Support Backyard Butterflies With An Adorable Amazon Find That Doubles As Garden Decor

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Let's be honest: A backyard without butterflies is incomplete. Luckily, attracting butterflies to a garden is easy. All you have to do is plant some flowers, and they will come flying right in. But that might not be enough to fully support them and keep them happy in your yard, since water is just as essential as nectar for butterflies, especially in summer when small, shallow water sources dry up. Thankfully, attracting butterflies and keeping them around is as easy as installing a small watering hole in your garden, like the Mellbree Bee Watering Station. This product will keep the pollinators visiting your garden happy and hydrated.

The watering station can be purchased on Amazon for about $15 at the time of writing, and it is designed to look like a flower in bloom. There are four watering stations in each set with different colors, so you can use them as garden decor while also providing water for the pollinators. The height of these watering stations is adjustable, too, which allows you to set them at the same height as the rest of the flowers in your garden for a more cohesive aesthetic. You can even fill these watering stations with sugar water when nectar sources are scarce, then you'll see plenty of breathtaking butterflies flying around you garden.

Buyers seem to like them, too. The reviews consistently mention that the Mellbree Bee Watering Stations look adorable in the garden and aren't difficult to put together. "Very cute with an easy assembly," one reviewer noted. Their durability and hardiness, however, has raised some concern. "I pushed just slightly on one of them when I was screwing the stem together, and it bent pretty quickly, so I tried to be really careful with the rest," another reviewer shared.

Start by choosing the best location to install these watering stations, rather than scattering them randomly in your backyard. Choose areas where bees and butterflies visit regularly, like a flower bed, as pollinators already gather here in search of nectar. Plus, placing the watering stations near flowers makes them look like part of the garden design rather than separate garden ornaments.

Other than that, remember to add some pebbles and marbles into the watering stations. The watering stations are not very deep and not dangerous, but adding a few pebbles to them will still give the butterflies a stable surface where they can land and drink without having to balance along the smooth metal edge of the watering station. Just make sure that the pebbles are clean, and you do not fill the whole thing with them. Since the Mellbree Bee Watering Stations come in sets of four, it's a good idea to space them out and support pollinators all over your garden. This also allows the visiting butterflies and other pollinators to have a drink without competing with each other. 

Check the watering stations regularly, too, as they are fairly small and can easily dry up, especially during hot weather. In terms of maintenance, you'll need to keep them free of dirt and debris to provide a clean drinking source. Of course, in the interest of managing expectations, it's important to realize that these watering stations won't bring butterflies to your garden or backyard on their own. If you're lacking in the floral department, be sure to invest in some plants that will fill your garden with a variety of butterflies, from parsnip-flower buckwheat to magnolias.