Where are the butterflies??

I recently started a butterfly / Hummingbird garden. I planted varieties that I was told attract butterflies
& hummers but have not seen either. I had more butterflies last year when there were no flowers in the back yard. These are the plants I have... pineapple sage, pentas, porterweed, golden & red shrimp plants, cuban buttercup, cigar plant, crossandra, persian shield, moss rose & butterfly bushes (haven't bloomed yet). Am I missing anything important? Or am I being impatient? The bumble bees sure seem to be enjoying this garden!
Any info would be greatly appreciated!

Just be patient, they will come. We put in a butterfly garden at my mother-in-laws house 3 years ago and it took more than a year for her butterflies to find her.
Do you have any host plants for the butterflies caterpillars? If you feed both then they never have to leave your property once they find you. We had over 40 varieties of butterflies here last year. When we moved here there was nothing in this 'yard' and now my place is full of all kinds of critters.
Liz

Regarding some host plants......

I planted 4 little pots of parsley, 1 little pot of fennel and 1 little pot of dill on patio in 2 containers. Fennel so far this year has had the best results, but it's still early in the season. Had 3 Swallowtail cats on the fennel.

Have a tall nice sized pink Milkweed plant and a nice sized orange Butterfly Weed. Blooms on both, but it's probably too early for the Monarchs. Have 3 other Orange Butterfly Weed, but not as big and not blooming yet. Have another Milkweed plant, yet to be planted.



Have other plants too lots of Butterfly Bush (13), Joe Pye Weed (Liitle Joe), lots and lots of different colored Coneflowers, Pentas, lots and lots of Verbena Bonariensis (very popular for Butterflies in my garden for necter), lots of different colored tall Phlox (12), Liatris, 'Summer Sun' yellow Sunflower (not the usual tall "sunflower"), Goldenrod, Penstemons (8), and some other plants (too late at night to think).

Marilyn



This message was edited Jun 22, 2006 11:55 PM

I was thinking the very same thing. I had tons of butterflies last year and hardly anything this year. Tons of bumble bees but not many butterflies.

i'm wondering if maybe it's because of the hurricanes last year. some people in other threads are wondering where their hummers are, and wondering if it wasn't because of the weather last year???

Thanks Everyone! I'm going to try adding some host plants like butterfly weed & moving a few of my small butterfly bushes closer to this area. (I was waiting 'til my hubby got done putting in the privacy fence behind this garden, didn't want him to crush anything).
I also planted some french lavender today, I hope it does well on this slope.
Thanks again for all your responses!!