I agree with you Carol that people here have been so inspiring and I've learned more here than I did in a long time.

I'm starting trees because of various butterfly caterpillars using them for their food. If the seeds I got from people and a few places online germinate, I should have sassafras, wafer ash, and paw paw trees for the butterflies. I also bought small wild cherry trees and someone gave me a couple small black willow trees, which are post host plants for butterfly caterpillars. I hope I live to see all of my trees get butterfly cats! Ha. I honestly don't know how fast the trees grow but if the other trees grow at the same rate as the paw paw seeds I planted last year, I figure I'll be 120 years old by the time they're 20 years old. lol That's why I decided to purchase two small paw paw trees this year on ebay. For the few dollars that a tree costs, I figure I probably bought myself 5 years worth of growth. I think that paw paws are slower than a lot of other trees though. I still want to get some poplar trees sometime and then I think I'll probably have all of the trees that I want.

As far as vines go, I got two pipevines last year and planted some seeds of it this year that I got from someone and hope that they do well and hope that I get some pipevine swallowtail butterflies here someday and they'll lay their eggs on the vines. Other vines I'm growing from seeds this year are cardinal climber vine for the hummingbirds and sweet peas for whatever likes them (I'm not sure, but I think the flowers are pretty). I think vines and trees are definitely worth trying. Sure, plant those maple seeds if you like that tree. I say whatever makes you happy, plant it and your yard will soon look like a jungle like probably most of the yards of people on this forum. ;-) Have fun!
Cathy

Thanks caterwallin,

I am starting a butterfly garden this year, most of the seed i have sown is for them, it is nice to know about the trees,i looked on the butterfly forum, but they go mostly by latin"i think>names of plants, which does not help me at all,:0),i only know most plants by their common name.This forum has helped me a lot.Every one is so down to earth,which us newbie's need.

Wafer Ash,huh?I did read some where on a past post about someone wanting that,i was not sure if it was a tree or a plant,don't laugh!I will see about that for zone 5,the other tree's you mentioned also.Pipevine?I have not seen that at any of the stores,i am waiting for a couple of seed catalogs,hope they get here pretty soon.
We have removed about 35-40 scrub trees from our back yard last year, and are slowly replacing them with nice understory trees.I only have a few so far,$$$$$$,you know,lol

Carol

Hi Carol, I started a Crab-apple tree from seed about 5 years ago, and it bloomed last summer for the first time and left 5 or 6 little apples for the birds to enjoy in the fall. It is at least 5ft tall now. It is not identical to its parent but is beautiful to me.

I have started other trees from seed, but lost them over the winters. I guess I didn't give them the proper protection. The ones that come to mind are Crepe Myrtle, Redbud, Dogwood, and Catalpa.

I have harvested and sown and traded huge amounts of seeds from Witch Hazel, but none have ever germinated for me. I don't know whether or not anyone else has had any success with seeds they got from me; I really would love to know the answer.

Mary

Hi, Carol:
Last spring I started checking under red maple trees. Sure enough, in a shopping center I found a baby red maple, spouting from a whirly seed, which I easily uprooted and brought home in a paper cup from the Panera.
This tree would have been killed by a blanket of mulch later in the Spring by the landscaping company, but now it is happily growing in my yard, protected by a wire plant holder.
I'm also attempting to grow native shrubs, huckleberries and laurel from seed and am prepared to wait a long time for germination. I've heard some trees and shrubs can take months, even close to a year! So never give up.

And check under the trees at your shopping centers! Save those babies!

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

Thanks every one,

I am planing to sow my Maple seeds today,i love the Catlapa tree, when i was small,we had a HUGE one in our back yard, a good memory.
One i want to get this year is Kousa Dogwood,i really like the shape, and the birds love them as well.

Yesterday i was buying some fresh flowers and outside the bulding was a really big shrub, don't know the name of it, but it the one that is all twisty and curly,FULL of SEEDS,i know they would let me have some, but i don't know if they would grow?What do you think?Should i get a few? Oh, one last thing, should i plant the seed in a gallon pot,or start out smaller?

Carol

Carol

My motto when I see seeds, is plant it..the worse thing that can happen is It doesnt grow...I always start out in a small container, and keep going to a larger one..I feel the plant grows better this way..i am sure more "experts" will chime in...
Good luck growing, and have fun with it !! The worst thing that can happen is you have lots to share..

Your right flwrs,ha ha,thank si will get some seed next time i go that way.

caterwallin:thanks for that information,i did look it up,a really nice site.I have learned from this sit that a name really does matter,Tiffy tought me that meadow rue is not the plant that i wanted,i thought rue was rue,lol,so i do get it,it takes alot of re-reading.Actually, i have learned a lot from this sit, it seems like most every one here plants to some degree for the butterflies.Man, you know a lot!What kind of Bflies do you get?

