Are you thinking twice about planting a Butterfly Bush in your yard? You may have heard about its invasive potential, or perhaps you’d prefer to grow something that can feed caterpillars as well as adult butterflies. Maybe you just aren’t a fan of shrubs that require regular pruning to look their best, but you still want to fill your garden with beautiful pollinators. We’ll suggest some good alternatives you can plant instead of a Butterfly Bush.
Native flowers like Asters, Blazing Stars, and Coneflowers are renowned for their attractiveness to butterflies. If you want a shrub to plant instead of a Butterfly Bush, options like Spicebush and Buttonbush can attract pollinators and host their young. There are also non-invasive Buddleias like the Orange Ball Tree.
When selecting a replacement for a Butterfly Bush, make sure to keep its cultivation requirements in mind. Many plants that attract birds and butterflies won’t grow well in the same location as a Buddleia. We’ve made sure to call it out whenever we’ve chosen a plant requiring a different care strategy so you can pick the best pollinator lures for your garden.
Why Not Plant a Butterfly Bush?
The #1 reason that people decide not to grow Butterfly Bushes is that they’re invasive in many parts of the US. Buddleia Davidii, the common Butterfly Bush, produces truckloads of tiny seeds that can float for miles on the wind. And when they sprout, the plants that emerge are fast-growing, woody, and unappetizing to most local wildlife. They can also regenerate even if they’re hacked to pieces.
Because of these qualities, this plant can often take over spaces where native shrubs, herbs, and trees would normally make their homes. Buddleias have become notorious weeds throughout much of the Pacific Northwest, and they’re also considered nuisances along much of the East Coast. Many gardeners prefer not to keep them around to avoid the risk of spreading seeds into wild areas.
There’s also a case to be made that the Butterfly Bush isn’t actually all that great for butterflies. Pollinators of all kinds are attracted to its flowers, no question. But very few species of caterpillars can feed on the leaves. It’s not considered a host plant that can shelter the next generation of lepidopterans. Of course, you can always compensate for this by adding the right companion plants, and a Buddleia still provides lots of the nectar that adult butterflies need.
Finally, while Butterfly Bush doesn’t require lots of maintenance for survival, it does tend to bloom a lot better if you prune it annually. And it can sprawl and become shaggy if not regularly cut back. Some may prefer a shrub that doesn’t need as much attention to remain attractive.
Here are some of our top recommendations for alternatives to Buddleia Davidii. We’ve grouped them by category to help you find the best choice for your garden.
Native Plants That Are Butterfly Magnets
We’ll start things off with a few options that can match the Buddleia for sheer pollinator appeal. If your goal is simply to see as many butterflies (as well as hummingbirds and honeybees) as possible, choose some of these. They’re all native varieties that you can safely plant instead of a Butterfly Bush.
Buttonbush (Cephalanthus Occidentalis)
This plant is a natural cheerleader, thanks to the big white pom-poms it likes to wave in the breeze. Many different varieties of butterflies and moths are drawn to its sweet fragrance. So are bees — it’s often known as Honey Bells or Honey Balls in the beekeeping community.
It’s native to many areas of North America, including the Eastern and Midwestern U.S., as well as parts of California, Mexico, and Canada.
The blooms appear in summer, and by autumn, they’re replaced by globes of deep red seed pods. These fruits will stick around through the winter (turning brown or black in the process). They provide food for local birds, adding to the Buttonbush’s appeal as a wildlife-attracting plant.
Like the Butterfly Bush, the Buttonbush loves sunny conditions. Unlike Butterfly Bush, it also likes wet, nutrient-rich soil. It’s a perfect choice for low-lying but well-lit areas of your lawn, but it can be grown in drier areas if you’re careful to mulch well and water it regularly.
Blazing Star (Liatris)
Want a replacement for the Butterfly Bush that will thrive in the same type of soil? Look no further than the Blazing Star, a bold flowering plant that grows wild across much of the United States. It appreciates good drainage, lots of sun, and a light touch with the fertilizer.
