Creating a butterfly garden is easy when you choose plants from Rainbow Gardens that are approved for the SAWS WaterSaver Landscape Coupon. While there are many plants butterfly host and nectar plants at Rainbow Gardens to choose from, today’s blog will focus on the butterfly host and nectar plants that are approved for use with the SAWS WaterSaver Landscape Coupon. These plants will draw in the butterflies, save water, and make your landscape beautiful all at once.
Snakeherb is a native groundcover that is a host for butterflies. Drought-tolerant, best with morning sun and a little shade from hot afternoon sun.
Twist-leaf yucca makes a great SAWS coupon-approved statement plant for your landscape.
Yaupon Holly is a great choice for a host plant that is approved for the SAWS coupon; and it’s evergreen!
Butterfly Host Plants on SAWS WaterSaver Landscape Coupon list.
- Barbados Cherry – (Cassius Blue butterfly)
- Cenzio/Texas Sage – (Theona Checkerspot butterfly)
- Flame Acanthus/Hummingbird Bush – (Crimson Patch butterfly)
- Frogfruit – (Phaon Crescent butterfly)
- Inland Sea Oats – (Skipper butterfly var.)
- Mexican Buckeye (Henry’s Elfin butterfly)
- Milkweeds – (Monarch butterfly)
- Mistflowers – (Rawson’s Metalmark butterfly)
- Redbud “eastern” – (Henry’s Elfin butterfly)
- Salvia Coccinea – (Painted Lady)
- Snakeherb – (Common Buckeye butterfly)
- Texas Mountain Laurel – (Henry’s Elfin butterfly)
- Yaupon/Possumhaw – (Dusky-blue Groundstreak butterfly)
- Yucca/Buckley and Twist leaf varieties – (Yucca Giant-Skipper butterfly)
Esperanza is drought-tolerant once established.
Tuberosa milkweed makes a great host AND nectar plant for the monarch butterfly.
Blue Mistflower will have Monarchs and Queens coming into your landscape in hordes.
Butterfly Nectar Plants on SAWS WaterSaver Landscape Coupon list.
- Barbados Cherry
- Esperanza
- Cenzio
- Copper Canyon Daisy
- Flame Acanthus/Hummingbird Bush
- Frogfruit
- Mexican Buckeye
- Mexican Olive
- Milkweeds
- Mistflowers
- Redbud
- Salvia/All types
- Texas Mountain Laurel
- Yaupon/Possumhaw
You can see from these lists, that many plants on the SAWS WaterSaver Landscape Coupon are both host and nectar plants for butterflies. Choosing from these double-duty plants offers the possibility that you might get to experience the entire life cycle of a butterfly. Planting any variety of these host and nectar plants is sure to bring you joy as you observe butterflies laying eggs on host plants, caterpillars (butterfly larvae) getting plump while filling up on leaves from host plants, and butterflies loading up on nectar for energy.
Come on in to Rainbow Gardens where you can easily find your SAWS WaterSaver Landscape Coupon plants and get those butterflies whirling their way towards your gardens. (Click the previous link for step by step instructions to apply for coupon.)
(Thank you SAWS for the use of pictures of Tuberosa Milkweed, Blue Mistflower, Snakeherb, and Twist-leaf Yucca from their site, SAWS.org.)
~The Happy Gardener
We live in the Great NW community and we have small front yards. The small connecting lawn between my neighbors’ and ours is getting a bit harder to mow. It’s now a bit of a slope. Any suggestions without a big expense? Also, I don’t want to block my neighbors road view when he backs out from his driveway. Thank you so much.
Hi Dolores,
Groundcovers can be a great transition between yards, and work well on slopes to help hold soil. You’ll have to check what type of sun exposure that area receives throughout the day to know which groundcovers will work best for you. But they can fill in areas fairly quickly with the proper care, making them great choices for replacing sections of lawn. Planting groundcovers in a checkerboard pattern helps to fill in the areas faster.
We purchased 6 tropical milkweed plants and now I am reading that these aren’t good. Any information would be greatly appreciated.
Hi Judith,
Rainbow Gardens is issuing a recall of 1 gallon yellow Tropical Milkweed, purchased between 4-4-2019 and 4-8-2019. It has been discovered that a new grower we were trying out used systemic insecticide on the milkweeds. If you purchased a 1 gallon yellow milkweed during this time frame, please pull it from your garden and bring it back for credit or exchange. We at Rainbow Gardens apologize for this oversight, and promise to vet our growers with far more diligence. The red/orange tropical milkweed or any other type of milkweed purchased during those times was untainted.
My friend/step sisters 100 yr old veteran father passed away last week. Having his funeral Monday 6th at San Antonio veterans cemetery. I want to send her a Butterfly Bush. I’m in Okla. Please help me with this. Thank you Probably deliver after Monday, not real tall, (average but beautiful purple, possible tri or Bi color).
Barbara,
First of all I’m sorry your loss. I am also sorry I did not see this message until today. I would advise to please contact whichever location you are interested in purchasing the Butterfly Bush from. Here is our location page with links to each. There you can have a conversation that is not on a public forum. In case we are able to proceed, we’d need more information such as location, and payment process.