Carol, I think it's wonderful that you're starting a butterfly garden. I think that they need our help. Yes, it does seem that the Latin names are used pretty much on the butterfly forum and I was intimidated too when I first joined, but after awhile I started learning those Latin names too. So now I'm one of those Latin nerds. lol I don't know nearly as many as some people do but do know some. They don't use them to impress people but to different between the plants so there's no misunderstanding what plants should be planted to attract a certain kind of butterfly. For example, there are different kinds of blue vervain and if they'd just say that someone should get blue vervain for a host plant for the Common Buckeye, the person they're telling that to might get Verbena bonariensis (a great nectar plant but not a host plant) instead of getting Verbena hostata, which is a host plant for that kind of butterfly caterpillar. Another example is rue. Rue isn't just rue! lol If you want to have the one that's a host plant for Giant Swallowtails and Black Swallowtails, get the one that is Ruta graveolens. There are many different kinds of rue; e.g. meadow rue, and that's not a host plant. Okay, class dismissed. Haha. At first I didn't understand why they used Latin names on the butterfly forum, but after reading awhile, then I knew why. I bet you'll learn some too after awhile. After you read a lot of posts, they started sinking in my head; I wasn't even consciously trying to learn them. Anyhoo...I hope those names don't chase you away from the forum. I've learned so much there and also here. Yep, Wafer Ash (Ptelea trifoliata), also known as Hoptree, is a tree that is a host plant for the Giant Swallowtail. I can't say that I could identify a wafer ash offhand, but from reading about it, it sounds like a desireable tree since it attracts the butterflies, and I also remember reading that it has fragrant flowers and only gets about 20 feet tall. I just looked up what zones it can grow in and it said 4-9, so you're good. I had bought my seeds from Prairie Moon Nursery. I'm pretty sure those other trees I mentioned would also grow where you are at. You probably won't find pipevine at any of the stores. I got mine from Sunlight Gardens. Just as with the other plants, there are different kinds of pipevine. Mine is Aristolochia macrophylla. A good thing to do if you're interested in attracting butterflies to your place is to go to www.butterfliesandmoths.org and look up your state and county to see which ones were reported being there. The website has their host plants listed and also nectar plants that they like to go to. Like you, we've been removing scrub trees from here and replacing them with nice trees (the ones I mentioned). I could go on and one about what to plant for which kind of butterfly, but I'm probably already sounding like a commercial for the butterflies. Being that this is the wintersowing forum, I'd better shut up now. Ha. Sorry, but I get carried away about them just like I do about plants, and that's why I have close to 100 containers sitting outside that I've wintersown (is it sowed or sown?) Best of luck with things and if you ever have any questions about butterflies, just email me. yomamab2002 at yahoo dot com Cathy