This perennial has an incredibly distinctive appearance, pushing out tall stalks that bristle with narrow leaves. They’re topped with cylinders covered in fluffy-looking flowers that make them look like bottle brushes or feather dusters. That’s the reason for its other common nickname, the Gayfeather.
Much like a Butterfly Bush, the flowers are typically various shades of bright purple, pink, or white. They also bloom at the same time — mid-to-late summer — and can last into the fall. The seeds are also great for nourishing chickadees, finches, and other small birds.
Western Spirea (Spirea Douglasii)
For gardeners in the Pacific Northwest who need something to plant instead of a Butterfly Bush, the Western Spirea is a superb pick. It produces big, showy cones of flowers much like a Buddleia, though they tend more to pinks than purples. You’ll also likely enjoy the fiery fall colors of the leaves. The Spirea is a hardy and vigorous plant that can reach four to six feet tall within a few years.
This shrub prefers somewhat damp soil but can be surprisingly drought-tolerant once it’s well-established in the landscape. It likes full sun or partial shade — in drier soils, it will probably need some protection from the afternoon heat. Be aware that it tends to spread by rhizomes, so you may have to monitor it and chop back the roots occasionally to keep it contained.
On the bright side, this shrub is highly attractive to pollinators. Butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds love its nectar, while the thickets it forms offer shelter to various birds and beetles. Deer, on the other hand, tend to leave it alone.
Firebush (Hamelia Patens)
Native to the southern U.S. as well as Central and South America, Firebush is a lovely flowering shrub that pollinators of all kinds adore. True to its name, it blooms in vibrant bursts of red and orange tubular flowers. These blossoms usually appear in late summer and early fall, though gardeners in milder climates may see them year-round.
Care instructions are similar to Butterfly Bush, though the Firebush may need a bit more irrigation. It can get huge if you let it grow, stretching more than ten feet high and five feet wide. A nice feature for coastal dwellers is its resistance to salt, which means you can grow it quite close to the ocean.
North American Asters (Symphyotrichum)
The round, wide-spreading petals of Aster flowers make them perfect for butterflies in search of nectar to perch on. You’ll likely see dozens of lepidopteran species visiting these blooms from their emergence in August to their disappearance in October. Though they’re often regarded as seasonal plants, they’re perennials that can live a long time once established in your garden.
Aster flowers can be purple, blue, pink, or white, depending on the variety you choose. They’re usually not as tall as a Butterfly Bush, though some species can reach five or six feet. An Aster plant also isn’t quite as drought-resistant as a Buddleia, but they do prefer well-drained soil and full sun. Mulch around it thoroughly to help keep the roots moist.
One classic gardening tip for growing Asters is to dig them up and split the roots every few years. This helps them to continue blooming vigorously. If they’re allowed to fully mature, they may become a bit sedentary.
American Elderberry (Sambucus Canadensis)
Less showy in its blooming than some of the other plants on our list, the Elderberry more than earns its keep with its other virtues. Butterflies, hummingbirds, and bees happily drink from the flowers, while the clusters of dark purple berries feed many other birds. You can also harvest them for making jams and wines. Even this plant’s wood is useful for those who enjoy whittling and crafting.
An Elderberry bush can take two to three years to fully establish and begin producing in abundance. During that time, it will need regular watering, particularly when the weather is hot. But once it’s settled in, your plant should require little maintenance except for regular weeding. And it will make your yard a haven for all sorts of helpful wildlife.
It’s often recommended to plant Elderberries in pairs so that they can cross-pollinate each other. This helps to ensure lots of fruit production. Don’t place them right on top of each other, though — these plants can grow more than six feet wide, and they need lots of air circulation to stay healthy.
Coneflower (Echinacea)
This short but beautiful perennial is virtually indestructible as long as you don’t overwater it. A stand of Coneflowers will last through frosty winters and scorching summers, and they rarely require fertilizer other than some compost in the springtime. You don’t even need to prune them. In fact, it’s often best to leave the spent flowers in place as autumn arrives so that the seed heads can act as winter snacks for birds.
