Yea! Unfortunately we were spoiled by last year. At this time last year I had pipevine already. None so far. Although the monarch was a blessing.

Keep posting pictures for us.

-Elisabeth

Wonderful!!!

We sure get attached fast to these Beauties, don't we?

Do you buy your dill plants or grow them from seed? I thought I would try my luck starting it from seed this year.

Thanks for posting the pictures. Keep them coming. It helps me know exactly what to look for and ID what I do see.

Betty

That's great Msssherry!
Glad to hear about your "returnees"...Treat your customers right and they'll come back!

Let's hope that transfers up north! Seems to me to be pretty slow around here so far, but when I was a kid there was a field behind the house at the end of the street. There must have been a lot of milkweed and host trees, as I recall there was a Monarch, ZST, TST, or BST fluttering by every few minutes. Sometimes you could see 4 or 5 (in different yards) at the same time!

The area is all built up now, and most of the farm and fallow fields are now strip malls, industrial parks and monsterous townhouse complexes...SIGH : (

Maybe I'll hit the lotto and buy a farm and grow Milkweed and circle it with host trees!

Mark

You know I'll keep posting those pictures, Elisabeth - I love taking them and posting them!

Betty, I bought the dill plants from our little local nursery, because they had caterpillars on them already. The nursery owner was so happy I took them off her hands, she sold them to me - and other dill plants I needed for the cats to finish growing on - at a very low price. I told her anytime she finds caterpillars on her plants to let me know. If it's something I want, I'll either buy the whole plant or cut the leaf/leaves off with the cats on them and raise them on host plants I already have. The dill plants are blooming now, so they should be making seeds soon. The only reason these plants are still alive is because I planted them at the base of shrubs in deep shade - normally, dill dies back completely in summer. I'm hoping that these plants will return next spring.

Mark, the country is definitely better for butterflying that concrete suburbs. It's too bad they're building and paving over your area! :(

The pipevine swallowtail laid at least two more batches of eggs. I brought in one of them, because they were on a pipevine sprout that's outside the fence around my garden - a deer or rabbit might eat it. I fertilized the pipevines with chicken manure, watered them, and cut back big, old, nasty looking leaves and 'dead-end' sections of the vines - these things should stimulate new growth. I also found several areas of new growth that were growing up a bush or the little sassafras tree in my garden - I untangled them, and let them dangle, so the female can be sure and see them for egg-laying. Am I eat up with it or what? :)

Sherry

Just passionate, and that is what life is about, right? I mean what else are we supposed to do? Sit and watch TV all day?
-Elisabeth

Sherry,

The joy we receive from these creatures adds so much to our lives. I can't imagine not having a garden. When I get too crippled to spend time outside, it will be a sad day. As Elisabeth said, "what else are we supposed to do?"

I'm glad the butterflies are beginning to build back up in your area. It's been a sparse year here, yet I have some to raise. The Diana Fritillary has been making deeper forays into Oklahoma territory this summer. I've got a glimpse of a couple of males. I'm hoping a female comes along and finds the violets I planted just for her!

We've skipped spring and moved directly into summer. This is the hottest spring since the 1930s. Don't know what effect that will have on our butterfly population.

Sandy

That would be fantastic, Sandy, if a female diana laid eggs on those violets. I looked up Walter's violets, and they're beautiful, too! Please post any and all pictures you ever get of dianas - I'd die for this one!
You're right, Elisabeth, it's my butterfly gardening that keeps me excited, keeps me young - cooking and cleaning just won't do that!
I keep finding more and more giant swallowtail eggs, plus a few more black swallowtail eggs. I'm beginning to worry I won't have enough preferred food for the GSTs - I might have to use orange tree leaves, which they don't like as well.
The female PVS was back out in the garden a little while ago, but I had to come in, couldn't stay to see if she lays more eggs - it was getting too hot for me! It doesn't seem to bother the butterflies.
Our weather has been extremely hot lately, that coupled with the drought makes gardening an early morning, late evening activity for me now. I got .30" of rain the other day, and about a ?week ago, I got a whole inch! There are signs the drought is breaking, I sure hope so anyway. The drought may be one reason I'm getting so many caterpillars. I've got jillions of sulphurs, probably because their natural roadside host plants are dead or never got started growing at all this spring. So, for that reason, too, it's good to have butterfly gardeners around who water their host plants - 'keeps us in butterflies until the normal rain returns.

Sherry

She's laid several more batches of eggs, including two on the new growth I untangled for her. They like laying eggs on vines hanging in the air -
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And I got a picture of her nectaring on my Ellen's Blue butterfly bush. This extreme heat has made the blooms pale - the spring blooms in cooler weather are much prettier -
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Now I'm finding more gulf frit eggs - things have heated up in more ways than one!
Sherry

Sherry,

I am so enjoying your photos!!

