Watch Your Yard Turn Into A Butterfly Haven After Planting This Pretty Perennial

There are plenty of reasons why filling your garden with stunning plants that will attract butterflies is a good idea. Aside from their beautifully intricate wings, butterflies serve an important function by acting as pollinators for your garden. They do this by picking up pollen from flowers they're feeding on and transferring it to other flowers via their legs and wings. This pollination is essential for a healthy outdoor environment. And if you want your yard to become a butterfly haven, you need to be planting a pretty perennial known as lamb's ear (Stachys byzantina).

Known for its green leaves that are covered in hair and resemble the shape of an actual lamb's ear, this plant is a hardy one and is able to grow comfortably in USDA hardiness zones 4 to 8. It grows relatively low to the ground, typically reaching about 2 feet high when fully mature. As a perennial, you can rest knowing that it will continue to grow in dense clumps year after year.

However, the foliage is not enough to make your yard a butterfly magnet. If you are planting common lamb's ear, it is important to realize that you won't get butterflies in your first season. This is the time when it is establishing its foliage. In the second season, expect small, lavender-like flowers to emerge from the leaves during the summertime. These are what will attract the butterflies to your garden.

Similar to liatris, another easy-to-grow flower that will attract butterflies, lamb's ear does not need attention once it is planted in the ground. It is best grown in spring once the chance of frost has passed, and can either be sown directly in the ground or in containers. If you're planting in the ground, do so in rich, well-draining soil in a spot that receives plenty of morning sun, but has some shade in the afternoon. Mature lamb's ear is pretty drought-tolerant, so it will do well in drier areas.

Common lamb's ear is not the only type of lamb's ear that will bloom and attract butterflies. Wood betony (Stachys officinalis) grows exceptionally tall and large tuber-shaped purple flowers that are perfect for butterflies to draw nectar from. Cotton Boll (Stachys byzantina "Cotton Boll") is another unique flowering cultivar, with its blooms looking like cotton balls attached to a long stem. Butterflies will still be drawn to this variety, but its flower shape is more conducive to pollinating bees.

If you want to establish a larger bed of foliage, prune the lamb's ear flowers in that second season to send the plant's energy towards leaf production. Once you've gotten them to a size and area you like, allow the plant to grow its yearly flowers so that the butterflies will keep on fluttering into your yard.