The most iconic Echinacea is probably the Purple Coneflower, but these flowers come in a rainbow of other colors as well. You can choose yellow, orange, red, pink, white, and even green. Why not plant a profusion of different types to attract pollinators with different tastes?
A word of caution, though: if your goal is to appeal to butterflies, avoid the flashy, complicated “double” varieties featuring multiple tiers of petals. Lepidopterans prefer flowers with a simpler structure, since they’re easier to land on and drink from.
Host Plants For Butterfly Larvae
Enticing butterflies into your garden to sip nectar is all well and good. But if you want them to feel at home there, they’ll need someplace to raise their kids. This is the other big reason to pick something else to plant instead of a Butterfly Bush: you can choose a host plant for caterpillars. Here are a few good ones:
Hollyhock (Alcea Rosea)
This plant forms eye-popping cup-shaped flowers on long stalks that can grow taller than a grown adult. Like some of the other plants we’ve profiled, they can vary widely in color, from deep crimson to sunny yellow. But the most important reason that we’re including them is that they’re an ideal host for the caterpillars of the beautiful Painted Lady, Hairstreak, and Checkered Skipper butterflies.
Grow Hollyhocks in full sun to make the stalks as robust as possible. During their first growing season, it can be helpful to give them a little slow-release fertilizer and water them regularly. Try to provide shelter from the wind, and try to water only on the soil to avoid fungal infections.
Lots of popular cultivars of Hollyhock are biennials. However, they tend to self-seed easily, so it’s not hard to maintain an ongoing population. They’ll make an ideal place for butterfly larvae to grow into adults.
Soap Bush (Ceanothus)
Ceanothus is also commonly known as the California Lilac, though there are various species growing wild all around the country. And all of them help nourish the caterpillars of local butterfly species. The New Jersey Tea shrub, sporting dense clusters of white flowers, hosts several lovely species such as the Echo Blue, Summer Azure, and Mottled Duskywing. The Blueblossom Ceanothus, found on the west coast, shelters the Pale Tiger Swallowtail and California Tortoiseshell.
As with most Butterfly Bush replacements, the Soap Bush does best in full sun. It’s not as fond of wind and will be more likely to thrive near a south-facing wall or in the lee of a windbreak. The plant is drought-tolerant and rarely requires fertilizer or deadheading.
Milkweed (Asclepias)
Milkweed has become tied in many people’s minds with the Monarch butterfly, as it’s the only type of plant that can nourish this insect’s caterpillars. But their flowers also attract lots of other pollinators. Though they’re not as tall or flashy as Buddleias, they do produce gorgeous, delicate-looking flowers.
The blossoms appear in tight spheres or clusters, usually forming in late spring or early summer. Milkweed will often die back to the roots after its fuzzy seed pods burst. Don’t worry, though — it should grow back the following spring. These plants are quite hardy and can live even in thin, nutrient-poor soils.
Note that the Common Milkweed, Asclepias Syriaca, is known for spreading aggressively through garden beds. If you’re interested in a mixed planting, you’re probably better off with the Butterfly Weed (A. Tuberosa) or the Showy Milkweed (A. Speciosa). The latter boasts especially intriguing pink flowers that spread out in a starfish-like shape.
Black Cherry (Prunus Serotina)
A wide-ranging native tree, the Black Cherry is also a superstar host plant. More than 450 species of moths and butterflies lay their eggs amid its branches. That includes a few kinds that can’t live on any other plants.
Birds love them too — species as diverse as thrushes, woodpeckers, and wild turkeys like to gobble up this tree’s berries. And yes, people can eat Black Cherry fruit as well. They’re more bittersweet than most cherries, but they can be made into tasty pies, preserves, or wine. The tree also produces beautiful, fragrant wands of tiny white flowers in mid-to-late spring.
