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Butterfly Bonus in the Border!

© Jane Hollis

One of summer's greatest pleasures is to watch beautifully marked butterflies flitting from flower to flower in their search for nectar. If you want these welcome guests to visit your garden often, then you need to grow the plants they like. This doesn't mean you have to sacrifice the visual appeal of your border, though, as most of the nectar-rich plants are attractive in their own right. In fact, my own butterfly border came about by accident!

I started off by planning a planting scheme to complement the view beyond the garden. The border in question is backed by a rustic post and rail fence, a drive and then an area of abandoned garden where neglected fruit trees and roses grow amongst long grasses and thistles. Because of this I wanted my border to reflect the mood of the overgrown area beyond and therefore chose plants with a simple and wild appearance.

Planting was completed last year and the border reached in peak in July, when I was amazed to notice it was alive with clouds of butterflies. It was only when I came across a list of butterfly attracting plants that I realised I had planted many of them in the border.

The planting of the border is described below - butterfly attracting plants are marked with a *.

The backbone trees and shrubs are a silver willow-leaved weeping pear (Pyrus salicifolia 'Pendula'), two *Buddleias ('Black Knight' and 'Lochinch'), and Lavatera 'Rosea'. The rambling rose 'Wedding Day' romps along the fence, sporting its single blooms which are creamy yellow in bud, white in bloom and pink as they fade. It only flowers once, but is smothered in bloom and also has a lovely fruity fragrance. Rosa glauca with it's distinctive purplish foliage grows at the back of the border and sports an impressive show of hips in the autumn. Smaller shrubs include Cistus, *rosemary, *french lavender (Lavendula stoechas), Berberis 'Harlequin' and purple sage (Salvia officinalis 'Purpurea').

Ornamental thistles and grasses add a wild look to the border and include: Stipa gigantea, Pennisetum setaceum, Poa labillardieri, Festuca glauca, *Echinops ritro and Eryngium planum. Perennials include *Sedum spectabile, *Centranthus ruber (red valerian), Astrantia 'Hadspen Blood', Lysimachia punctata, Kniphofia 'Little Maid', seed-raised purple lupin, Penstemon 'Purple Bedder', *Erysimum 'Bowles Mauve', *Verbena bonariensis, Leucanthemum superbum, Catanache caerulea, *Lychnis coronarius, Sanguisorba officianalis, Salvia x superba and Stachys macrantha. Biennial *honesty (Lunaria annua) and annual *scabious and poached egg plant (Limnanthes douglasii) also add to the display.