10 Flower Garden Ideas For a Butterfly Garden

Flower Garden Ideas to attract butterflies, can bring pleaseure to both you and the butterflies. You will enjoy the colour and perfume these flower garden bring and the butterflies will feast on all the sweet nectar they produce. Here are ten of the very best flower garden ideas :

• Butterfly Bush-This aptly named bush really should be in number one position, it's pink or violet flowers will be covered in butterflies all summer. It will of course need plenty of room, in a sunny position as it can grow up to 8ft tall.
  

• Common Lilac-Another fantastic shrub for attracting butterflies, with purple and white varieties available. Its heady perfume is as welcome as it's glorious flowers in springtime. Loved by butterflies and gardeners both, although there are now mimiature varieties available, this specimen, will grow to around 15ft.

• Queen Anne's Lace-This plant, needs full sun and blooms in the summer. It grows up to 3ft tall and has flat, lacy white flowers.

• Rockcress- Another sun lover, this spring flowering plant has pink or white flowers and grows to around 10 inches tall.

• New York Ironweed-With its deep purple flowers, this is another full sun lover. Flowering in the autumn, it can reach up to 5 ft tall.

• African Marigold- Flowering all summer long, in all garden types and regions, this is a great favourite everywhere. It has bright yellow flowers and is a hardy annual, reaching up to 3 ft tall.

• Wax Begonias- Another long flowering annual, blooming from late spring to early autumn, this plant has red, white or pink flowers. It is only 8 - 12 inches tall and will grow almost anywhere.

• Verbena- With its white, red or pink flowers, this 12 inch tall plant will flower from early summer to early winter. It's perfectly happy growing almost anywhere.

• Golden Rod- Another autumn flowering plant which thrives in full sun. It has yellow flowers and grows up to 5 ft tall.

• Butterfly Weed- This is a great plant for butterflies to lay their eggs and caterpillars to feed. Growing up to about 3 ft tall, it does best in full sun and has small clusters of bright red flowers.
  

Penstemons, The Very Best Perennial Flowers

Penstemons really are the very best perennial flowers. They were used by the Native Americans to relieve toothache and the first scientific description of these beautiful perennial flowers, was in 1748, by John Mitchell.

Because of their unbelievably long flowering season and their extremely easy going nature, they are still very popular today. This is born out by the existence of an international penstemon society. Its members enjoy the wonderful name of Penstemaniacs.

Below are some of the reasons Penstemons are so loved by perennial flower growers.

• Flowering for over six months of the year from early summer to late autumn.
• Extremely easy to grow.
• Resistant to slugs and other garden pests.
• Easy and simple to propagate in autumn.
• Thrive in part shade or sun in virtually any well drained soil.
• Superbly easy to care for.
• Thrive in pots, containers and borders.
• Attract insects for pollinating your garden.

Once established, Penstemons are one of the easiest perennial flowers to care for. They just need dead heading regularly, by removing the whole flower spike. When all risk of frost has passed in the spring, cut back their foliage, down to the new green shoots.

For a wonderful collection of Penstemons, please do have a look at the Hayloft Plants site. Their collection is outstanding and the 'photos superb.