Fluttering butterflies can enhance the beauty of your flowering garden. Be sure to plant in mass (5 or more) to attract the butterflies attention! Many butterflies tend to live within a relatively small area — why not make that small area a special spot in your own landscape? The key is to provide butterflies what they need to thrive.

• Basking

  Butterflies fly best when their body temperature is between 85 and 100˚ F. They love to bask in the sun with their wings outstretched. Butterflies like to bask on trees and shrubs, and flat rocks strategically placed on the ground around your garden can be perfect resting and sunning spots.

  A butterfly’s environment must be stable and predictable; strive to match the environment of its natural world so that its needs are consistently met. Create this successful balance of garden components and enjoy year after year of “flying flowers” in your landscape.

• Nectaring

  Adult butterflies take nectar from many plants, sipping it through a long, straw-like appendage that is usually kept coiled. Their feet have special taste receptors that can detect sweet liquids. Plant a variety of flowers for the best nectaring.

• Puddling

  Sometimes a dozen or more butterflies will gather round a puddle or wet place. Provide them space for this “puddling” with a shallow pool or wet area, although many butterflies can get sufficient moisture from nectar, dew or tree sap. Puddling stations can be as simple as a damp area of ground covered with sand. Place stations where butterflies — and you — can easily see them and where they are sheltered from the wind.

Hummingbirds are among the smallest of all birds, and they capture our imagination like no other. It’s easy to add these beautiful, hovering creatures — the only species of bird that can fly backward — to your flowering garden. Hummingbirds, like butterflies, have unique features and needs. Meet these needs then enjoy the show.

• Feeders

  Typically, flowers alone are not enough to supply hummingbirds with the energy they need. The birds must feed 3 to 5 times each hour. Be sure to supplement your garden by placing feeders nearby, hung about 30 feet apart throughout your garden. Because hummingbirds follow regular routes to find food (a system called trap-lining), they might become totally reliant on your garden. Providing bright, visible feeders where the birds are most likely to see them — near flowers and in the sun — can help hummingbirds get the food they need even when their favorite flowers are out of bloom.

• PERCHING AREAS

  Hummingbirds are not always in motion; it just looks that way. They actually spend most of their time perching near their food sources, leaving at regular 10- to 15-minute intervals for quick bursts of feeding. Males will perch almost anywhere, including on fences, wires and branches in open areas. Female hummingbirds need hidden shelter within trees, shrubs or vines, especially when nesting with young. Hummingbirds often nest in oaks, sycamores, maples and conifers.

• FLOWERS

  Just as hummingbirds depend on nectar-producing flowers for food, many flowers depend on the birds for pollination. These flowers typically are tubular, brightly colored and scentless (hummingbirds, like most birds, have virtually no sense of smell and find food by sight). Choose flowers that produce a nearly continuous supply of nectar, with numerous blossoms over a long blooming season. Fuchsias are a good example.