Mail Order Natives has wonderful native plants - many of them host plants - for wonderful prices! I haven't ordered from Amy in a while, so I'll have to check out her website again! :)
Sherry

Susan,

Glad you ran across this. I have been trying to find them on ebay and they aren't on there this year. This is a wonderful deal. I love their plants--they're always big and in great condition.

Sandy

Susan, thanks for posting this, uh, I think :) I didn't order the package deal, but I did place an order for 2 more passion vines and 2 more pipevines. The package deal was better, but I just don't have spots for trees and big bushes at the moment. Darn, if that silly, huge, gigantic silver maple would fall down (and not take anything down with it!), I would have so much more space!!

I wish I could get OGE to agree to take the whole tree out, it would save both of us some hassle.

Lisa

Amy should thank you, Susan - I placed an order, too.
I ordered a 'Guthrie' plum tree, a tulip tree, a cardinal flower plant, an eastern mayhaw, and an ironweed plant.
I've got so many passionvines and pipevines - the pipevines are now sprouting - that I skipped them this time, but for those who need Passiflora incarnata, she carries it, also Aristolochia tomentosa.
Sherry

Sherry is it possible to have too many passion vines? :) I've got lots and lots of chain link fence... The morning glories will have to fight it out with them.

Lisa

I had thought about ordering the larval package about a month ago but DH says no more trees! So then I thought about a PawPaw and a Passionvine, finally settled just on the Passionvine. Too afraid the PawPaw won't do here. Man, the cost of shipping is more than the plant! $10 for shipping for a $6 plant!

Susan, That's great that you ordered those host plants, and I hope that you get cats to dote over. ;-) It looks like a great collection and if I wouldn't already have those plants, it would be mighty tempting to order them.

Two times I got bareroot paw paw trees online and none of them lived; I never even saw any sign of life. I'd recommend that people get them potted like this, judging from my experience anyway. I got some paw paw seeds from someone on ebay that a friend told me about and started my own trees and am planting them in the backyard this spring. I'm so anxious to see if I can get ZSTs here! After MissSherry's experience with them, though, I'm a little leery about raising them. I also don't know if I'll be raising GSTs anymore because a large percentage of them die within the first few days. I think from now on I'll just leave them outside on their own. Maybe after my couple of wafer ash trees are bigger, I'll try raising them on those leaves. I also have very small gas plants that I planted last year, so maybe I can raise them on those (I wonder if anyone on here has ever fed them those leaves), although I don't imagine that the plants will get very big this year. I'd rather stay away from prickly ash and hercules club.

I planted several small spicebushes a few years ago but never got any cats on them. They're getting to be a nice size now, so hopefully I'll see some on them this year. I see the butterflies here each year. I've always thought that SBST cats are so cute looking. I know it's just markings, but I really like those "eyes".

I had a couple of passionvines planted outside this past summer and dug them out in September because of the weather getting colder, put them in a small pot and brought them inside. They died back over the winter and have sprouted out. I hope they get as nice this year as they did last year and grown about half a foot. P. incarnata is supposedly hardy to zone 6, which I am in, but I had some planted out in 2008 and didn't dig it out and it never grew back after the winter. So from now on I'm taking it out of the ground and bringing it inside over the winter. I think the flowers are beautiful, which is the main reason why I want to have it here. We don't get GFs here, and I've never seen a VF cat on it, although I've seen that kind of butterfly here. Maybe they laid eggs on the violets (they're only in the yard...too much for me to dig out), but there are so many that I never looked on them.

I also have pipevine that some very special person got for me several years ago. They are huge plants, so now I have the pleasure of being able to raise PVSTs, which are my favorite cat to raise! :) Those pipevine plants are A. macrophylla, and now I'll hopefully also have A. tomentosa plants growing this year. Someone from the forum had kindly offered seeds, so I got plants started and put them out in the ground with the others. I had tried to start A. serpentaria from seed, but I don't think any of those survived, but I should have plenty of other pipevine here for the cats unless that mama really goes wild with her laying eggs.

Anyway...to make a short story long...lol....I think those plants you mentioned are excellent host plants, Susan, and think that's nice that they're offered in a combo deal like that. I hope lots of people on here jump at the chance to get them.

Cathy

Even here in supposedly warm central Florida ( "ha, not this year") Incarnata is supposed to be hardy during the winter but I never had it last. It died back each year and would show up about 5 feet away from the previous year. After about 3 years, it ran out of the flower bed to grow in and I lost it. I do know a fellow that has it growing wild, (Maypops is a native here). Well, I don't know if his plants were getting overspray from the city spraying a retention pond nearby but the cuttings I rooted from him weren't good for the cats. Ended up with the mushy death like Monarchs. This guy has a nursery, and tons of butterflies but I know I won't try the passionvine again. (He wasn't selling the passionvine, he just let me dig some up).

