It's a beautiful day here in Northern California. Suppose to be 78 this weekend. I'm so excited Sunday is daylight savings time.

My butterfly bushes are growing like crazy. The yarrow is coming back and the milkweed is growing. I hope the ladybugs come soon to keep those dratted aphids in check. Last year the infestation was the worst I'd ever seen.

Sowed some seeds in the yard this morning. Going to try and grow mallow this year.

Worked on a new bed for more flowers. Layered compost, chicken manure and tilled the soil. Every bone in my body hurt, it was an Advil kinda day.

No butterflies yet but I'm sure they'll be making an appearance soon.

Happy Spring Miss Sherry!

Beautiful the last few days here - cool in the mornings - low 50's but by noon if is sleeveles weather. I have been out for the last 4 days weeding and transplanting. I have dug up one flowerbed that had some old roses and that I had used for nectar plants the last couple of years. It butts up against my pool screen and is about 50' by 30". I am going to plant my Sundance and Tithonia Mexican Sunflowers there and some Cut and Come Again zinnias, all that I have started from seed. I am debating putting down the weed cloth or using newspapers as a barrier but I hate not letting the plants reseed themselves. Considering how sore I am now and how my knees and shoulders hurt from what I have done so far, I am not sure I can keep up with the constant weeding.

On the backside of my pool screen, which is shaded by an oak, I had zillions of baby Polka Dot plants coming up from seed from plants I planted last year. I am digging some up and transplanting them up closer to the screen, which last year still had fern in it. I am going to also scatter seed for Coleus and Impatients on one half. If they come up fine, if not, no biggie.

Then there are my Cosmos. I think I have about a dozen different types this year that I have planted seed for in Jiffy pellets. I still have seed to scatter if these don;t make it.

And I have been trimming up my Salvias.

And then I still have a major cleanup to do for my herbs. I want to plant more in clay pots so I will have enough for the Black Swallowtails. One neighbor told me they even ate his Tarragon last year. Didn't know they would so I might get some from him to transplant.

Then there is still major weeding on the ground level and trimming to do on Plumbago, Porterweed, Reuilla, and such.
I am happy to be outisde doing this and the puppies have enjoyed the outside time too. However, Miss Andi has decided to help with the digging and of course, it is not where I want dug up! Amos wants to eat my Cosmos that are still growing and blooming from two years ago. My poor plants may have a hard time this year with the two of them!

The only butterflies I have seen are a couple of Sulphurs - one big one and one tiny guy. Did see a Gulf Frit the other day and a Monarch. Found a GF cat going into chrsyalis on my Angelonia the other day too.

Sounds like y'all are as busy outside as I am!
I started doing major cleanup in my garden, cutting back dead stuff and such - it's such a mess, it'll take me several days, maybe a week of working off and on.
I saw a little sulphur after I posted this, probably a little yellow - what a great sight!
MissSherry

Hehehe, do you really want to know about my weather here in CT Misssherry?

Right now it's 15.5 outside. Not 16, or 15, but 15.5. I love my digital thermometer.

Tommorow will be in the 20's with 30-40 mph winds.

I see on the weather channel that some of you are getting beautiful spring weather. I know it will get here sometime, but New England is always the last to warm in the spring.

I look at the Lowe's, HD, and Sears ads, which must be generated nationally, and see them promoting garden equipment and plants. I'm sure the ground will take at least a month to thaw and warm here. Plant peas on St. Patty's day? Yep, just send me over a jackhammer and I'll get right on it.

But, take cheer all ye Northerner's, Daylight savings time starts this weekend.

I've seen a few black swallowtails, yellows, and a couple buckeyes. I am waiting to trim back a couple areas until it warms up more. I have several pupae located throughout my garden that I am watching to let me know when it should be alright to trim back for Spring.

The mayapples are up and the violets are blooming everywhere. I think my favorite Azaleas got there bloom messed up from the freeze again, maybe not, we'll see.

Oh, yea, and my two Scadoxis, are blooming for the first time. I have been hoping for them to attract some pollinators, their flowers are extra large landing pads.

