Susan, The feeling is mutual! :-) I always appreciate when anyone helps me out with butterfly gardening, and I've been trying to pay it forward. I'm sure that you'll agree that butterfly gardening is so rewarding it really makes a person glad that he/she was inspired to help our winged friends. Maybe I'll have to cross my fingers for you to get Pipevine Swallowtails this year. I just love raising them and they love that Aristolochia macrophylla. I have so much now (no complaint there) that sometimes I'll take a section that's a couple feet long and put it in a big plastic storage bin (clear, of course) on top of newspaper. Add the cats and you have a caterpillar city. It's so comical how they scurry along on the vines; they really look like they're on a mission! Out of all of the types of cats that I've raised, those are the quickest to go wandering around and trying to escape when I'm changing out their container and am looking away just for a brief time. They can really get those little legs/prolegs going! Out of all of the butterfly caterpillars to raise, if I had to pick just one favorite, it would be the Pipevine Swallowtail. It's hard to narrow it down, though, to pick a favorite adult for its beauty. As far as I'm concerned, there is no such thing as an ugly butterfly, and there are so many beautiful ones. I really hope that all of us can get a chance to help out the Monarch this year. I'm really concerned about their future! My DD (she's 28 yo) is quite enthusiastic about the prospect of helping to raise them this year. She knows that their numbers are MUCH below previous years and wants to do all she can to help them, and so do I, and I'm sure others on here feel the same way. So I truly hope that everyone on the forum and other people get a chance to help the Monarchs this year. I assume that you've raised Tiger Swallowtails then since you've had them there. I don't know if they need special care or what but I had a chance just one time to raise one when I found it on a tulip poplar that I had planted in a 5-gallon pot. I was so excited that I actually was getting to raise one, but then it died. Is there a special "secret" for caring for Tiger Swallowtails? I think they're so cute with those "eyes". Another one I like for that reason (one of the reasons) is the Spicebush Swallowtail. Even though I've had Lindera benzoin bushes for at least five years now, I've never seen any SBST cats on them. I do get the butterflies here though every single year. Perhaps they go into the woods that's beside us and lay on any sassafras trees that might be in there (can't look because the owner has No Trespassing signs up). You get a nice variety of butterflies there. Who cannot like spring and summer if they see butterflies! :-) I'd love to get more sulphurs here, so I'm going to try to get Cassia hebecarpa and Camaecrista fasiculata started here. I didn't start any seeds yet, but I'm getting there. I'm just behind on things this year. I started a few perennials, but they're all from seeds that I harvested here in the fall, just replacing some plants that died out. I just sent to Swallowtails Garden Seeds for my annuals, so I'll be excited when they get here and I can get those in milk jugs that I saved over the winter. They have a really nice variety of seeds, but I was disappointed that they no longer have the 'Bells' series of snapdragons. That's the kind that I had here the two years that I found Common Buckeye cats on them (2011 and 2012). I hope that they'll like the 'Twinny' ones that I bought from SGS. I might even hop on over to the greenhouse a few miles away (not yet though) and check out to see what kinds she has. You're lucky that the butterflies you get like your portulacas and pentas. They ignore them here, but I still think that they're pretty flowers. They also pretty much ignore the Joe Pyeweed, but it's such a pretty, unusual flower that I have it here anyway. I might eventually take it out if it doesn't start getting more action...depends on what mood I'm in at the time. I'm happy with probably all my other plants after much trial and error over the years. What works for one person doesn't necessarily mean it will work for another. I'm so excited about spring coming, it seems I can't quit typing! *Hee hee* This post to give you my email address got pretty wordy, but I love to talk about butterflies. Anyway, I would be most happy to send seeds to you. Please email me at yomamab2002 at yahoo dot com so I can get your address. Thanks! Cathy

Here's another tidbit... IF you have a particular butterfly that happens to be ovipositing in your yard on a regular basis (let's just say, she seems to like your host plants!) then she may just be a creature of habit. If you find eggs on the plants in a certain area (and you've taken them off those plants) then go BACK to that area again. Chances are quite HIGH that she's gone back to that area to oviposit! Having raised many butterflies from having collected eggs in my own yard, I've noticed this pattern over and over and over again. It is most interesting to me that a butterfly will oviposit in the same region repeatedly. The same pattern also occurs with WHERE on the plant a butterfly likes to oviposit. For example, usually, a Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) will oviposit on the tops of Passiflora leaves or on the little tendrils, right? WELL, I've had certain mamas that have had this habit of ovipositing ONLY on the undersides of flower blossoms! So, this gets me checking the blossoms. It's all just happenstance, of course...and if I happen to spot an egg in some weird locale, then I just start looking in areas like that for others. I've learned, over the years, that butterflies are much like humans and particularly like young children. Each is MOST unique and will do things in their OWN way and in their OWN time. So, expect the unexpected. And, drink a lot of wine. tee-hee! They will drive you nuts.

Linda, what is the botanical name for Sicklepod? There are so many sennas and I was just wondering. Also, for some reason my Verbesina enceliodes just wilted and died. There are still some flowers on the top of it. I am trying to let them mature so I can collect the seed or at least they will self-sow. But, I don't know if the plant is going to make it until then. It's like one day it was absolutely gorgeous and the next day the leaves were just drooping on the entire plant. I suspect some kind of root rot, and next year, I may just plant it in a pot as it will probably survive the winter in a pot, no? Or, I need some more sand for drainage in the soil it is in. It is growing right behind the lavendar, though, and lavendar requires very sharp drainage. However, with all the rain we've had this year, parts of the lavendar are experiencing die back, too. It is also planted adjacent to lantana 'Miss Huff' and passiflora incarnata 'Incense'. Maybe there is something in the roots of these plants that the Crownbeard dislikes? I have plenty of sennas right now, between the Xmas Cassia (unless it gets killed B4 the seeds ripen. Also, the Partridge Pea (which is dying back also), and the Wild Senna (hebecarpa). I went out this morning and couldn't find the darned chrysalis amongst the stems of Xmas Cassia. I was panicking! The 3 other CS's are eating fine. Finally, I found it on the floor of the porch, undamaged. The fall it must have taken was only a few inches, so I'm hoping it was not damaged. Oh, no! Susan

Actually, Angie, when all my cloudless sulphur cats are in their early instars, they're solid yellow. As they go into the later instars, if they're eating all or mostly leaves, they'll be green, but if they're eating all flowers, they'll be yellow with the blue stripes. It looks like the one in your picture is late instar, though - I've never had a late instar CS cat that looked like that. I agree, we need a lepidopterist? (if there's a such specialty among entomologists) to tell us how this happens. Sherry