I am also leary of trying to raise Pawpaws. There are several types that grow in our area but from what I understand, they are buggers to transplant. The root has to grow vertically, and the root may be much longer than the tiny plant your planting. I know for fruit, you have to have cross pollination. I wonder if you just want it for the butterflies, I wonder if you want it to flower too and therefore both a female and male plant and would just one tiny plant be enough to bring in a butterfly you rarely see? Doesn't sound promising.

My Wild Lime is a great host for the Giant Swallowtails. Thorny as all get out but they love it and it doesn't eat much till the last few days. They don't go to my Rue very much.

Saw three butterflies yesterday. A tiny Sulphur, a Gulf Frit, and a dark one flying high, maybe some type of Swallowtail. Guess I will be trading butterflies for my hummers soon. Sad but happy at the same time.

Lisa, you can NEVER have too many passionvines, especially P. incarnata! But what Mary said about P. incarnata is true, at least for me - they come up all over the place, never where you originally planted them. I planted seeds in containers from P. incarnata 'Alba' fruit last year, the pure white form, and also 'Incense' - the incense fruit has to have been pollinated by P. incarnata 'Alba', since that's the only passie that was blooming at the time around it. According to what I've read, 'Incense' can't pollinate itself. Hopefully, some of those seedlings will germinate soon, and I'll have grown my own.

Yesterday, one of the two zebra swallowtail chrysalides I had from last year emerged! I took pictures of it, which I'll post after I get my computer back - I'm using my husband's lap top now, and it doesn't have my camera software on it. The computer man will be adding memory to my computer. I've already released quite a few zebra swallowtails that came from chrysalides I bought from Bill Oehlke. It "bugs me" - appropriate wording, huh? - Cathy that those zebra cats from last year were such a disaster. I'd like to try again. As a matter of fact, I released one of Bill's yesterday just a few hours before I released mine - 'sure hope one is female and one is male. I've got one zebra chrysalid left, that one being the other one I raised myself. My Asimina parviflora looks to have died, which is weird, since that's the type that's native to my part of the state - the A. trilobas are coming back, and one is blooming now.

It got up into the upper 70's yesterday, I worked hard outside, and I actually got hot!! First time that's happened in a long time!

Sherry

Mary,

Here is a link to Pawpaw trees--everything you ever wanted to know and more! Pawpaws are not sexed; each tree contains both male and female parts, so all produce flowers. However, another tree is required for pollination.

I planted a pawpaw tree about 4 years ago. It is absolutely beautiful in the summer. It hasn't flowered yet, I hope it does soon. I plan on planting a second tree this year as this one doesn't seem inclined to sucker.

Sandy

Here is a link that might be useful: Pawpaw tree info

I got my first Pawpaw tree from seed. I only planted two (these are HUGE seeds), and one germinated, but it hasn't attained much size yet. I ordered my second from Mail Order Natives, and had no problem with planting it. Are you not thinking about Sasafrass, which really is a buger to transplant! Or, maybe I just got lucky?? LOL Anyway, neither is of much size yet.

I only have one Passion Vine - 'Lavendar Lady', and the only problem I have with it is the fact that it comes up sooooo late here.....usually around June. I tried P. cearulea a couple times which is supposed to be very hardy here, and it never came back in subsequent years. I really wanted the P. incarnata because I thought it might attract the VFs, which the 'Lavendar Lady' does not. But, I rarely see VFs here anyway, so maybe that's not such a bad thing. It shud definitely get GFs, which I have an abundance of every year. The GFs seem to be "hangers on" in that they don't seem to travel much from garden to garden, but stay put where their host plant is. Just my observation. But once you get one GF, they increase exponentially and you have a seemingly endless supply of the first one's progeny. I am also trying both incarnata and cearulea from seed, too, as well as Sasafrass. I have heard that seedlings have a better survival rate than suckers (from MissSherry I think).

I have several Pipevines, A. tomentosa, A. serpentaria, A. macrophylla, and A. clemetitis. I don't seem to do well with the pipevines for some reason. The clematitis is finally beginning to become a well established planting, but for gosh sakes, it only took about 6 years! So, I'm adding another and maybe I'll have 50 pipevines before it all ends.

Mary, I don't know why Pawpaws wouldn't do well for you, unless you think it might be because you don't have enough sustained winter chill for them??? At least they are a smallish tree, not like some of the other giant trees that other butterflies like. Same with the Ptelea trifoliata.

