Cathy, just above the plants with photos there is a list that says she has dictamnus albus var. rubra....when available. I don't think it really matters, because down at the bottom where she lists host plants she lists just "dictamnus".

After checking GRIN (Germplasm Resources Information Network), apparently the species name "fraxinellus" is synonomous with "albus" and is actually a common name applied to gas plant).

It is in the rutaceae family, which is what the giant swallowtails use for host plants, so I wouldn't worry about it too much since the difference between the two (albus and fraxinellus) is none. Rubra is just descriptive of the flowers, which means that it will bloom with red flowers. Albus means white in latin. So if you're getting D. albus var. rubra, you are getting the one with red flowers. There is also distamnus albus var. purpureus, which means purplish flowers.

Susan

That's a good website, Cathy!
I'm really interested in the gas plant. I'd never heard of it until I saw it mentioned off and on on this forum.
I'm going to look it up!
MissSherry

Susan, Thanks for clearing that up because I was becoming majorly confused (even more than usual :)). Now I know that albus and fraxinellus are the same thing. I didn't realize how long it takes that plant to bloom...I think I read that it blooms the third year. Holy cow! Talk about a late bloomer! Ha. I wish I could find the plant around somewhere this summer, but I highly doubt it. Even the nursery that gets plants that are geared towards butterflies more than anyone else in the area, they don't even sell it. I stopped in today and asked since I was up that way anyway coming back from taking our daughter up to her apartment at college. They said they haven't sold it before but she'd look into it. So we'll see if she makes any headway or not. I would just LOVE to have some GST butterflies and cats here someday! It's one of my favorite ones, along with Black Swallowtail, Zebra Swallowtail, Pipevine Swallowtail, Monarch, Baltimore Checkerspot,..oh heck, there are too many to mention. I'd end up with at least 20 or 30.

Sherry, I'm glad you like the website. I do too! You can't be more interested in the gas plant than I am! :) I think I'll send to J.L. Hudson for some of the seeds. Here I thought I'd have everything all ready to plant outside once it's safe to plant things outside, but here I am still buying seeds. There are just so many for different kinds of butterflies. I kept finding about more and more and it's kind of become an obsession to get as many as I can to try to get as many butterflies as I can. They'll have so many plants here this year they'll go nuts! Maybe the perennials won't do much this year, especially the ones that I don't even have yet, but next year should be a really great year. Oh, I think this year will be better than last year, but I just bet it won't be as good as next year when the perennials will be bigger. I heard of the gas plant before, but I didn't know about its relationship to butterflies. I thought it was just another flower. There are so many different flowers when you go to the stores it gets overwhelming at times. I just love flowers and can spend hours looking at them. Who knows, maybe Lowe's would even get something that the gas plant in. Last year I thought they had been more geared towards butterfly gardens than other years. I also notice that stores around here are selling Butterfly Weed. I would still like to see more host plant seeds sold in local stores. I can only think of a few like that one and parsley and dill. There are some they sell that I'm not sure if they will host anything or not, like the lupines. I'll have to wait and see. I have a feeling this is going to be a great year for us and the butterflies! I'm really raring to go!
Cathy

The only problem with Rose Franklin's website, is that she is limited to the number of states she can ship plants to, and we, in the south, are not one of them. Darn! Her plants are reasonably priced, too.

Cathy, gas plant is a notoriously slow grower. That may be why they don't carry it in a lot of nurseries, and because it is fussy about transplanting. I do know a guy from another forum that grows it in North Carolina, though, so don't despair. It is very hardy and it is a perennial. There are a lot of perennials it takes a few years for them to bloom.

Susan

Susan, Oh, so she can only send to certain states then? It probably said that somewhere and I didn't notice it. I don't know the laws about who can ship plants where, and the same thing with butterflies. If I'd decide to buy any butterflies or eggs someday (I'd rather get them on my own if I can though), I have no idea where those places that raise butterflies can ship to or what butterflies they'd be able to ship. I want to plant some Paw Paw trees someday and would just LOVE to get ZSTs here. If it's possible to buy them, I just might do that. One thing I know I don't have to buy is Monarchs since I had plenty of them last year. Since I'll have a lot more milkweed outside (and inside) this year, I'd think that I should be able to get even more than I had last year. I raised 70 cats. I told my husband that this year I wouldn't mind having 200, but the mamas will have to cooperate with me and lay eggs on my plants.

Yes, I also think Rose Franklin's plants are reasonably priced. I could just kick myself for not buying those gas plant seeds when I saw them in my area before. I guess I'll just order some from that J.L. Hudson, the one you gave me the link for, and it will be a waiting game until the plants bloom. I think every perennial that I planted last year bloomed that same year. The Butterfly Weed packet said 365+ days to bloom and so did the packet of hollyhock seeds, but they both bloomed that same year when I just started them from seed. I guess hollyhocks are biennials, but still, they bloomed sooner than it said they would, which I thought was great. No Painted Ladies or Common Checkered Skippers were around though to even deposit eggs on them, but I'm going to continue to grow them. I had wanted to go to mostly all perennials, but then I kept seeing people saying about certain plants that are such good buttefly attractants, so I kept getting more annuals and ended up with more than I was going to, but oh well. I'm sure the butterflies will be happy that I did! :)

That makes sense why nurseries don't really carry the gas plant very much since it is so slow growing. Hmmm...if it's fussy about transplanting, I wonder if I should grow the seeds in peat pots? I don't have any and would have to go and buy some. I think that plant looks pretty from the pictures I've seen on the Internet.

