The Potted Plant Trios That Will Bring Butterflies To Your Yard

Designing container plantings is one of my favorite activities as a professional gardener. I love choosing different annuals (and occasionally perennials) to combine in containers for a showy display of color and texture. One easy approach I often use is the well-known thriller, filler, and spiller method to create a balanced look. It turns out this formula works well for choosing a trio of plants that will attract butterflies to your containers also.

There are many annuals and perennials that attract a variety of butterflies, and lots of them are suitable for seasonal containers. Here are two dynamic thriller-filler-spiller combinations for you to try. First: scabiosa (thriller), annual verbena (filler), and lobelia (spiller). Second: zinnia (thriller), lantana (filler), and trailing petunias (spiller). Most of these are available as annuals at nurseries in late spring and summer. Container annuals like a good amount of sun, and daily watering to stay fresh and vibrant.

All of these plants are absolute butterfly magnets and come in a terrific array of colors. You can also mix and match them with other flowers loved by butterflies, including four o'clocks, portulacas, blanket flowers, delphiniums, dianthus, stock, and calendula. Luckily, this formula is very forgiving and there's no rule saying you can't have more than one kind of thriller, filler, or spiller per container, as long as you have at least one of each for form and balance.

Scabiosa is also known as pincushion flower. It has delicate petals on a sturdy round flower head, and grows easily from seed. Most varieties grow between 2-3 feet tall, making them an excellent thriller for the center of your container. The color range includes gorgeous purples, blues, and pinks, plus deep maroon ('Black Knight'), sparkling white, and enchanting color mixes like 'Triple Berry.' Try 'Butterfly Blue,' a cool periwinkle stunner, named for the flower's allure to butterflies and other insect pollinators.

For a textural contrast to the nubby petals of scabiosa, try annual verbena (Verbena hybrida) for a filler. The velvety surface of these small five-petalled flowers shows off the glowing colors, attracting butterflies galore. They bloom all season long. Shear off the spent flowers and they'll grow another round of buds for an encore. The color selection is phenomenal. I'm a fan of the pastels (especially 'Quartz Pink,' 'Tuscany Peach,' and 'Tuscany Lavender') but there are also gorgeous jewel tones of crimson, red, violet, and magenta.

A great butterfly-attracting spiller for this combo is trailing petunias or five o'clocks. These lively annuals bloom all summer. but they do sometimes need a bit of deadheading to keep them clean and producing fresh blooms. Trailing petunias are heat-tolerant and sun-loving, and come in a huge range of colors. Imagine butterflies hovering over a container with purple scabiosa, pale pink and peach verbena, and trailing petunias of magenta or hot pink. The color combinations are truly endless. You can also do monochromatic color palettes, to create a dazzling look with the different textures and growth habits of these flowers. 

There are many beautiful zinnia types available, and they're all sun-loving pollinator magnets. Though zinnias can often grow quite tall, there are some more diminutive varieties, like 'Lilliput' or 'Cut and Come Again' (also called 'Pumila') that grow no more than 24 inches tall, which is a great size for a thriller in your butterfly pot. Cactus flowering zinnias have attractive spiky petals and grow only 30 inches tall. Zinnias attract both butterflies and bees, and occasionally hummingbirds, so your container will be a very social spot!

For your filler alongside some vivid zinnias, marigolds add wonderful contrasting shapes and textures. These popular annuals are easy-care (just snip off spent flowers to keep the blooms coming) and the French variety (Tagetes patula) is loved by butterflies and bees. There's a surprisingly wide color range, too, from creamy white ('Star-Spangled') to lemon yellow ('Lemon Drop') or rust orange ('Queen Sophia'), and some mixes that include shades of peach (like 'Strawberry Blonde').

The spiller that rounds out this colorful combination is the delicate but floriferous trailing lobelia (Lobelia erinus), which tucks nicely into containers and produces airy cascades of tiny flowers. It comes in gorgeous shades of blue (like 'Fountain Blue' and 'Laguna Sky Blue') that contrast boldly with the rich, warm shades of French marigolds and zinnias. Lobelia also comes in white, pale pink, magenta, and lavender hues. Shear the spent flowers gently to encourage more blooms.