Butterfly Gardens
Yes, to get the butterflies, you need to let the larva eat your plants.
The trick here is to provide plants for the larva and for the butterflies.
Plant Larvae Eating Plants at Back
Plant at the back corners of your garden where they aren't featured landscape plants. Their job is to be eaten. Plant them where this leaf damage isn't going to be a problem for the look of the garden.
Because some plants provide both leaves, flowers and breeding grounds for all stages of butterfly development in some species, it is a useful design trick to put all the butterfly plants at the rear of the garden or out of the mainstream of your flower production/enjoyment. You don't care to see the worms eating your plants (at least I don't) what you want is fluttering butterflies.
Butterflies will fly all over the place in search of food so you'll see them in your garden. You can always wander to the rear of the garden to see how things are progressing back there in that little corner of the wild.
Here's a plant list of good perennials for butterfly gardens.
Butterfly Garden Perennials
Achillea
Agapanthus
Agastache
Alcea
Allium
Anaphalis
Anchusa
Aquilegia
Arctanthemum
Asclepias
Aster
Baptisia
Belamcanda
Boltonia
Buddleja
Calamintha
Caryopteris
Centranthus
Ceratostigma
Chelone
Chrysanthemum
Cirsium
Coreopsis
Delosperma
Dianthus
Dictamnus
Echinacea
Echinops
Erigeron
Eryngium
Erysimum
Eupatorium
Euryops
Filipendula
Gaillardia
Geum
Goniolimon
Helenium
Helianthus
Heliopsis
Hemerocallis
Hesperis
Heuchera
Hibiscus
Hieracium
Inula
Kalimeris
Knautia
Lathyrus
Lavandula
Leucanthemum
Liatris
Limonium
Lobelia
Lunaria
Lychnis
Lysimachia
Malva
Malvastrum
Meehania
Mimulus
Monarda
Myosotis
Nectaroscordum
Nepeta
Nipponanthemum
Origanum
Patrinia
Penstemon
Perovskia
Phlox
Physostegia
Pimpinella
Polemonium
Primula
Rosmarinus
Rudbeckia
Salvia
Satureja
Scabiosa
Scutellaria
Sedum
Sidalcea
Silene
Silphium
Solidago
Solidaster
Stokesia
Tanacetum
Teucrium
Thalictrum
Thymus
Tradescantia
Verbascum
Verbena
Vernonia
Veronica
Veronicastrum
Zauschneria
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