I like Irises and daylilies as much as any other flower, but looking at page after page of daylilies is like...well, is there such a thing as eating too much candy?
After awhile the flowers look alike to my eyes. Butterflies offer more variety!

Love the butterfly fabric. (My name is greene and I am a fabric-holic .)For a while I was helping to sew the pillowcases but had to stop as I don't drive in the dark. I'll start up again once the days get longer. We have a great group doing the sewing. Love all the crazy combinations of colorful fabrics.

mellielong said:Mom says thanks, Margaret! By the way, is your avatar picture an amaryllis in celebration of amaryllis week? I had a "duh" moment this morning anda new realized I had pictures of the amaryllis that bloom at MOSI each year. cording to my photos, they bloom in February so I'll be looking forward to them soon. I've gotten a lot of thumbs for them, which is cool. In fact, you and Jack gave me thumbs, I believe! I was just glad I had something to contribute. Now, we just need to convince them we need a butterfly appreciation week!

Yes Melanie, it is an Amaryllis, 'Elvas' in honor of amaryllis week. I hope you have more photos to add to the database, love the one you added already.

I agree about the butterfly week, a great idea

mcash70 said:Love your butterfly pillow case, so pretty. Kudos to your Mom for making them for such a worthy cause.

I totally agree with this!

It's Sunday again which means I was at the museum this morning. But it was cold! Didn't see anyone flying in the gardens and the ones in the flight cage didn't wake up until almost 11:00 am. And we had the heat lamp on! I even had my jacket on most of the morning. It also rained a lot yesterday so I guess this is our little cold front going through. I won't complain though; I've seen pictures of the rest of the country.

The Julias are still hanging out in the Kumquat tree.



But sometimes they hang out on other things.



The Giant STs are still in there but we don't seem to have any that bred or laid eggs, anyway. I haven't found eggs on the Kumquat or the Rue. Maybe I should have tried adding some Wild Lime? I hate that plant - THORNS!! They do lay eggs on it a lot. But, ouchie!



Zebra Longwings, as usual.



And there were some Monarchs but they were all hanging out up top. They hadn't laid any eggs on the milkweed, either. Bunch of slacker butterflies in the flight cage right now...



Sadly, I think our Malachites are about done. The last two cats made their chrysalises. I didn't see any butterflies in the flight cage and I couldn't find any eggs. I suppose the existing chrysalises could emerge and mate and lay eggs, but it looks like the cold temps finally got the best of them. Also, several of our Monarch chrysalises were parasatized by flies. We had a real drop off in the population this week. Bad times, but it is January. I did find two Monarch caterpillars out in the gardens so that was good, but I was really trying to find Sulphur cats. No luck there. Back at home, I pulled into the driveway to see my brother and Dad over by the Giant Milkweed which made me suspicious. Apparently, a Monarch cat was crawling in front of my brother's car and Dad was relocating it to the Giant Milkweed. I wonder where it came from? I pulled most of the milkweed last week and found a few more the other day but maybe I missed one. I'm glad he's a happy caterpillar now, anyway. The thought of starving caterpillars makes me sad.



And speaking of Monarchs, I was reading about how to germinate my milkweed seeds since my patented "Toss and Stomp" method didn't seem like it would work with these. For those that aren't aware, that's where I toss seeds on the ground, and then stomp on them to give them optimal seed to soil contact. I usually follow by watering. But these seeds said they need something called "cold stratification". Being a Floridian, I had to look that up (totally kidding, folks). The website I bought them from said to put them in the fridge for 30 days in moist sand. Since I needed clean sand (i.e. weed free), I stopped at Lowe's and bought some sand (and a few other things). So here are my Spider Milkweed seeds shortly before I put them in the fridge. I even labeled them and wrote the date on the lid! It's almost like I'm getting good at this!

Yep, I have to put mine in some sand yet & get them in the fridge. I thought I read 60 days??????