So far in 2007 I've seen one Monarch, two Cloudless Sulphurs, a Palamedes, and two Black Swallowtails. I also found two Giant Leopard Moth cats, and have about 8 Viceroy cats on a little potted Willow Tree. The potted trees are way behind the in-the-ground Willows in terms of putting out leaves, probably because their roots are so much colder during the freezes and cold spells. I started listing my caterpillar food seedlings that are coming up, but I lost my post, so just picture me oohing and ahing over little plant babies everywhere I walk. It makes for slow progress on chores! Plus, the new pond is distracting between the birds, the frogs and the Snapping Turtles... Happy Spring!!!!
Carol of Mystery Splash Pond

MissSherry, It sounds like you're starting to see a little action in your state...lucky! I love RSP's too and hope I can see some again this year. They're an elusive one to me though. I'll tell you what I found out here and it was by accident. I had grape jelly in a feeder to feed our orioles and saw that RSP's start to go to it. That will probably be my best way of seeing them now.

I hope the butterflies don't show up here for awhile. If they do, they're crazy...it's 6° here right now. It's supposed to get up in the 50's next week though...talk about going from one extreme to the other! I might actually get outside and be able to clean up some dead stuff if it's going to be that warm out there. Hurray!

It sounds like your plants are doing well too. I hope they bring you lots of those lovely butterfly cats that like to eat them.

Grape jelly, Cathy? I've got plenty of that in the fridge - think I'll put some out!
Sorry about your weather, Mary Ann! I it that would really drag me down to live in a place with such long winters - they're long enough here!
Carol, I haven't seen any monarchs or swallowtails, except the pipevine swallowtails I've released myself. Tiger swallowtails are usually the first ones I see, so I'm eagerly waiting them. I've got 4 palamedes chrysalides in cages on my front porch, all healthy looking - can't wait for them to emerge!
MissSherry

Too cold here in Kentucky for butterflies, but it won't be long now! Last year I put out a feeder for the fruit-juice-loving-butterflies. I just hung one of those saucer type of hummingbird feeders minus the red lid. I filled it with grape jelly, mushed-up bananas and apples that I had nuked in the microwave to get them mushy. I couldn't believe all the different species I attracted! Red-spotted purples, Mourning cloaks, Hackberries, Tawny Emperors, Viceroys, and at night a cool assortment of moths whose eyes glowed red when my flashlight hit them. I had to learn to live with the bees and flies that also visited, so I kept the feeder in the very back of my yard. I also used one of those ant guards that hang between the shepherd hook and the feeder.

Judy

OMG - I have to try that recipe for the butterflies. I always have Grape Jelly since that's what my granddaughter likes on her PBJ's.

Judy, do you just use a flashlight to see the moths at night? I've been thinking about the sheet idea, too.

Maryann - don't I know that New England is the last place to warm up? I lived just a few miles west of Boston for a couple years, and darned if I didn't think spring would NEVER arrive there. On the good side, you probably don't get as hot as we do for as long.

I discovered by watching the Mourning Cloak the other day, that they are VERY strong fliers. It was windy, mostly cloudy, and yet this MC was flying all over the place w/no sun to warm her wings plus a nice wind (15 mph). Yes, Oklahoma is known for being a very windy state. You know the song, "Oooooooooklahoma, where the winds come sweepin' down the plain....".

I hope that one day I will get to see the RSPs, too. For now, I am happy to see the butterflies I get - especially this time of year.

Susan

Susan - I've been thinking about the sheet idea too, just never got around to trying it. I took a bunch of pictures of the moths I attracted to the fruit last year....they didn't seem to mind the flash of my camera. They just kept right on eating!

Judy

I was able to get some great shots of large sphinx moths at night last year on a giant Crinum lily.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v322/wildscapes/100_5180-1.jpg

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That's a great picture of a pink-spotted hawkmoth! I got plenty of them on my moonflowers last year.
Speaking of moonflowers, I sowed some more seeds in peat pellets - moonflowers, Mexican sunflowers, more ptelea trifoliatas, dogwoods, morning glory, golden alexanders, and asclepias viridiflora. I also released another pipevine swallowtail. This one, a female, was full sized - the others I've released this year have been smaller than average.
I also bought some tomato plants at Walmart today - I'll either have tomatoes for us to eat or tomato hornworms! :)
MissSherry

And I haven't even started my tomato seeds yet! Probably I will this coming week. Since I can't set them out until the third week in May, it's no big rush!

