Fritillary butterflies often use violets as hostplants. If you have those butterflies in your area, 'johnny jump-ups' may work as they are mentioned in this forum's hostplant FAQ. Any violet species native to your area are probably best.

Thank You Larry_gene. I never bothered to read the FAQ pages. I got several books from the library. I just did not want to get caught up in the Violet hybrid madness and not have any Fritillary butterflies like the Petunia craze.

I ordered the 'Czar' from Swallowtail.

When I was living west of DFW...the Frits used all varieties of violas & pansies I had in my garden...they weren't particular but they never used my woodland violets I had in the shade...maybe they just preferred the sunny locations of my violas & pansies to the shady creek bed???
Happy butterflies!

In August we were having a garage sale and I noticed an orange colored butterfly bouncing around the front yard where there aren't really a lot of flowers. I immediately recognized its behavior as a female laying eggs. I followed her around and observed her laying then gathered the eggs. After researching I found it to be a Variegated Fritillary laying on green nodding violets. It was fun to raise and release them. The caterpillars are reddish with black spikes and thrived on potted pansies that I bought for them.

We had a few weeks of weather in the 30s and 40s here in the DFW followed by a few days of 65 to 70 degree temps and spotted MORE females laying in November. Even the larvae will overwinter in the cold and continue growing in the warmer weather. Really amazing

Thank you all for your input. I am going to stick to natives for now. I don't care for pansies or petunia's. I found some more natives via Everwildes Farm's. I am going to try some of them.

Thank You.