The package says 60 days but the website says 30 days. I also Googled it and got varying answers. I would think 30 days is enough. I mean, they're native to this region. I looked it up on the Florida Plant Atlas and they're native to my county and there is no way we have 60 days where it gets down to 40 degrees. I would believe 30 days, though. I might get lazy and leave them in there a little longer, anyway. I still have some clearing to do.

I may know a lot about butterflies, but I admit I have a gardening weakness and that is planning. I am terrible at planning where to put things. I've gotten better through trial and error. I mean, I'm good about knowing sun or shade or what kind of soil. I just severely underestimate how big some things get. Or how they will spread. And my unwillingness to cull plants even if it's for their own good is a problem, too. But that's why I have Dad! He has no qualms about cutting things. I've been putting him on hold for a while because I can't have him pruning things until the last frost date (Feb 15, here). With my luck, he'd cut something, we'd get a frost, and I'd lose the whole plant. He had hand surgery two weeks ago so he's kind of down for the count, anyway.

I'm also constantly fighting my brother because he mows the yard and my plants "get in his way". Like right now my Sennas are totally weighed down by seeds and they're one plant I need to thin because one plant is now seven or so. But I don't want to touch them until next month. Plus, I have to check for caterpillars before I tear anything out.

My brother already killed my dad's Canary Island Date Palm. On the one hand, it did need to be trimmed because the lower limbs were blocking our view of the street so we couldn't back out. But he trimmed too many branches, it couldn't support itself, and now we have to pull a dead tree. In good news, Dad and I are brainstorming what to plant there. I'm leaning toward something native that works as a host plant, of course. But seriously, our driveway creates this little half-circle of land out front. We had the Date Palm and since my brother kept complaining about the spines when he had to mow the grass, I asked Dad why don't we pull the grass, I'll plant bromeliads instead, and we'll make like a tropical thing out front? So that's what we did. But because of the location between our driveway and the street and the fact that it's in full Florida sun, I have to think of something that can literally take the heat. Plus, the canopy has to be big enough to shade my bromeliads but not so big it hangs out in the street. I'm going to get the books out and make lists with pros and cons. Right now, my best thought is Hercules' Club (host for the Giant ST) but I'd have to find one that's already pretty big and that could be hard.

Well if you use Hercules Club you best make sure there is no grass in there & you don't have to get in there too often to do any maintenance b/c those things have some wicked sharp thorns on the trunk. Just warning you you understand. Pretty tree, vicious thorns.

Yeah, I've grown it before and we have one at MOSI. They're not bad once they get tall enough. The one at MOSI is so tall that I can't reach the lower limbs anymore. We couldn't find caterpillars even if we wanted to! Luckily, the Giant STs are nice enough to use our Wild Lime and Rue pretty frequently. Besides, we're used to having giant spikes sticking out of that date palm so I didn't see that there would be much of a difference. And the grass is gone! I'd rip it all out if they would let me!

Melanie, here is another small tree which is native to Florida and is a host for the Giant Swallowtail,
Hop Tree, Ptelea trifoliata, no thorns on this one, http://www.wildflower.org/plan...
I have it in my butterfly garden as well as the Hercule's Club.

Just thinking about milkweed. I received my Whorled Milkweed seeds today from the nice folks at www.everwilde.com They were out of stock for a short time but got them in again. They also need cold stratification so into the fridge they went. The package says they need 2-3 months of cold but the website says 30 days in the fridge is enough. Maybe the constant temperature of the fridge versus outdoors makes it go faster? I have no idea how these things work - I'm a Floridian! I just double-checked the Florida Plant Atlas and it shows the Whorled Milkweed in most counties. The other one I ordered, the Spider Milkweed, shows in only a few counties but one of them is Miami-Dade and if it can grow there, it can grow here. Mostly it seems to grow about two counties up from me. Here's the Whorled Milkweed getting ready to go in the fridge.



