If you follow the myriad of blogs that exhibit this gorgeous species you will quickly notice that many gardeners go out of their way to attract them into their gardens. And how does one attract butterflies into their yard? Quite simply, with food.

The question then becomes, "What do butterflies eat?" They're obviously not carnivores and therefore can't be omnivores so they must be herbivores. Not so fast, Sherlock. Butterflies technically don't eat plants either. They're after nectar in whatever form it comes in. Which gives us some clues as to their dietary preferences.

One article titled Butterfly Bait: How-To Formula also shows us a glimpse of their taste bud delights. The formula is as follows;

INGREDIENTS

1 pound sugar
1 or 2 cans stale beer
3 mashed overripe banana
1 cup of molasses or syrup
1 cup of fruit juice
1 shot of rum

Apparently, you're meant to mix this up and then paint your tree trunks, patio posts, fences or even dangle a sponge soaked in the goop from a tree to lure butterflies into your garden. While it sounds awfully fun [sic] I can think of better things to do with my weekend.

A better option - far better IMHO - is to attract them with plants. We've already divulged that they're suckers for nectar so growing nectar producing plants is obviously a step in the right direction. But, there are some plants that are better than others so how do you find the right ones as a hook into your garden.

Some tips on finding plants that butterflies eat.

1. What do you like? - flowers that attract you, either by their colour or their scent, are similar to those that appeal to butterflies. Large, open blooms such as asters, gerberas and echinacea are obvious selections.
2. Bright Colours - pinks, purples, reds and yellows are often noted where butterflies like to dine.
3. Flowers with UltraViolet (UV) Light - while the human eye can't differentiate UV light, butterflies certainly can. In fact, they use it in a similar fashion to planes navigating a landing strip with lights guiding them to their destination. There's a great list of UV plants here.
4. Abundance - butterflies only survive between 2 - 12 months for most mature adults so they don't have a lot of time flitting from garden to garden tracking mere morsels. Instead, they will much happily reside in gardens where there are an abundance of plants and variety of selections for them to choose.

Butterflies will mainly eat during the day while moths will arrive on dusk or throughout the evening. This is worth noting because moths will most likely bypass your brights and head for your pale-coloured flowers instead.

The benefits of attracting butterflies in your garden

Apart from the overt fascination and beauty of attracting butterflies to your place they play an important part in the survival of your garden. While we can't do without bees, butterflies offer a great pollinating package as well - plus they won't sting the ankle-biters.

Instead they will help pollinate many of the plants that attracted them in the first place, providing more blooms for the future. And this can only be a good thing.