Here’s a hint: If your butterfly bush starts to get too big, prune it back in winter or early spring. You can cut it almost all the way down to the ground.
Name: Buddleia selections
Growing conditions: Full sun and moist, well-drained soil
Size: To 10 feet tall and 15 feet wide, depending on type
Zones: 5-9, depending on type
Grow it with: Mexican sunflower; this annual’s bold orange flowers look great against just about any butterfly bush.
Here’s a hint: Phlox can be troubled by a disease called powdery mildew. Look for disease-resistant varieties.
Name: Phlox paniculata
Growing conditions: Full sun and well-drained soil
Size: To 4 feet tall and 1 foot wide
Zones: 4-8
Grow it with: Purple coneflower—the two plants thrive in the same growing conditions and visually complement each other.
Name: Agastache foeniculum
Growing conditions: Full sun and well-drained soil
Size: To 5 feet tall and 2 feet wide
Zones: 4-10
Grow it with: Black-eyed Susan for a dazzling blue-and-yellow combo of easy-care plants.
Here’s a hint: Add variety to your garden with other milkweeds, such as annual bloodflower or tall swamp milkweed.
Name: Asclepias tuberosa
Growing conditions: Full sun and well-drained soil
Size: To 3 feet tall and 1 foot wide
Zones: 4-9
Grow it with: Liatris, another long-blooming perennial that Monarch butterflies love to visit.
Here’s a hint: Look for newer named varieties of asters; they’re often more disease resistant and compact.
Name: Aster selections
Growing conditions: Full sun and moist, well-drained soil
Size: To 5 feet tall and 2 feet wide, depending on type
Zones: 3-8, depending on type
Grow it with: Bloody geranium—this spring- and summer-blooming perennial develops bright red fall foliage that looks great with colorful aster flowers.
Name: Echinacea selections
Growing conditions: Full sun and well-drained soil
Size: To 5 feet tall and 2 feet wide, depending on type
Zones: 3-9
Grow it with: Anise hyssop for a combo that will give you pretty bouquets and tons of butterflies for weeks in summer.
Name: Salvia ‘May Night’
Growing conditions: Full sun and well-drained soil
Size: To 3 feet tall and 1 foot wide
Zones: 4-9
Grow it with: Coreopsis for a long-blooming, no-fail blue-and-yellow combination.
Name: Lantana selections
Growing conditions: Full sun and well-drained soil
Size: To 3 feet tall and wide
Zones: 10, but in cooler areas, lantana is grown as an annual.
Grow it with: Zinnia; the two look beautiful together and will lure an endless stream of butterflies to your garden.
Name: Pentas selections
Growing conditions: Full sun and well-drained soil
Size: To 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide
Zones: 10-11, but usually grown as an annual
Grow it with: Angelonia, for an easy-growing combo that looks smashing all season.
Name: Passiflora incarnata
Growing conditions: Full sun and well-drained soil
Size: Climbs to 10 feet
Zones: 6-9
Grow it with: Black-eyed Susan vine for a charming blue-and-yellow combo of quick-growing vines.
Name: Tithonia rotundifolia
Growing conditions: Full sun and well-drained soil
Size: To 6 feet tall and 1 foot wide
Zones: Annual
Grow it with: South American verbena; the plants look amazing together and like the same growing conditions.
Name: Verbena bonariensis
Growing conditions: Full sun and well-drained soil
Size: To 6 feet tall and 2 feet wide
Zones: 7-10, but in colder Zones it’s usually grown as an annual.
Grow it with: Yarrow, which has flat clusters of blooms in a rainbow of shades. Like South American verbena, it’s heat and drought resistant, so it’s a cinch to grow.
Name: Zinnia selections
Growing conditions: Full sun and well-drained soil
Size: To 3 feet tall and 1 foot wide
Zones: Annual
Grow it with: Fennel, which has a ferny texture that looks perfect against the bold zinnia blooms.
Name: Eupatorium selections
Growing conditions: Full sun and moist, well-drained soil
Size: To 7 feet tall and 3 feet wide, depending on type
Zones: 3-9
Grow it with: South American verbena for an easy-care combination no butterfly can resist.
Name: Rudbeckia selections
Growing conditions: Full sun and well-drained soil
Size: To 6 feet tall and 3 feet wide, depending on type
Zones: 4-9
Grow it with: Purple coneflower for a classic prairie-style combination.
Here’s a hint: Fennel can self-seed aggressively in the garden; keep it under control by cutting off most of the flowers as they fade, but leave a few to produce seed and keep the plant coming back.
Name: Foeniculum vulgare
Growing conditions: Full sun and moist, well-drained soil
Size: To 6 feet tall and 2 feet wide
Zones: 4-9
Grow it with: Queen Anne’s lace, which offers a similar texture but with green foliage and white flowers. Swallowtail caterpillars also feed on this plant.
Here’s a hint: Shear the plant back with hedge clippers after a flush of blooms start to fade; it’ll spring back and bloom again.
Name: Coreopsis ‘Moonbeam’
Growing conditions: Full sun and well-drained soil
Size: To 18 inches tall and wide
Zones: 3-8
Grow it with: Sedum, which picks up blooming once the coreopsis starts to fade for the summer.
Name: Asclepias syriaca
Growing conditions: Full sun and well-drained soil
Size: To 6 feet tall and 3 feet wide, depending on type
Zones: 4-9
Grow it with: Catmint for a classic prairie style with a touch of silver.
Name: Petroselinum crispum
Growing conditions: Full sun and well-drained soil
Size: To 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide, depending on type
Zones: 3-9
Grow it with: Dill for a butterfly-friendly herb garden.
Name: Gomphrena globosa
Growing conditions: Full sun
Size: To 1 feet tall and 1 foot wide, depending on type
Zones: 2-11
Grow it with: Strawflower to create a butterfly garden that doubles as a cutting garden.
Name: Anethum graveolens
Growing conditions: Full sun
Size: To 8 feet tall and 3 feet wide, depending on type
Zones: 2-11
Grow it with: Coreopsis for a sunny yellow garden design.
Name: Hylotelephium spectabile
Growing conditions: Full sun
Size: To 8 feet tall and 3 feet wide, depending on type
Zones: 2-11
Grow it with: Coreopsis for a sunny yellow garden design.