A Black Cherry is a much longer investment than the fast-growing Butterfly Bush. It can take five to ten years to bear fruit. However, it will start benefiting local butterflies much sooner than that, and it’s fairly simple to cultivate. The main drawback is that it’s a bit messy. The fruit can stain walkways or walls, so choose its location carefully.
Native Thistles (Cirsium)
It might sound shocking to hear us advise you to grow Thistles. Their prickly leaves don’t endear them to many gardeners, and many people are used to thinking of them as aggressive weeds. While varieties such as the Bull Thistle or Canadian Thistle are noxious invasive species, there are also lots of native thistles that provide a valuable food source for butterflies. They also tend to be less spiky than the invaders.
If you set aside a patch of your garden for wildflowers, consider including species like the Pasture Thistle or Tall Thistle. They’ll draw in hummingbirds, bees, songbirds, moths, and butterflies in droves. And they provide an ideal home for many types of caterpillars.
Thistles hardly require any effort to grow. You can deadhead them if you want to limit their spread, and you should make sure to plant them in full sun. Other than that, tending these pollinator magnets is a no-brainer.
Common Spicebush (Lindera benzoin)
This elegant-looking shrub is one of the only hosts of the Spicebush Swallowtail caterpillar. Other species that can feed on it include:
- Tulip Tree Beauty
- Cynthia Moth
- Imperial Moth
- Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
- Promethea Moth
It’s also great for local birds, thanks to the peppery, citrus-flavored berries it grows. (You can eat them too!) Spicebush is drought-tolerant but not as enthusiastic about dry soil as a Butterfly Bush. Make sure to mulch around it in the springtime to keep it hydrated.
Keep in mind that a single Spicebush plant produces exclusively male or female flowers. You’ll need at least one of each, or they won’t bear fruit. This limitation makes the Spicebush very vulnerable to habitat disruption. Growing them in your garden may help this species survive despite the damage caused by human activity.
Non-Invasive Buddleias
Though Buddleia Davidii is getting a bad reputation as an invasive plant, it has several relatives that are far tamer. They’re equally attractive to pollinators but far less likely to pose an ecological threat. (However, it’s still probably best to deadhead them to keep the risk to a minimum.) Consider choosing one of these mild-mannered Buddleias to plant instead of a Butterfly Bush:
Buddleia Globosa
This Buddleia is also called the Orange Ball Tree due to the round puffs of bright orange florets it sprouts. It’s native to South America but non-invasive in the USA. This plant doesn’t require nearly as much pruning as a standard Butterfly Bush because it flowers on last season’s wood. Bees and butterflies alike will swarm over its honey-scented flowers.
Buddleia Cordata
Suitable for warm climates, this native of Mexico can grow into a full-sized tree with enough time and sunlight. You’ll only be able to keep it alive in places at least as warm as USDA Zone 8, but gardeners in California or the South might appreciate it. The small white flowers aren’t as showy as a Common Butterfly Bush, though they’re beautiful in their own way. They form amorphous clusters that make the shrub look like it’s wreathed in clouds.
Buddleia Alternifolia
The most striking features of this non-invasive Buddleia are the long tendrils of pink or purple flowers it produces. It’s a good shrub to plant instead of a Butterfly Bush, since it doesn’t spread or grow as rapidly. Like the Orange Ball Tree, this shrub flowers on the previous year’s growth.
Buddleia Loricata
This species hails from South Africa, but so far, it hasn’t demonstrated invasive potential in the Americas. It features slender, silvery leaves topped by puffy clusters of white flowers. The subtle beauty of this Buddleia is worlds away from the flashy panicles of the Common Butterfly Bush. Pollinators like both plants, though.
Final Thoughts
You have plenty of options if you’re looking for something to plant instead of a Butterfly Bush. From herbaceous flowering plants to abundantly fruiting shrubs, there are tons of non-invasive plants that will bring birds and butterflies flocking to your garden. Even with just a few of the options listed above, you should be able to set out a delicious banquet for any pollinators living nearby.