In the sunny lawn to the north of the woodland gardens lies a butterfly garden. It features host plants to promote butterflies and other pollinators including bees, moths, and birds, who pollinate the majority of Aullwood's flowering plants. The butterfly garden provides a habitat that increases butterfly diversity and the presence of other pollinators to important to the longevity of Aullwood Garden.

"The decline in the number of moths and butterflies saddens me," she told a journalist in 1986. "We always used to see Luna moths around here, but we haven't had one in five of six years. One of my husband's favorite plants was blue-eyed Mary--I think its intense blue pleased him. It's an annual that must set seed and is pollinated by honeybees."

During her life at Aullwood, Marie Aull was always in touch with life in her garden. Friends recall her pausing to point out a pair of ruby-throated hummingbirds at a feeder or an early Baltimore oriole whose arrival she had been anticipating for several days. Gardening and wildlife were always a part of Marie's life. Her interest, and longtime membership to the National Audubon, led her to donate land and establish the adjacent Aullwood Audubon Center in memory of her husband John in 1957. It was one of the first nature centers in the Midwest.