How to Create a Tropical Butterfly Garden

Creating a tropical butterfly garden is a great way to create a beautiful garden that also serves as a source of food and shelter for many types of butterflies.  There are many steps you can take to ensure your tropical butterfly garden is a success.

Items Needed

• Plants


• Large Stones


• Bucket


• Sand


• Sugar

Butterfly Garden

1. Find a good spot to plant the tropical butterfly garden.  An area that will be sheltered from the wind and receives five to six hours of sun a day is the ideal location.


2. Draw a design of how you would like your flowers and plants to be arranged.


3. Choose plants and flowers for the tropical butterfly garden.  Good choices include purple passion vines, pentas, firebush, coneflower, milkweed and petunias.  You may also plant food plants for caterpillars, such as parsley, hackberry and clover.


4. Choose an assortment of different colors and sizes.  It is also a good idea to buy plants that bloom at different times of the year to ensure that there are flowers for the butterflies throughout the year.


5. Choose several tall plants for your garden, which will serve as shelter for the butterflies.


6. Plant the assortment of plants and flowers making sure to read any instructions that come with them.  This will help you determine how far apart to space them, as well as how deep to plant them.


7. Place several large, flat stones in the garden for butterflies to rest on.


8. Place a bucket of moist sand in the garden, which will serve as hydration for the butterflies.


9. Make sure to avoid using herbicides or pesticides in the tropical butterfly garden.

Making Nectar

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil, four parts water to one part sugar.


2. Once boiling, add one part sugar. Stir the mixture until the sugar is dissolved.


3. Wait until the mixture has cooled, and pour it into a shallow container.


4. Place the container of homemade nectar in the garden to attract more butterflies.