Can i order that pipevine from Sunlight Garden?Did you start yours from seed?

I really like trees with distinct bark,and foliage.I did copy your e-mail address ,i may have a few more q about butterflies, thank you,Carol

Carol, See, youve learned lots about butterflies and plants, maybe even some stuff you didnÂt want to know! ;-) I donÂt know if I know a lot or not, but I know a lot more than I did before I joined GW a couple years ago and started hanging out with those Latin nerds. Lol TheyÂre really a great bunch of people, just like everyone here is so nice and helpful. Oh boy, do you really want to know all of the butterflies I get? YouÂll be sorry! Lol Well, here goesÂ.Monarch (I raised over 500 last yearÂwoo hoo!), Black Swallowtails (I have some overwintering on our back porch), American Lady, Great Spangled Fritillary, Meadow Fritillary, Variegated Fritillary, Silver-spotted Skipper, Dun Skipper and probably half a dozen skippers that I have not IDÂd yet, Mourning Cloak, Red Admiral, Cabbage Whites (who doesnÂt get them!), Clouded Sulphur, Common Checkered Skipper, Common Wood Nymph, Eastern Comma, Eastern Tailed Blue, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Orange Sulphur, Pearl Crescent, Question Mark, Red-spotted Purple, Spicebush Swallowtail, and I think thatÂs it unless I missed somebody. IÂm hoping that by adding more host plants this year, including some trees that I mentioned, that IÂll be able to lure more in to my place. ItÂs so much fun to raise them! So far IÂve only gotten to raise the Monarchs and Black Swallowtails, but I hope to get more kinds to raise in addition to those. I have about 150 milkweed plants outside, so I guess that would explain why I got so many Monarchs last year. I added 100 swamp milkweed plants last year, but I must say that I had more eggs on the tropical milkweed. I also have 20 tropical milkweed in one-gallon pots (I brought them in over the winter), and I have 56 swamp milkweeds sitting outside in 3-gallon pots. IÂll put the potted plants inside my butterfly cage that I built last year; that will protect them from predators. Hey, IÂm not the only nut! There are others who have built cages to keep their caterpillars in to feed them! Lol

My pipevines that I got from Sunlight Gardens were bought as plants. I donÂt think that they sell any seeds of anything; itÂs all plants. The pipevines are $10 for a quart container. No, I didnÂt know that off the top of my head, I just looked it up. IÂm not sure if anyone online sells pipevine seeds or not. Prairie Moon Nursery doesnÂt sell those seeds, but they have lots of other seeds and plants that host various types of butterfly caterpillars.

IÂm not really familiar with trees that much to know which ones have distinctive bark and foliage and which ones donÂt, so I canÂt say what IÂd get in that case. I just buy mine because theyÂre host plants for certain types of butterflies. Gotta have those butterflies! :)

caterwallin,

Is the spice bush the same a Korean Spice viburnium,or a different spice bush?

Are all of these plants from seed, execpt for the pipevine.
You have a lot of different milk weed,will i be able to find this in seed?

Thanks,Carol

Carol,
The Latin name of the spicebush is Lindera benzoin. I got several last year from someone on ebay, but I don't remember who. I don't really know if any of the online nurseries sell it or not. You can do a search on there if you're interested in getting one or more, or you can go to the link I've included below, which takes you to the spicebush on the Sunlight Gardens website.

Yes, except for the bushes, vines, and trees, I've started almost everything from seed. While I'm thinking of it, I guess the Ruta graveolens is almost like a small bush; it only gets 2-3 feet tall. I started it from seeds that I got from someone on ebay last year. There are other bushes I'm starting this year from seed like New Jersey Tea, American Beauty Berry, and Blue Vitex. Only the first one is a host plant. The second one I bought with the birds in mind, and the third for a butterfly nectar plant. I'm planting so many things this year and starting a veggie garden and keep adding to my list of things that I want to grow that I'm hoping I'll be able to get everything done. I sent you an email explaining other things.
Cathy

I am also interested in plants for wildlife, including pollinators, birds, and insects. And I'm interested in growing primarily native plants. Winter sowing is great because you can't necessarily find many of these plants at the nursery!

Learning the botanical names for these plants is important so you can obtain the correct seeds. Caterwallin explains very well why in relation to butterfly gardening. For gardening with native plants, it is important because some species in a genus are native to North America and some are not. For example, there are native species of honeysuckle vine, like trumpet honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) but there is also an invasive and problematic species that comes from Japan (Lonicera japonica).

It's a challenge to learn the botanical names, it's a little like learning a 2nd language, but it gets a lot easier with time. Figure I gotta use my brain to keep it sharp! :)