Butterfly gardens can be any size; a window box, part of your landscaped yard, or even a wild untended area on your property. You can prolong the butterfly's stay in your garden and draw in others by providing both the food and shelter they need. This mix contains all the right flowers to achieve an ideal garden for the butterflies. This mix contains a variety of nectar-producing plants to provide flowers in bloom throughout the season to encourage a continuous succession of new visitors. It is especially important to have flowers in mid to late summer, when most butterflies are active. Flowers with multiple florets that produce abundant nectar are ideal. Butterfly host plants included in this mix are also very important to your butterfly garden to provide a site for the butterfly to lay eggs and also food source for the emerging caterpillar. Be prepared for heavy munching on your host plants! Because tiny caterpillars cannot travel far to find their own food, the female butterfly locates and lays her eggs on only the type of plant that the caterpillar can use as food. Most species of caterpillars are particular about the type of plants they can eat. If the egg was not placed on the correct plant, the caterpillar hatching from that egg will not survive. This butterfly mix will grow in any good, well drained soil. For best results, plant your butterfly garden in full sun, and keep the seeds moist until they germinate. Do not fertilize wildflowers unless the soil is extremely depleted of nutrients. Fertilizers encourage weed growth and lush foliage rather than flowers. If the soil needs improvement, we suggest adding organic matter such as weed-free grass clippings, well rotted compost or peat moss. The wild flowers need to be watered regularly during the summer to keep the plants at their peak. To aid in natural reseeding and to keep a neat appearance, you can mow the flowers after they have gone to seed and lost their bloom. Mow them at a height of 4-6 inches-mowing below 3 inches could damage the perennial flowers.