I was outside today digging garlic out of the flower beds. I have to keep a pace so I don't get behind because two or three weeks from now I'll be very busy planting. Are you saying that you have almost all of your plants planted already??!! If that's the case, you sure do move faster than I do.

Cathy

Yes, I finished up most of them this morning. I still have the conradina and aronia (chokeberry) to go. That's it!

There are perennial hollyhocks if you are interested in them. One is call the fig-leaf hollyhock, and another is alcea rugosa. I think you can find seeds of these on the net, too, and J.L. Hudson may very well have them.

Do you have some peat pots on hand? If you do, that's fine, but when you go to transplant them, score them on 4 sides because I've heard that they don't entirely degrade in soil.

If you don't have peat pots - use toilet paper rolls (the cardboard innards) and put soil in them. Stand them up in the bottom of a milk jug cut in half (use the lower half) for support. You can safely plant these without any other care. You can also use paper towel rolls (cut them in 3rds), or wrapping paper rolls (cut in several slices, at least about 4" deep). You are only limited to your imagination. You can also make paper pots from newspaper. Just google paper pots and you'll get several sites with instructions on how to do it.

Rose Franklin does deliver to PA, but not to us here in the south (MissSherry and I).

Susan

Susan, Wow, you sure are way ahead of me with your planting. I can't plant anything outside yet because our weather isn't warm enough. It was beautiful here yesterday, in the 70's and sunny. Today it's sunny but will probably be 15 deg cooler and tomorrow cooler and then the next week will just be miserable, in the 20's and 30's. :( So I have to get outside today while I can. I'm working on that butterfly cage (painting it). That will be a several day process and because of the weather, I probably won't get back to doing it again for at least another week. I also want to dig out some of the darn garlic that's coming up all over the place.

I'll have to look at those perennial hollyhocks. I don't know if I'll get them or not. I seem to have pretty many things now for certain butterflies and I know I don't need anything else for BSTs for sure. :) I have several things for Painted Ladies, so I probably won't get any more hollyhocks this year, but who knows, maybe down the line someday I will. I think I am going to order some Gas Plant seeds from J.L. Hudson because it's next to impossible to find that anywhere in stores. I even had some of my birding friends look in stores for me and they couldn't find those seeds either, so J.L. can expect an order from me someday soon.

I forgot about your toilet roll method of starting plants! That's a great idea and cheaper than buying peat pots. No, I don't have any. I had been thinking about buying some to put the gas plant seeds in but now I won't have to, and I'll have plenty of time to save up some toilet rolls and paper towel rolls by the time the seeds actually get here. :) I probably won't get those started until about the middle of May or so, so I hope they'll have enough time to grow this year yet. Maybe I should keep them inside and plant out next year?? I should have the room indoors for them until then because surely I won't be planting as much outside next year as I am this year!

I'm glad I don't have to buy landscape fabric because that is just too much for me to do. It seems like most everyone on here recommends not to use it for my perennials I'm planting, so I'm not even going to buy it. If I do buy anything, it will be cow manure and peat moss.

Going outside now to work...thanks for the tips!

Cathy

About the gas plant-I had one plant last year that was blooming sized, and more seeds planted. I think I got the seeds from JL Hudson. I didn't know at the time that they were host for the Giants, I just liked the plant because it is lemon scented, and I would stroke the leaves everyday on my way to the mailbox. I also didn't know that it can cause contact dermatitis in some people. It doesn't affect me, but best to be careful as it can cause blisters for some folks. Anyway, one day I noticed that suddenly the plant looked half eaten, and found 6 cats munching away. They ended up eating it very quickly and Ellen Horning at Seneca Hills Nursery had the plants in stock. I told her the situation, and she shipped me more plants in time to save the cats! She has wonderful plants and excellent service. Seeds do take a long time to germinate.

Lucky you that you got the plant and didn't even know that it hosts GSTs! :) I'm sending my order to J.L. Hudson today or else it will soon be Halloween and I won't have my plants planted. lol Like you said, I bet it really smells nice! I read that it's lemon-scented, and that would be another nice thing about it, and I also think that the flowers are pretty. I had read about it causing skin problems with some people and that's why I had been reluctant to get it before, but then somebody said that she is an allergic person too like I am but she didn't have any problems with it at all. I guess I'll just have to wait and see. Even if I would find out that I'm allergic to it, I could just wear a long-sleeved shirt and gloves if I'm collecting cats off of it, but that won't be for awhile anyway and maybe not at all. I don't know how common that butterfly is in this area. Oh gosh, I'd be so worried if I'd get cats on it right away before it's big enough to host any! I'm glad that Ellen Horning came to the rescue. I'd have been worried for sure.