Your garden is looking beautiful, Sharron!
MissSherry
P.S. - with your name, you've got to be a butterfly nut! :) My real name - the name on my birth certificate - is Sherron. They spelled it that way, because they were naming me after my Daddy, whose middle name is Sherrod. The name Sherrod goes back in the family to at least 1725, the birth year of my (Virginia) ancestor Sherrod Sims who fought in the French and Indian War under George Washington!

Some you might consider, and since the areas are small, you probably want a small tree, are Senna (Cassia) alata, the candlestick tree. These stay beautifully green in the hottest weather, and are a host plant for the sulphur butterflies.

Another is a Pawpaw tree for the Zebra Swallowtails.

Have fun! Your garden looks outstanding!

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Florida Butterfly Host Plants/Trees

hey sharron,
love what you have done so far. i agree with you, you do need some height with a tree of some sort.
can't wait to see yours and mine fill in over the summer and start attracting those beautiful butterflies.
by the way, i hope i am not dissapointing you but i am a "he". fern is short for fernando.
fern in fort myers

Fern, gender is not a problem...just glad to share the joy of butterflies with you. There is a good nursery in Davie that carries lots of butterfly plants if you ever get down this way. I sit eagerly and await the passersby. Feel a bit like someone waiting for a pot of water to boil! Funny how aware I am now of butterflies everywhere I go and I really watch them to see what plants they like. We should check in and see how the gardens are going in a month or so...

Sharron in West Ft Lauderdale

I'm in Fort Lauderdale to. And also have a butterfly garden. A very productive one at that. I have a senna tree it's only about 3 foot high at the moment, but a Cassia is the way to go if you want a great tree. There is one at my daughter's school and it's at least 12 feet high if not bigger. I found cats on it last week and took them in to add to my Monarchs, polydamas swallowtails, cloudless sulphurs (which came off my senna) and gulf frit. They keep me busy cleaning and feeding them, but they're great to raise and my kids love when we finally release them as butterflies. Good luck with gardening.

Oh and I forgot to add, if you haven't been to Butterfly World at Tradewinds park you should run there. That's where I get most of my plants, I started with 3 hosts and 4 nectars and it's exploded into something crazy. My stepdaughter came up with my user name and it identifies my perfectly, leave it to teenagers. Anyway you should defintely try Butterfly World, The prices are not bad at all and they're plants are extremely worth it. When I started my garden only 3 months ago, I thought it would take forever to see a butterfly and about 2 weeks into it I had more than I had ever seen in my backyard. At least 5 different speices so far and more cats that I can handle. So try there if you have'nt already, also Metro Gardens is interesting. Which nursery in Davie do you go to I live so close to the area I loved to try it.

Dana

Dana, I've been looking at the cassias, and it's really between that and stoppers.

I go to Alexander's Nursery on Flamingo Road. They are very helpful when you go, but you have to really know what you want (they have everything). Everything is not very user friendly, not marked, it is really more like a farm. They are very friendly though.

Thanks to you and everyone else for the complements. What a nice groups of people here!

Sharron in West Ft Lauderdale (Plantation)

Thanks Sharron, I'll probably go by there this week. My husband wants a nice tree to complete the garden. I've gotten him butterfly garden crazy too.(lol)

Nice photos, amazing how everything look nice and neat,wait for those spring showers and everything grows like crazy.
I'm west of Miami-Dade almost at the county line, we can say we are almost "neighbors", I have extra senna alata (cassia) seeds, let me know if you want some.