Michelle, I have to stop and think when I started because I'm getting my years mixed up sometimes when I talk. Let's see...late in the summer of 2005 I planted three swamp milkweed plants that I bought at a local nursery but it was so late in the year that I guess the Monarchs were already done laying for the year. I didn't have any other host plants for any kind of butterflies planted at that time. Then in 2006 I bought a packet of butterfly weed seeds at Lowe's and started them inside and them bloomed the first year and I got Monarch cats on those and my 3 swamp milkweed plants. I got seeds off of my swamp milkweed plants that year, so I started some in pots and left them sit outside, so I guess I winter sowed without really thinking about it except I didn't have them covered with plastic. They did great and I had enough plants come up last spring to make a 100-plant swamp milkweed patch. I also put some in 3-gallon pots last year and used them in my butterfly cage to feed Monarch cats. Right now I have 56 of those pots of swamp milkweed sitting outside in the pots, and I last fall before we got a frost I dragged in 20 tropical milkweed plants in the house that I had planted in one-gallon containers. I will also plant a tropical milkweed flower bed like I did last year with almost 30 plants. A lot of my butterfly weed plants didn't come back last year and I had to plant about 18 out of the 24 that I have in the garden. I'm not going to replace them this year if any die because I haven't started any and probably won't. I just have too many other plants to worry about. lol So I say that 2006 was my first year with my butterfly garden because I don't count a few plants that I had out the year before. The swamp milkweed and butterfly weed were the only host plants that I offered in 2006. Then last year CalSherry sent me some tropical milkweed seeds. I bet I found about as many eggs on my 28 TM plants as I did my 100 swamp milkweed plants and not many at all on my butterfly weed. Since I started coming here on the forum in 2006, I've learned lots about host plants for other types of butterflies and am trying to provide for lots of other butterflies. I'll list them here so others might consider planting them for the butterflies, although there are other host plants that a person can plant. Between the ones I planted last year and the ones I'll be planting this year, I'll be providing the following food for the cats and I'll list the cat that each type of plant feeds: Garden Plants: Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia)-Silvery Checkerspot Celosia-Common Sootywing Ironweed (Vernonia)-host plant for American Lady?? Plantainleaf pussytoes (Antennaria plantaginifolia)-American Lady Penstemon hirsutus-Baltimore Checkerspot Turtlehead (Chelone glabra & Chelone lyonii)-Baltimore Checkerspot Dill, parsley, fennel-Black Swallowtail Rue (Ruta graveolens)-Black Swallowtail & Giant Swallowtail Gas Plant (Dictamnus albus)-Giant Swallowtail Spider flower (Cleome)-Cabbage White Verbena hastata-Common Buckeye Snapdragon-Common Buckeye Passionvine (Passiflora incarnata)-Gulf Fritillary (it's a long shot for me but hey...) Tropical Milkweed, Swamp Milkweed, & Butterfly Weed-Monarch Mallow (Malva sylvestris) & Hollyhock-Painted Lady, Common Checkered Skipper Rock Cress (Arabis arendsii 'Compinkie')-Falcate Orangetip Bushes: New Jersey Tea-Spring Azure, Summer Azure Spicebush (Lindera benzoin)-Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Spicebush Swallowtail Trees: Black Willow (Salix nigra)-Eastern Comma, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Mourning Cloak, Red-spotted Purple Hackberry tree-American Snout, Hackberry Emperor, Mourning Cloak, Tawny Emperor Sassafras (Sassafras albidum)-Spicebush Swallowtail Paw Paw (Asimina triloba)-Zebra Swallowtail Tulip Poplar (Liriodenron tulipifera)-Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Mourning Cloak, Red-spotted Purple, Spicebush Swallowtail, Viceroy Wild Black Cherry (Prunus serotina)-Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Red-spotted Purple Wafer Ash (Ptelea trifoliata)-Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Giant Swallowtail Plants that were already growing here before my getting into butterfly gardening: English Plantain-Baltimore Checkerspot, Common Buckeye, Painted Lady Viola sororia-Meadow Fritillary, Great Spangled Fritillary, Variegated Fritillary False Nettle (Boehmeria cylindrica)-Red Admiral Sorry for the long list, but I thought it might help others. Yes, I remember reading that the cats in one area might like a certain type of plant but not in another. That's why I'm trying to have a few bases covered by trying to plant at least two kinds of plants for each species I want to attract here, what I already have or kinds that are supposedly in the area. I sure hope that I can get some BC's here so I can report back what kind of plant(s) they like here. Like you, I don't have a lot of experience either since I haven't been planting for the butterflies/cats. I also feel like I'm probably going a bit overboard with the host plants but this is addicting! lol

I've so enjoyed reading through this tread. My thanks to all who contributed and who take time to plant for the wildlife. Sherry, couldn't help but relate to your story regarding your blackberry canes. I, too, have been fighting the spread of Blackberry canes. I don't know if they were planted by the prior owner or by the neighbor behind me but even with me cutting each cane over and over during the growing season, they had spread so badly they were even beginning to show up all over my small grassy area in the backyard, not to mention the garden beds. Strong canes with terrible thorns that catch at fabric and skin, no matter how carefully the canes are handled. Last year I could see I was losing the battle so I purchased brush killer and carefully sprayed in the spring with the first spring flush of growth, everywhere I could spray without hitting other plants (I used a tall hollow cone to try and contain the spray to each cane). I managed to set back the growth somewhat but couldn't eliminate everything and managed to also kill spots in my lawn. Didn't want to attempt that process again but with this spring's blackberry cane again sprouting all over, I decided to try something new. I cut each growing cane I could reach down to about 6 inches above ground, soaked a cotton ball in full strength brush killer, placed the cotton ball on top of the fresh cut, covered it with a plastic sandwich baggie and used a rubber band to hold all in place. I am proud to say the cane's are dying, even the ones growing up into my neighbors flower beds, where I couldn't place cotton balls. I'm hopeful that with a season of doing this, I can get rid of the underground roots that spread so far and wide. Blackberries are wonderful but for a small city lot, some can be terribly invasive and destructive. Of course, I would not place these covered, soaked cotton balls in an area where pets or small animals might roam. I don't know if wild animals would sense the danger but I doubt if domesticated pets would know to leave them alone. I've wondered if an inverted flower pot placed over each cut cane, with a heavy rock on top, would be enough of a deterrent to keep animals from investigating? My hope is this season will see the end of the blackberry canes on my property! :-) Mary

I almost gave up on Ceanothus americanus, but I persisted. I don't remember how many I planted before one made it, but now it is several years old and looking great. It gets nibbled on, but I've never found any caterpillars. I found a blue cultivar--not native to US--called Marie Bleu and planted it next to the NJ tea. It is very beautiful in the spring with blue flowers. Both are thriving and worth the struggle to get them going. If I were to do it again, I would plant several of the NJ Teas to have a mass planting. They are not a large shrub. Love that the leaves were used as a replacement for tea by the colonists!