Shade loving plants to attract butterflies?

[Wonderingwhyme]

I had 2 dwarf buddlia last year, one died and one has come back but isn’t doing too well.

I do not have ground to plant them in (I rent) so relying on pots. I want to encourage more butterflies as I love them so much. One part of the garden gets full sun for about 3/4 the day and the rest is in the shade. Is there any shade loving plants that will encourage butterflies? Anything that looks good though winter will be a bonus!

Probably not - butterflies themselves prefer the sun. I've been involved in butterfly surveying and it is remarkable how, when the sun comes out, the butterflies seem to come from no-where, and disappear again as soon as the sun goes in. So I suspect that even if you were to grow butterfly-friendly flowers in the shade, the butterflies wouldn't visit them.

You could instead think about food plants for their caterpillars> Unfortunately, for many of our favourites, that means, but you could try jack-by-the-hedge for orange tips.

That is true about the sun and them coming out..: hadn’t though about that. Ok I get one part that is mostly sun so From sunrise until about 3pm. I could move something I’m out of that spot, what else in a pot could I put there? I’ll have a look at that plant thanks @MereDintofPandiculation

The one plant even better for attracting butterflies than buddleia, IME, is Sedum spectabile (apparently it's properly named Hylotelephium spectabile) now but I've never heard that name used in real life). I've got some growing in pots as well as in borders - it's incredibly easy to propagate, and drought tolerant which helps in a pot. Flowering is very much at the back end of the year but the foliage is attractive.

www.gardenfocused.co.uk/shrub/sedum-spectabile.php

Sorry, meant to say, they are sun lovers. But worth the space of a pot or two in your sunny spot if you love butterflies.

The sedum is fabulous for bees and I’ve seen butterflies on it. But they mostly head for the budlea. There are buddleia that are better in pots than others. Small varieties, you still need a decent sized pot.

3 tortoiseshells and 2 commas from last year - by no means the most I've seen on one plant at a time!

There are some more in this link - the erysimum 'Bowles mauve' can apparently stand some shade, though whether it would still attract butterflies I don't know.

www.gardenersworld.com/plants/10-plants-for-butterflies/

now but I've never heard that name used in real life Gardeners always lag behind taxonomists It's working its way into the garden catalogues- see Crocus, for example. Probably sensible not to move too quickly on changes - the way it works is a scientist publishes a paper demonstrating that a plant's relationships are not as thought, and that it's closer to a different set of plants, or so distinct from the genus it was thought to be in that it has to have a new genus erected for it. Then either other scientist say "yeah, you're right" or they write papers showing that the first guy got it all wrong. Eventually there's a consensus, and hopefully nothing happens to overturn the new name. (DNA analysis has been really upsetting things over the last 10-20 years). But if you move too quickly, you may find you have to got back to the old name.

I found out the other day that foxglove is now in the plantain family. Still trying to get my head round that.

Scabious (Knautia species) are good for bees and butterflies. Creeping thistle, too . Lavender, if you're very lucky, may attract a hummingbird hawk moth.

I wonder if people will ever stop calling pelargoniums 'geraniums'? Apparently the former name was proposed in 1732, and they've officially been separate genera since later in that century.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelargonium

Oh, I hate taxonomists with a vengeance! Cacti that have been labelled as such-and-such, are constantly being transferred to new names, then a few years/decades down the line, Names revert back again. It makes life very confusing, so I never bother changing labels.

Thanks I’ll have a look at that. My buddIeia is a dwarf variety but the pot could do with being bigger I’m sure. The leaves have gone yellow at the bottom of the plant? I did cut it back properly last year.

Mere we had a humming bird hawk moth on our Lavender last year. I’d never seen one before and had to look it up.
This year we’ve had some Scarlet tiger moths, they’re beautiful.

Plant ragwort for cinnebar moths. They are like little garden tiger moths. Ragwort is a poisonous weed but has great ecological value. I don't understand what the problem is with letting ragwort grow in a garden. Yes it's poisonous to livestock but who has cows and sheep roaming around in an average garden?!

Oh, I hate taxonomists with a vengeance Careful, I'm married to one! They're only trying to get closer to the truth about the family tree of plants.

beebumble Really weird when you first see humming bird hawk moths, isn't it - they don't even look like a moth when they're hovering.

Boosey you'll like this site, if you don't already know about it. www.ragwortfacts.com/

Careful, I'm married to one! They're only trying to get closer to the truth about the family tree of plants.

I’ll make an exception for your husband MereDint! I just wish they wouldn’t keep changing their minds!

On Sunday I saw loads of cinnabar caterpillars on ragwort when we were out walking.

Mere.. thanks for the link. I had a quick look at that recently. I just need to try and persuade our neighbours not to pull it all up when they see it!

Errol.. that's fantastic DS came home with one he'd rescued from the road and promptly shoved it in his camper van so it could go on a trip (and he didn't get a rash!)

Boosey I tear my hair out trying to explain to people it's not a "notifiable weed" (hint - there is no such thing as a notifiable weed).

A horse loving friend came round and we sat on my lovely flower-rich lawn - at least 30 species there. Not a word. Then she spots a ragwort rosette "oh, you do love your ragwort". Grrr!

mere.. that's hilarious! I also get these sort of comments. DS came rushing in with 2 Cinnebar caterpillars today and wanting to keep them. The neighbours keep pulling out the ragwort but they don't know about plantain, the Cinnebar's other food plant. I keep it secret to try and save them!

Boosey There's also their reserve plant - I don't think the moth lays eggs on it, but if the caterpillars have devastated all the ragwort in an area, they will move on to coltsfoot. The caterpillars are poisonous because they ingest the poison from the ragwort ... and, sure enough, coltsfoot has the same poison. I don't tell my horsey friends that. I suppose it's less of a problem because ragwort will grow in grass, whereas coltsfoot is a plant of rather bare ground.

mere..now i didn't know that! I've just released the prisoners from DS's box..a caterpillar and a ladybird both looking very fed up. As soon as they felt the sun they burst into life!