Butterfly Passion
A Central Florida Home for Butterflies
Garden
I try to provide both host and nectar plants in my garden. Some of the nectar plants are pentas and lantana. Host plants include my passion vine for zebra longwings and gulf fritilaries, milkweed for monarchs and queens and parsley and dill for swallowtails
The passion vines are quite prolific and the flowers are beautiful. They require little care. The passion vine grows very well on a trellis. However, when the zebras and fritillaries move in, they can really make a mess of the leaves, but the vine is prolific and grows very fast, so there'll almost always be enough leaves for the caterpillars.
Pentas
Pentas, especially the red ones seem to be about the most popular nectar plant in the garden.
I keep quite a few around the garden, but also some in pots. Pentas in Central Florida seem to require very little care, and almost all the butterflies love them. Putting the pots in in my "castles" is a nice way to keep a few of the newly hatched butterflies happy until ready to release.