Oh, oh, I saw my first butterfly of the year yesterday - a Cabbage White. Poor thing was looking for food and moved on cuz I don't have anything for it...yet. Today is cloudy with rain possible in the forecast. We've had a lot of rain/snow/sleet/freezing rain this year! I'm ready for some sunny, warm days now.

Susan

I received my passionvine yesterday. I had asked her about the size of the plant in comparison to the one pictured in the picture of the larval kit and she said it would be the same size. Well it is as far as pot size but mine was much smaller as far as vine length and leaves. Mine has three small leaves and a couple just starting to form. A cutting I took from mine last fall has more than that. She assumes me it will grow quickly but if the Gfs come before the ZLWs as they usually do, it won't be enough food for them. Guess I will still be looking for more established plants at plant sales.

That new passie will grow quickly, Mary!
My plants came yesterday, too. I potted them up, and will keep the trees in pots to plant out in the fall. I have to grow them to big size, so the armadilloes can't dig them up, and deer browsing won't kill them. I may put up a protective fence that I make myself to keep them from being browsed - the critters are a real problem here.
Sherry

Yippee, got mine today, MissSherry! I guess I'm probably one delivery day behind Mississippi. The root system on the incarnata seems fine, and Mary, it is such a VIGOROUS vine, sometimes bordering on invasiveness for some folks. I don't doubt what MissSherry says, that it will grow quickly.....probably more quickly than you are anticipating.

Now, if I just get my order tomorrow from Ron (dogwooderitternet)! I just had to have that Salvia 'Hot Lips' (and shhhhh, 9 or 10 other selections). Why am I whispering - I don't have to please anyone but me, heehee!

Susan

Oops, forgot to attach a link to his Ebay site in case anyone is interested. He has some passi's too!

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Ron's Ebay Store

Mary, It sure sounds like you had a wandering passionvine that wandered right out of its bed. Being that I'm so far north (PA), I don't know if they could even get a chance to wander from one place to another. I'd be lucky to just get them to live outside at all over the winter. I think if I want them, I'll have to dug a few up every fall and bring them inside and then take them back outside the following spring. Btw, I don't blame you for not wanting to try that passionvine again for fear that it might have contaminants on for the cats.

If you decide to raise any paw paws, if I were you I'd either start them from seed like I did or buy them as potted plants, but after my experiences of getting bareroot paw paw trees in the mail without them living either time, I would NOT buy a bareroot paw paw. I suspected that I got junk both times, and I was probably right. I mentioned those times to someone who I trust to know about these things and here's what he said:
"You are right in what you said about online folks not caring sometimes. But it gets worse. What you probably bought in those big pawpaw trees is just a sucker from the roots that was yanked out of the ground with little care. Pawpaws sucker pretty freely and some people think that selling the stem with little roots is the same as selling a tree. It is not."
So, I really would recommend getting a potted paw paw tree and NOT a bareroot one. When I received the paw paw trees in the mail, they didn't even look like they had a root, but I thought maybe that's the way they're supposed to look. I think it's just like that person told me and that they were just yanked out and were suckers off of other trees, not an individual tree. Besides, I have since seen online a pic of a person using a backhoe to dig up a small paw paw tree that was only a few feet high. It was a shock to see just how far a person would have to dig to get all of the root out of the ground.

Yes, for fruit you have to have two trees for pollination if you want to get fruit from the trees, which I do. My original reason for wanting the trees was just for the Zebra Swallowtails, but the more I read about paw paws, I thought that they sure do sound good! Anyway, there's my paw paw advice FWIW, and I'm not sure if one tree would bring in the butterflies or not. I plan on having at least half a dozen.

That's great that you saw some butterflies. They won't be here for awhile yet.

MissSherry, That's great that one of your Zebra Swallowtails emerged! I can hardly wait to see the pictures of it. If you try raising them again, I really hope that you don't have a lot of trouble with them like last year. Hopefully it was just a bad year for them or something and that won't be commonplace whenever you raise them. That's the way it goes with the GSTs with me. It's really frustrating that they drop dead right and left. They can be right on the rue and crawl right off acting like they don't even recognize it as a host plant. I even tried putting them back on, but they crawled off again. If they die, they almost always die when they're very small. I'm looking forward to the day (more like year) when my couple of wafer ash trees will be big enough to support a fair number of cats. I want to see if the plant improves their survival rate. I also started gas plants last year, and it will be interesting to see if the GSTs lay any eggs on them. I don't recall anyone on here saying that they raised any on gas plants.

It's supposed to be in the 70's and low 80's here for about 5 days starting on Thursday. Yay!!!

Cathy