Everyone would like to have butterflies and hummingbirds frequent their gardens. To increase your likelyhood of having these summer visitors, there are some very specific flowers and plants you should include in your border.

Butterflies prefer flat, single, daisy-like flowers. Plant these flowers where they will get full sun. In the mornings, butterflies must sit in the sunlight until their muscles are warm enough to fly. Stone pathways are another useful and attractive way to provide them with a place to sit and bask in the sun.

Another key to attracting butterflies is to also provide plants on which they will lay their eggs. They will only lay them on certain host plants which will provide the future food for their caterpillars. Many of these plants are considered weeds, so I have found acceptable surrogates which are also lovely in my gardens.

Some examples are:

• Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tubersosa)--monarch
• Pearly Everlasting (anaphalis)--painted lady
• Bronze Fennel--swallowtail
• Hops (Humulus lupulus)--common hairstreak, red admiral
• Lupine--Eastern tailed blue
• Aster--Pearl crescent

One butterfly larvae is considered by some, to be a garden pest. The swallowtail butterfly larvae can be found on parsley, dill, fennel, and carrots in the vegetable garden, rarely will they eat enough to warrant intervention. If you are lucky enough to get a good crop of caterpillars this year, plant some extras just for them next year! Simply move the ones that are on your food plants over to the plants you don't mind them chomping on.

Flowering herbs are a great favorite of both butterflies and hummingbirds. Some good ones are sage, thyme, hyssop, catnip, borage, and lavender. Try growing lemon catnip, which has a much nicer citrus scent, then regular catnip. Two herbs that aren't commonly grown, but are very good nectar plants are pineapple sage and anise hyssop (agastache).

Hummingbirds like flowers that are shaped like a trumpet, especially if they are red. They are irresistibly drawn to anything that color. I've even seen them hover near the red streamers of a wind sock and the red glass in my stained glass window.

This makes bee balm the perfect hummingbird flower. When July comes and it starts to bloom, the hummingbirds are always around. It has a tendency to mildew, so be sure and buy 'Gardenview Scarlet,' which is much more resistant then the older strains.

The list below has more flowers that will attract both butterflies and hummingbirds. Be warned, even if you do everything right, you still may not have any luck attracting butterflies. Sometimes things beyond your control such as a neighbor spraying, or a cool summer, may adversely impact your chances of having many butterflies.

Don't let that discourage you. After all, what could be more beautiful then a garden full of butterflies and hummingbirds?

Butterfly nectar favorites:

Rudbeckia (black-eyed susan), shasta daisy, violets, yarrow, echinacea (coneflower), allysum, heliotrope, zinnia, cosmos, asters, sedum, verbenas, goldenrod, gaillardia, liatris, phlox, marigolds, lantana,and coreopsis.

Hummingbird favorites:

Honeysuckle vines, columbine, monarda (bee balm), agastache, nicotiana, impatiens, hosta, salvia, lupine, phlox, nasturtiums, daylilies, scarlet runner beans, coral bells, bleeding heart, dahlia, cleome, penstemon, and petunias.

I just got a catalog from a nursery that specializes in only plants that attract hummingbirds and butterflies. Since they are new I can't recommend them, but I like the idea (and that they are in a small town in Minnesota!), so if you would like to receive their catalog the address is Hummingbird Habitat Nursery, P.O. Box 102, Dassel, MN 55325, phone (320)275-3208. tly