That's gorgeous Ms. Faith! That must be for the richest, most elite butterflies! :)
Sherry

Well, being new to this butterfly garden world I need to ask: What does one put in a butterfly feeder? And Ms Faith, that is very very pretty!
Lauri

Thanks for the positive feedback, Miss Sherry and kevabear. Whatever butterflies nectar in it should feel a bit on the ritzy side and after all, since they are so beautiful, they deserve to dine from the very best!

Kevabear, I got the following nectar recipe from somewhere off this forum:
Solution  4 parts water to 1 part granulated sugar
Boil for several minutes, then let cool
Serve in shallow container with absorbent material
such as paper towels, bright yellow and orange
kitchen scouring pad.
Place among your nectar flowers on post 4-6 inches
higher than tallest bloom.
Also, Linda has an excellent formula that she uses and I think she got it from one of the other participants here (can't remember who). In fact, I think it was on my first thread where I asked for help in butterfly gardening plans. It is way down near the bottom of that thread. Also, Sandy who is on this forum as well was part of that discussion.

Again, thanks for the admiration. I just had to share.

Ms. Faith

Beautiful Faith!

How did you get into giving presentations on butterfly gardening?

A few people have suggested that I should think about doing some kind of presentations. It seems like it would take a lot of organization.

Maryann in CT

Your butterfly feeder is absolutely gorgeous!

I didn't know about putting a scouring pad in a shallow bowl with sugar water (thanks for the recipe) until I saw this at the San Antonio Zoo Butterfly Garden last week.

{{gwi:462691}}

I wish the bowl had been cleaner for the picture, but oh well ... it looks well used anyway.

Faith,

What a beautiful BF feeder! I'm sure the winner of the feeder considers himself quite fortunate. Thanks for posting it so I could see it. I appologize for not responding sooner. I did another presentation yesterday. It was done on a day's notice. But, now that I'm presenting, it gets easier each time.

Maryann, I encourage you to pursue presenting about BFs. You will find it quite rewarding. It took a lot of time to prepare for the first presentation, but now I have everything ready to go. I had to make hard copies of a lot of my photos. I made albums showing life cycles, my garden as it evolved, and different BFs nectaring on various plants that I wanted to highlight. I made a handout with the top nectar and host plants for our area, keeping it to one page. I also included websites to visit, and books.

I made a powerpoint that follows my handout. I am not always able to utilize the powerpoint, but it is terrific when I present to a large group. So far, the only presentations I get "paid" for are the ones I do at the nursery. I take my pay in plants! I'm thinking about investing in a projector, which is not a cheap expenditure. If I do this, I will need to charge something for the presentations. And, my son is encouraging me to do a website. I have 2 schools where I will be presenting in May, and they have equipment available.

There is humor in BFs, so most people find the presentations entertaining as well as informative. Yesterday one of the elderly women at the presentation made the comment, "You mean he's a queer queen?" when I pointed out that the picture I was showing was a male Queen, because of the dark spots on the wings. We all rolled. She looked like such a demure little lady. Anyway, I am having a wonderful time. I thoroughly enjoy sharing about BFs and find the audiences to be great.

Go for it, Maryann!

Sandy

Oh Sandy, thanks for the chuckle. I am still giggling about the "queer Queen". That really was a good one.

Maryann, I too encourage you to pursue presenting about BFs. I would be glad to share my list of websites, which I know is nowhere complete, but may at least get you started. The people on this forum are also a wealth of information. My presentation is on Powerpoint as well. Sandy, thanks for the note about not always being able to use the Powerpoint. I have only done mine twice and both times had laptop and projector available. I will have to think about a presentation not using the computer.

Thanks to all of you for your encouragement and support. It has made butterflying fun as well as educational (oh Lord, there's the teacher coming out in me. Hee Hee!)

Maryann, keep us posted on pursuing the butterfly presenting. If we only get one more person to cater to them, it will be wonderful (especially if they get one more and on and on.....)

Happy Butterfly Sighting
Ms. Faith

Very beautiful, Faith. You are so creative. And, what a beautiful addition to the garden.

Maryann, I also highly recommend you think about giving some BF gardening presentations. And, to everyone else where the opportunity presents. Once you have your information together, then you are ready to go, aside from gearing it down to children, or up for adults. We are losing so much habitat to construction. I plan to do some presentations in June to some kids reading programs at the library. I've even donated some children's butterfly books to our local library. Judy Burris and Wayne Richard's book "The Life Cycles of Butterflies" is a great reference book for the kids to look up different caterpillars and butterflies that they've found.

I agree, Faith. If you just get one person excited about planting flowers for butterflies from your program, then hopefully that person will tell more people, etc.

I'm just ready for WARMER weather with less WIND!

Faith, how absolutely gorgeous! I think my butterflies might try to mate with that gorgeous green stem on your feeder! LOL! It was such a pleasure to meet you at the Farmer's Market in Norman and now that we have someone from the SE portion of Oklahoma, we have lots of people reporting their butterfly sitings from different regions of the state!

Hi, MissSherry, Maryann, Sandy, and everybody. Here's a toast (of butterfly nectar) to a great butterfly season!

Susan

AMEN!!!!!!!