nectar plant, will reseed

Things NOT to plant EVER

Red passion flower vine - it is poisonous to butterfly larva
Butterfly bush - it is an invasive species
Lantana - it is an invasive species, unless you plant the native kind and it is hard to find

Organic soil formula for pots or in the ground (from the book The Vegetable Gardener’s Container Bible)

1 20 quart bag of compost
1 20 quart bag of planting mixer (sphagnum peat, vermiculite, limestone)
⅓ cup blood meal (nitrogen)
⅓ cup soft rock phosphate (phosphorus)
⅓ cup greensand (potassium)
1 tablespoon azomite (for trace elements)

Places in Baldwin County and the surrounding areas to buy plants and supplies

Racine’s Feed, Garden, & Supply, Inc. in Robertsdale
Magnolia Landscape in Summerdale
Lowe’s in Foley
Old Tyme Feed and Garden Supply in Fairhope
Elberta Farmers Co-op in Elberta
Biophilia in Elberta for native plants - email Carol to make an appointment
Corner Copia Gardens in Fairhope
Kim’s Nursery in Wilmer, Alabama for native plants
Abbott’s Greenhouse in Foley