I know I keep saying my last frost date is Feb. 15 but that doesn't mean I'm going to magically get all my gardening done on that day. First off, it's a Sunday so I'll be at MOSI. I do have other plants to get into the ground so maybe I can leave the milkweed in for a bit longer. I would hate to have lousy germination rates. And I'm not real demanding about that, anyway! I have an area in mind for planting at least some of them, but I'll have to do some work to clear it first. Plus, no matter when I plant the seeds, I'll have to give them supplemental water which means dragging the hose around the yard every day for weeks. For those not from Florida, our driest period is March and April. As a kid, I never understood the whole "April showers bring May flowers" saying. The rainy season usually kicks in about late May (if we're lucky) so if I can manage until then, I think I'll be all right. I suppose I'm just rationalizing to myself why it's okay to plant the seeds late and leave them in the fridge. But I think this is going to work out pretty well. It's not like I don't have plenty to do after ripping out all those plants!

But in replacement plant news, while I was at Lowe's I picked up two Salvia 'Mystic Spires' because...you know...pretty. And was there ever a butterfly that didn't like Salvia? I have some Salvia 'Black and Blue' but I'm never sure if it's going to make a comeback. I've got something in the butterfly garden that's either that or Anise Hyssop and I guess I'll just have to wait until they get a little larger to figure it out. I might have both, for all I know. That Sweet Almond Bush I trimmed (and Dad pulled) was shading nearly everything out so I'm remembering what used to grow there and hoping for a comeback. While at Lowe's, I also checked out the clearance rack which is usually the "death rack" but a lot of the plants looked pretty good. I picked up an unnamed Salvia for $1. Also, they had pentas for $1 each! And they were still blooming! They only had purple and white and I took a pack of 10 purples. In my experience, the butterflies love all pentas but prefer purple, red, pink, and that magenta color. Okay, I guess the ones I bought are more magenta than purple. I'll have to buy some different colors later to mix things up. They wanted $5.98 for the regular price, slightly larger ones! Dad and I have the same philosophy, though. Buy them while they're small and cheap - and they GROW! Imagine that! Here's my pentas.



Normally, I would wait to buy pentas, but I can always cover them with a blanket if it gets cold. I can't pass up a bargain like that! I am waiting to buy my second Sweetbay Magnolia tree. It's a little hard to cover those. And I guess I'll have to send a Facebook message to my fave nursery and see about getting some more Rue. I've killed mine.

I hope everyone is staying warm and safe. All I see in the news is this blizzard stuff. So while you're hunkered down, dreaming of spring, is anyone else planning to add host or nectar plants this year?

This butterfly was laying her eggs on the passiflora caerulea, then she went to other flowers.


I could also find these guys on the passiflora



And this very near it

That looks like a Gulf Fritillary Cecilia.

Yes, it is.
The common name here is "espejito". And I have searched for the scientific name and it is Agraulis vanillae

I agree with the Gulf Frit, but your caterpillars look a little different. Ours are pretty much solid orange although variations can occur. The one clearly has some dark striping going on. I wonder if it's a natural variation in your area? Looks cool, though! I know Polydamas caterpillars can vary in pattern due to their exposure to UV rays; I wonder if something similar is happening to the Gulf Frits? Err...Espejitos.

Interesting considerations, Melanie!. I have only seen the caterpillars that eat my passiflora. I would love to see some of your catterpillars.

Cecelia, here are some photos from last year. I have seen a Gulf Frit caterpillar with stripes or darker markings on it, but that's pretty rare. They're usually just orange, although one time I had a pale one that was almost yellow!

Oh , yes !!!!!!!!! They are different !!!!! It's very interesting !

Regional or in this case continental variations.

This is why I like international visitors! It's neat though how the butterfly still looks the same. In contrast, the Polydamas Swallowtail has several subspecies because they live on most of the Caribbean islands and throughout Central and South America and so each population has somewhat different genetics, I suppose. Here's a good website that shows just how different they can be: http://butterfliesofamerica.co... You can see how some have more yellow, some have more red, the arc of the pattern varies quite a bit, etc. Just a lot more difference than you would expect in the same species. I always thought that was pretty neat.

it's pretty neat!