Susan, I have yet to find out how fast Monarchs pupate compared to others because that's the only kind of cat I've had so far. :( I have pretty much parsley and rue for them and some fennel and two zizias; I didn't have much luck with the seeds that I winter sowed for them. I saw a male BST butterfly here at the zinnias one day a week or so ago but that was it. You say they take their sweet time pupating; I think they also take their sweet time finding my place. Ha. I think I'd really rather wait a few years to see if various types of butterflies show up here on their own than buy them. I don't know, but I just think that I would get more excitement out of it knowing that they found my place on their own. I'm not criticizing anyone who does buy them, but I just think that finding them on my own works better for me (also less expensive). :) Well, I guess I have a long ways to go before I get to the point of having as many as CalSherry, but I guess you never know. I just hope that I can keep my sanity in the process. Ha. I really wouldn't mind raising a thousand if I knew I could handle it and everything else. I don't know if I still found the best way of doing all this. It seems like no matter how I keep the Monarch cats and the plants, a LOT of work in involved, but I really enjoy having them around. I love watching all of the other butterflies too. Yes, with all of those different kinds that you have to raise, maybe it's good that the Monarchs haven't shown up yet. That would really take up all of your waking hours to have all of them at once, but maybe they'll all be there at the same time anyway, huh? I don't know if the other kinds are done laying eggs at your place or not. It sounds like you have a regular production line going there. ;-) One of these days I'll get around to posting pics of my garden. It's not really at its peak right now and besides, I have a lot of things sitting around in the yard right now because I'm still working on it (wouldn't make for very good pics). My pussytoes are doing great! I planted them where we cut down a plum tree and had the stump and roots ground up. It made for a decent-sized area for them (about a 6-ft diameter circle). I didn't know if I put them in the garden with the other plants if they'd try to take over since I read a description of them "forms a thick mat" etc. and I thought just in case, I'll put these where they won't grow into the other plants, just the lawn, so they have their own special place. :) My pipevines are growing nicely, way above my head now, but after reading on here how much the PVS's eat, I'm wondering if they could just feed one or two PVS's. For their sake, I hope they don't show up this year because I want to have enough leaves to feed the cats. I don't even know if where I put them was a good idea or not. We have a cut-off "stump" that we had cut about 20 years ago and we used to have our clothesline attached to it. It's been sitting there just waiting for something, so I thought I'd put the A. macrophylla there; however, I'm not sure that there's enough space for the vines to go just wanting up an 8-ft high little trellis. I hate to move them though now that they got a good start, and besides, I don't know where I'd move them to if they like sun. I'm not sure how you start new ones from these (of course, I wouldn't do digging around them now yet), but I could someday put one (or two?) on a small wire archway that I bought at a craft store yesterday that's going out of business. I'm not sure where I'd put it yet, but that's a project for sometime in the future. I always have projects lined up. When I came home with this archway, hubby had that "What is it this time?" look on his face. Ha. I'll hope that you get the Monarchs but not that you go bonkers taking care of everyone. :) MissSherry, So you never get them in the spring then? Until I read you saying that before, I was always under the assumption that people living in the south would get them before places further north, just like when birds migrate. I've been trying to get purple martins for 19 years, and I know that they start showing up in Florida first and then Texas and those are the first places to have them nesting. I guess that doesn't necessarily hold true for butterflies? Or is it just Monarchs? Or just certain places in the south? Cathy

Congrats! Hope there are many more to come! I have 5 Monarchs in chrysalises, about 1/2 way through their pupal stage. A female came through a few weeks ago and left me 6 eggs (that I could find), but one didn't hatch. She was very choosy where she laid (only on small plants/seedlings) and didn't stay long - it was just a lucky coincidence that I saw her. A neighbor lady found a large cat on some milkweed in the neighborhood, probably it has the same mother. I'm hoping there will be an uptick in breeding soon!

Cute and cool1 :-) I like watching the monarchs emerge too. It is so nice.

Hi Freida! I grew aesclepias incarnata(swamp milkweed) from seed. I wintersowed it and they were just getting started when the monarch momma showed up in my yard and laid her eggs on them. I happened to be out there with my kids when she was laying so I brought the plants onto my screen porch and my family got to watch them grow up.