Collection: Plants for Butterflies and Birds

Co-existing with butterflies and birds is essential to maintain the natural balance of our food chain.

The state-of-the-art buildings and other infrastructure in cities have made it difficult for birds and butterflies to survive.

What we need to see is how we can contribute to maintaining this balance in our small way. Growing plants for birds and butterflies in our garden or balcony is one way to begin.

With the monotony of work-life creeping in, without any commitment of looking after pets long-term, adding the right plants to our space gives an overall balance that's conducive for birds and butterflies, and us.

Let's look at some relatively easy-to-maintain plants for birds and butterflies below:

The needs of birds and butterflies are different. However, we can plan our landscape in a way to incorporate plants for birds and butterflies.

Birds prefer plants that can either be a source of food with their fruits, nuts and nectar or can provide nest-building material.

Whereas, throughout the lifecycle of a butterfly, they need two significant types of plants- the host plants and nectar plants.

Host plants are those that the butterfly needs to lay eggs on and has the leaves that caterpillars can feed on and turn to larvae.

Nectar plants are flowering plants that feed adult butterflies.

Here is a choice of plants for birds and butterflies :

• Sunflowers: Sunflowers are easy to maintain and are the perfect host plant and nectar plant for butterflies. Being the king of seed flowers, it doubles up as a songbird's favourite too.
• Daisies: Daisies have nutritious seeds that attract sparrows, cardinals and finches. They also attract mature butterflies for their nectar.
• Hibiscus: Hummingbirds and butterflies love large flowers like hibiscus. Having thick juicy leaves makes it ideal for laying eggs for butterflies as well.
• Russelia Plant: Russelia attracts smaller birds like hummingbirds and bees- drawing other birds like martins and thrushes to feed on bees. It's also a popular nectar plant for butterflies.
• Citrus Trees: Butterflies like the giant swallowtail lay their eggs on citrus trees. Fruit-bearing trees like oranges are always preferable for both butterflies and birds.

There are many more varieties to choose from-such as custard apple, curry leaf shrub, jasmine or mogra and the like.
You can select the right plants for birds and butterflies based on the time you can spend and the space you have.

A combination of trees, shrubs and ground-hugging plants is what is suitable for birds as they have different nesting needs. If space is not a constraint, landscape arranging all of it in tier formation, with plants ideal for birds and butterflies, is preferable.

Brighten your day with colourful flowers, butterflies and songs of birds. Purchase all of the above as seeds or plants from Nursery Live potted with the right combination of soil.