Some random tips for supporting butterflies:
Don’t use pesticides unless you really have to. Ignore clusters aphids and other insects that are on ornamentals and aren’t eating your food. Don’t spray wholesale tick and mosquito killers.

Leave native wild cherry trees – aka choke cherries – whenever possible. Prunus virginiana (Chokecherry) is an ecological powerhouse that supports over 400 species of butterflies and moths.

Leave native oak trees whenever possible.

Grow some milkweed in your garden – it is the support plant for the monarch larvae.

Grow members of the parsley family – dill, fennel, and golden Alexander for the black swallowtail larvae.

Grow pearly everlasting for American Lady and Painted Lady larvae.

Other trees and shrubs to plant or leave: Sassafras, tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) and River birch. Pawpaw, spicebush, native Viburnums, and Ninebark.

Perennials to support butterflies: asters, Joe Pye Weed, Wild senna (Senna hebecarpa) and pussytoes (Antennaria).

In my flower garden I see the butterflies on summer Phlox, Agastache, and Verbena Bonariensis.

Search for which natives support butterflies in your region.

Here is the poster for Monarch Butterfly Day in Bourne, MA in 2026