Big thicket, that is a really beautiful picture! They must be very hard to capture on the wing.

I love the lily flower too.

I came back from Wal-Mart today with yarrow seeds, some more dill and parsley seeds too. Plus 18 Verbena plants (purple and white) in 4"pots that I guess will go in the bed with the Mexican sunflowers and zinnias. ( Hope there is room!). I also bought two packages of Canna Lilies bulbs - one yellow and one orange. They are supposed to be a larva plant for something, I seem to recall.

I also bought two new plants for me - One is called Joseph's Coat, a pretty little groundcover and Scaveola or Fan Flower - a pretty blue flower that is supposed to do well "cascading over a border or pot, rock garden", of which I have neither but it is pretty! I don't think either are particually butterfly plants.

At Lowe's the other day I did find on half price two Blazing Star plants and two Indigo Spires Salvias. They had lots of them and all they needed were a good drink to perk them up.

MissSherry,That's right, grape jelly. I hope that they like it there as much as they did here last year. I'm going to put it out again.

Susan, Your granddaughter is soon going to not be very happy with those butterflies...first she has to share the next and now the grape jelly yet! :)

Hee hee, I know Cathy. Actually she didn't mind at all. I mixed up grape jelly, a rotting banana, and some molasses and made a slurry of it, put it in a pan, with a little inverted styrofoam cup covered in it (I was afraid the butterflies might get stuck in the slurry itself), and stuck it in the yard. Will check today.

BTW - I saw two new goatweed leafwings yesterday, playing together - both males I believe, since they were very brightly colored. I tried to get pictures, but my camera was giving me problems (since fixed), but too late for pics. Will try again today.

BTG - that is a GORGEOUS picture of the pink spotted hawk moth! Wow, how I would love to be able to take photos of them, but I just haven't gotten outside after dark. I'm afraid I will step on something and fall again. If I hang a sheet, I can at least sit within a close enough distance to get to it for photos.

Susan

I saw a cloudless sulphur, a little yellow, and a simply gorgeous male leafwing! He looked newly emerged, and he actually left his wings open long enough for me to get a good look at his brilliant orange topside. When he perched with his wings up, the color was so bland I had trouble finding him - I don't know of a butterfly whose topside and underside are more differently colored, do you Susan?
MissSherry

No, I really don't. The American Snout's upperside is much more colorful than the underside, too, but the top is not nearly as colorful as the Goatweed Leafwing. I saw a female this morning (their coloration is more muted).

I saw the Mourning Cloak again this morning.

Does it seem to you that the spring butterflies are smaller than the fall? They just looked smaller, or maybe my eyesight is going.

Susan

Nothing's wrong with your eyesight, Susan, spring butterflies ARE smaller than the summer and fall forms.
MissSherry

I saw a black butterfly, but it flew past me too fast to get a positive ID - it was undoubtedly either a RSP or a PVS. I also saw a cloudless sulphur, a sleepy orange, a little yellow, and my first American lady of the season! ALs are usually the first ones to lay eggs and give me caterpillars to raise - I'll be checking the cudweed!
MissSherry

Okay now, MissSherry, remind me of what cudweed is? The latin name? Is it anaphalis?

Susan

According to the info I have Gnaphalium or Anaphalis are the latin names for Cudweed.

