The Butterfly Garden

The Butterfly Garden has its own history. It was created in collaboration between Skansen and the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, and opened in 1998. The number of butterflies in Sweden had declined sharply at that time, and the aim was to encourage all kinds of growers to start making their gardens more butterfly-friendly. This decline was – and remains – largely due to rationalisation and the use of chemicals in agriculture and forestry.

Butterflies are important pollinators, and by giving them what they need for their survival they also allow us to continue enjoying – and living off – nature.

You can therefore come to the Butterfly Garden for inspiration, and to learn about biodiversity and which plants butterflies are attracted to. Here, you will find colourful perennials and both wild and cultivated flowering plants that produce nectar. There are also green plants, including nettles, which are not seen as weeds – they are a source of food for butterfly larvae.

Attract butterflies to your garden

It’s not only growers and homeowners who can encourage butterflies to visit their gardens – you can also attract them if you live in an apartment with a balcony! A good start is to plant fragrant herbs in your balcony pots. Butterflies need different types of flowering plants to get access to nectar. However, their larvae do not eat nectar – they live off the leaves of plants such as nettles, leguminous plants and cruciferous plants, also known as host plants.