Best Perennial Plants For Butterflies

@luciusmaximus Thanks, that fuschia actually seems perfect for my rather shady back garden. Attractive and tolerant of my heavy clay soil too! That's just the sort of plant I like adding to it, perennial, easy to grow, low-maintenance and long-flowering!

That sounds like Purple Toadflax (Linaria purpurea), Common Toadflax is Linaria vulgaris which is yellow. I had loads of the purple ones on my allotment and was going to try to get rid of them all, but they are so beautiful when you look at them closely and attractive to bees that I've decided to not only keep them but add the pink type! Easy to hand-weed anyway! Interesting, I just looked it up again and quite a few lepidoptera like it too!

Purple Toadflax - Linaria purpurea, species information page. Also known as Perennial Snapdragon

Interesting that you mention thistles, I have often played with the idea of introducing native ones to my garden (perhaps my allotment is a better idea) but definitely need to do more research, thanks for mentioning them.

Nick

 

Regarding Ragwort, it sounds like it's wise to wear gloves when removing it in large numbers according to this thread...

https://forums.horseandhound.co.uk/threads/ragwort-true-or-small balls.285564/

Nick

 

Took this yesterday. the bees and flutterbys love it. So do I and Im so glad I didn't dig it up! The bees love it too. Is it a Red Admiral?

 

@ThePlantAssassin Yep, it certainly is a Red Admiral! Buddleia looks nice and healthy, too!

Brimstones, Small Tortoiseshells, Peacocks, Red Admirals, Commas, Painted Ladies and the ubiquitous Small Whites in higher numbers on mine this year! (my apologies to any butterflies I may have left out! )

Nick