It's gnaphalium or, according to some authorities, gamochaeta, but it's the same plant. Antennaria is another closely related host plant for ALs, Susan. By the way Mary, when I was in Tampa, I noticed a little cudweed coming up at my daughter's house - it's the exact same type that grows here. And boy have I got a lot of it since the hurricane!
MissSherry

Oh Miss Sherry, I do hope you are right. I never thought I would like to live in the hot humid south (MD is too hot for me) but I sure am envious right now. Don't remember ever being so impatient for signs of spring.
I do have some crocus blooming and it looks like a couple touches of blue on the pulmonaria. Hope those are the beginnings of flower buds. The Lenten Roses tried blooming in Jan then got slammed by ice and snow. Daffs are showing but no signs if bulbs.
OK Y'all keep telling me about spring. I'm waiting.
BB

BB - my hellebores haven't bloomed yet either, and should have by now. Maybe they are just taking a rest this year?

The crocus has bloomed, the chionodoxa is blooming. Depends on whether your daffs are early, mid- or late blooming. The azaleas are budding out.

MissSherry - do you think it's all that sun your plants have been exposed to since the storm?

I have several things I'm planting for the PL's. Hopefully, we will see more of them and the Red Admirals this year.

Susan

Yes, the sun has hit ground and understory plants that haven't seen any rays in years, Susan! I'm sure that speeds up their blooming.
Mary, anaphalis margaritacea is related to gnaphalium/gamochaeta and antennaria, and is also a host for ALs. It's a northern plant, though, so I assume it doesn't like our southern summers.
MissSherry

BB, I'll keep posting on the butterflies as I see them for the first time this year - I'll also report on how my plants are doing. Spring is always such an exciting time!
MissSherry

Saw my 1st Mourning Cloak, yesterday. I just love spring.

Thanks everyone for posting your great spring reports. We are getting a wonderful, much needed rain as I type. :)

Linda

The rain is fantastic. According to the mesonet, Norman for a change has got the most so far today. We've needed it so bad.
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I went ahead and watered some yesterday. Much better when the rain hits already damp ground (it will soak in better without as much run-off). Everything is do dry.

Congrats on your MC, Linda. Yesterday I was bird watching and my neck is very sore. But, I saw the Cedar Waxwings for the very first time, and spotted another tiny, tiny bird high up in the trees. Couldn't really see any identifying marks, other than a thin bird, with very skinny tail feather that were shaped like a thin fan not all the way opened. I've been looking on the net, but so far, no ID.

Susan

Miss Sherry -

I just found out what Frogfruit looks like and I don't know what Cudweed looks like - just found it on my list of plants. Could you post a picture? I am sure we have it around here if I knew what I was looking for. Nothing like bringing weeds into the yard! HA!

Hehehe! Butterflyers cultivate weeds, Mary! I'll make a picture of some tomorrow.
As y'all may remember, I haven't seen any of the big silk moths since the hurricane - I saw plenty of sphinx moths last year and a good many of the smaller moths, but no lunas, regals, imperials, etc. So every night when I take the dogs out, I check out the areas around the lights looking for big moths. It's probably too early for the big moths, but I HAVE been seeing small moths every night for the past couple of weeks. I saw my first tulip tree beauty tonight, the biggest I've seen so far, on the screen of my husband's radio room door. I made this picture -
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MissSherry

Susan, does it have a white stripe near the eye? Carolina wrens are small birds that like to fan their tails.

Congrats on your Tulip tree beauty, Miss Sherry. Great pic. Hope that you are able to find some of the cooler, larger moths.

Here is a link that might be useful: Carolina wren

I couldn't see that closely, Linda. It was too high up in the tree. The feathers on the Carolina Wren do not look long enough for this bird that I saw. I checked out the wrens, knowing they were smaller birds, but nothing looked really similar, but it's hard to tell from that distance. Maybe I'll see it again. The birds have not been coming down into the yard since I've been letting one of my cats out to play. George dearly loves it outdoors, but his mere presence in the garden prevents many birds from coming closer. I'll have to leave him inside this week so I can check them out. I do have resident house wrens and was just thrilled to see the cedar waxwings, although I think I broke my neck trying. LOL! I just use a lot of Icy Hot! Hee Hee.

MissSherry - that is a beautiful moth! I just love these decorative moths! Is it a geometrid?

Susan

Yes, Susan, it's an inch worm, and it must be one of the bigger ones, because this moth was about 3" across, bigger than most. I love the patterns, too!
MissSherry