• Locate in a sunny area, to provide food, shelter and water
• Plant Host plants such as fennel, parsley, red basil, Queen Anne's Lace milkweed and dill
• Plant Nectar producing flowers in colors of red-orange and yellow,
• Select single flower rather than double
• Diversity is the key in the selection of plant material - the more diverse the plant selection the more butterflies will be attracted.
• Make a statement with color - lots of color
• Plant for continuous bloom
• Include damp area for 'puddling'
• Provide flat stones for basking ( butterflies need 75-110 degrees for flight )
• Do not use pesticides
• Plant Natives
• Shelter form strong winds
• Provide some artificial feeders ( rotting bananas or cut citrus).
• Provide a butterfly house, although the Butterfly Society claims they really do not "work"!
• Provide a puddling saucer of damp sand

• There are 20,000 kinds of butterflies, in the world twice that of birds
• The greatest diversity occurs in Central and South America
• There are 700 species in the USA
• The lifespan of a butterfly is about 2-4 weeks, except that of the Monarch which is 6 months.
• The butterfly life cycle consists of 4 stages: egg, larva (caterpillar), Pupa (chrysalis) and the adult butterfly
• Certain species require certain flowers for a good attraction match up
• Butterflies get their moisture not so much from 'puddling' in damp sandy soils but from the nectar and dew. Puddling will give them salts and minerals needed.
• Butterflies warm up their bodies by 'basking '
• Hilltopping' is a social activity that butterflies do to mate. The males fly to the highest hilltop in the area in search of a mate
• Territories are also important to the males of the butterflies and they do stake out areas.
• Butterflies like flat flowers and different species. The greater the variety of species, the greater will be the variety of butterflies.

Herbs: bee balm, butterfly weed, dill, fennel, milkweed, parsley, meadow rue, rosemary, mints

Vines: honeysuckle, Jasmine, Wisteria, passion vine, Dutchman's pipe

Annuals:: Verbena, flat (French) marigolds, pentas, Mexican sunflower (tithonia), Zinnia (narrowleaf), Cosmos, asters, coreopsis, stokesia, impatiens ,clover, nasturtiums, coneflower rudbeckia, verbena

Perennials: Butterfly weed, Joe Pye Weed, Swamp sunflower, garden phlox, Autumn sun redbeckia, New England Aster. pentas, purple cone, black eyed Susan, coreopsis, Moss verbena (tenvisecta)

Shrubs: Abelia, Buddelia, Lantana. Firebush, Bottlebush, lantana virbrunum, plumbago, Azalea, Hibiscus

www.butterflywebsite.com - Wow. What a beautiful site. With over 600 images this site will keep you busy. If you love those jewels in the sky, you'll love this one.

www.monarchwatch.org - The University of Kansas Entomology Program

www.learner.org/jnorth - A global study of wildlife management brought to you by Annenberg and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting

www.concord.org/~dick/mon.html - The Monarch Monitoring Project: A research project of the New Jersey Audubon Society's Cape May Bird Observatory

www.ent.iastate.edu - Department of Entomology at Iowa State University

www.monarchlab.umn.edu - Explore Monarch Butterfly Biology with the University of Minnesota

www.naba.org - The North American Butterfly Association

www.xerces.org - The Xerces Society: Protecting biological diversity through invertebrate conservation.