I think we will be having a great year for butterflies here in the north. Just spent a week working on a butterfly garden at my parents' home and even though some things aren't quite ready for the migrators, the Mourning Cloaks and Eastern Swallowtails were numerous and OH! so beautiful!!!

A couple of Monarchs have been seen in our province so I am on the lookout.

Had to leave my gardens (you are right Sandy - it sucks!!) and hunker down in a small apartment in the city, but on my balcony are 6 mature Milkweed plants as well as many annuals for them to check out. :O) Neighbours say they have seen Monarchs around here in the past so my fingers and toes are crossed!

Mourning cloaks? Now I'd love to raise some of those, Tiffy, but I've only gotten one visit from one, and that was years ago - it was a very worn looking individual, surely on its last legs. I'm on the southern boundary of their range, so it probably came a long way. That burgundy or eggplant coloring on their wings with the gold rims is gorgeous!
Hopefully, the monarchs will find your milkweed. I've got a lot of milkweed this year in my garden. I decided to go ahead and plant more, because the A. curassavica is so easy to grow, it comes back every spring, and it flowers all summer and fall with flowers that are as nearly as popular with the butterflies as lantana and butterfly bush. I'm hoping to get some monarchs in late summer or early fall - that's the only time I get eggs and cats. I just see a few individuals in the spring, flying through.

I keep finding more giant swallowtail eggs, but a few of them look like duds, I'm not sure. I've also found a few more black swallowtail eggs, also more gulf frit eggs. Something weird happened yesterday with gulf frit eggs. I walked through the gate on my picket fence to go into the house, because it was about to rain. I saw a gulf frit flying away from a passionvine just as I was going through the gate, so I checked it out, and she'd laid three eggs. Just then, a downpour of rain came, didn't last too long, followed by light rain. After the rain, two of the eggs were gone! This is the first time I've ever seen eggs washed off a leaf. I assume that, since she had apparently just laid them, the 'stick-em' hadn't had time to do its job. There were a few other eggs on other vines that I'd seen earlier that stayed put, thank goodness. The little gulf frits I'm raising are getting less little every day - their growth rate is amazing, so much faster than swallowtails!
It rained a little again today, and there's a good chance for more tomorrow, so the drought is better, but, as we've discussed before, I'm not seeing the butterflies like I did when it wasn't raining. They couldn't have all suddenly left, so I guess they're just hanging out somewhere waiting for fair weather! :)

Sherry

The pipevine swallowtails are starting to hatch - YAY!

Sherry

The pipevine swallowtails are eating like pigs and growing at different rates, typical for pipevine swallowtails. I haven't counted them, but 30 would be a good guess.
The black swallowtails that were eating dill grew very rapidly, one has already made its chrysalis, and the other two should tomorrow. The rue cats are still only half grown, but look healthy.
I've found so many more giant swallowtail cats in the last few days, I'm worried about how I'm going to feed them. After I've gone through all the hops tree leaves, I guess I'll use rue, then wind up with orange tree leaves. Or maybe after I've gone through the hops leaves, I'll feed some of them orange leaves and some rue, I'll see.
Things are really hopping around here!
Sherry

I always enjoy reading your posts! "...eating like pigs..." :O) Sounds like a healthy brood.

My parents have the perfect place for butterflies. They are on a cliff which borders a large estuary where wildlife abounds. The butterfly garden which we began establishing a few years ago is situated close to the edge of the cliff so after walking through the fluttering friends you can see the deers, Canadian Geese, Loons, Beavers, etc. below enjoying the tranquility of the estuary before it flows into the bay. There's always something different!

The amount of Mourning Cloaks was high this year. I've always found it difficult to spot more than one, but most times there was half a dozen around us. My 85 year old mother is partial to them. :O)

I'm with your 85-year old mother, Tiffy - those mourning cloaks are gorgeous! And the estuary and wildlife by your parents' house sounds heavenly!
The first of the gulf frits emerged today. I figured by her large size that she was a female even before I saw her top side, and indeed she was. It's been cloudy and rainy all day, so she showed no interest in leaving the cage, just wanted to 'hang out' all day. There is an 80% chance of rain tomorrow, but there will probably be sunny times between rains when she'll want to leave. We really need this rain, being very dry. The Coast (just south of me) is having a profound drought - just 35 miles north of the coast, we've gotten some afternoon showers and a few heavy rains here and there, so our drought has been much less. I'm really glad the Coast got rain today! There is supposed to be a high chance of rain every day this week - YAY!
Rain should help my pipevines to make more new growth, also my hops trees/Ptelea trifoliata, that I'm feeding to the MANY giant swallowtails. I've got plenty to feed the pipevine swallowtails even without any new growth, but in the future I'll hopefully need new growth for future eggs. And hops trees make the BEST host plant for giant swallowtails. A little goes a long way, and they grow real fast on it, so I appreciate every new leaf.
Sherry