19 Plants to Attract Beautiful Butterflies to Your Idaho Garden

Loved for their bejeweled, fluttering wings, butterflies bring beauty, movement, and biodiversity to gardens in a variety of regions.

The Benefits of Butterflies in Your Garden

While bees are more adept at pollinating, there are several awesome benefits to attracting butterflies to your Idaho garden. Unlike bees that intentionally seek out pollen, butterflies unwittingly aid in the pollination process. According to the Pollinator Partnership, while sipping on nectar, butterflies unwittingly pick up pollen on their legs and transfer it from flower to flower.

We can thank pollinators like butterflies for food like the fruits and vegetables we eat. They are responsible for one in every three bites of food we consume and contribute over 200 billion dollars to the food economy worldwide.

—Eco Redux

 

Become an Idaho Butterfly Conservationist

Unbeknownst to many, Idaho presents its landowners with the unique option to enroll their property in a Monarch Butterfly conservation program! A registered 501 (c)(3) non-profit, Habitat Conservation Assistance Network (HabitatCAN) empowers Idaho landowners to nurture and protect butterflies and other wildlife on privately-owned land.

Over the past 20 years, monarchs, knowns as the "king" of butterflies, have declined by 80 percent across North America. The decline was instigated by the following factors:

• a loss of milkweed plants & wild nectar in relation to big-ag farms;
• disease & the use of pesticides;
• loss of habitat at breeding sites;
• overwintering at breeding sites;
• accelerated timber harvesting;
• & climate change.

HabitatCAN is an agent for restoration and change. The non-profit believes private back yard gardens are one of Idaho's greatest resources in restoring the monarch population.

Whether you want to assist monarch recovery or you just love the sight of fluttering butterflies in your Idaho garden, grow milkweeds, native nectar plants, and/or any of the 19 plants featured in the gallery below!

Get our free mobile app