Don't get too discouraged....I felt the same way. I hadn't seen butterflies in the numbers that I did the last few years, but the last few days have more than made up for the delay! Today, I had about 20 butterflies fluttering around (at the same time, no less!) and nectaring on the Tithonia and Durantas. I saw 3 or 4 different skippers, monarchs, black swallowtails, sulphurs and gulf frits. Momma giant swallowtail came to visit, but I didn't see her, but got her gifts (eggs). I was so excited to see them back and hanging around for as long as they did. Don't give up, they should return.

Mechelle

I live in the city and bought a butterfly bush last year. To my amazement, a butterfly joined us for a whole day in our garden! I grew up in the suburbs, so figured I would never see butterflies in a city! Got hooked quicker then a worm on a hook in a fish farm!

This year, I have more butterfly loving plants, but most haven't started blooming yet. (Butterfly bush, Russian Sage and lavender seems to keep them happy.) This year, I've seen a huge variety, often all at once. Now, I'm not you, so can't tell you what any of them are. (Did research last year's visitor, which also fueled my addiction, since I never noticed any butterflies that weren't monarchs until then.)

So, what can such a novice teach you about what I've learned? In the mid-Atlantic states, last year was a crappy year for vegetable gardeners, particularly tomato lovers. I don't know too many gardeners around here, but the two that I do know (one 50 miles away, the other 75 miles away) are both very knowledgable about how to garden, and yet I (I've had to read excessively to stop having what felt like a permenent brown thumb LOL) was the only one, who managed to get any tomatoes at all last year. It was so bad, even the news reported it, and commericial growers were in bad shpae. (I live in Philly. The commerical growers are mostly in South Jersey and one of the main reason its nickname is "The Garden State.")

They had plants of course, but little grew for them. Why? The spring of 2006 was extremely wet around here -- flash floods, flooding in towns that only get any flooding about once ever 100 years, and it just seemed to rain forever! This spring was perfect -- rained enough, and only had a flooding problem once for areas proned to flood.

I had the same three plants that are flowering now, in bloom last year, but only saw one beautiful butterfly then. It might just be a reaction to your incredibly wet spring.

Unfortunately, it might be foreboding about your garden in general this year, too. At least my story will let you know, if it is a bad butterfly season this year -- it doesn't mean the end of butterflies for your area, just lower numbers this year.

BTW, you grow butterflies inside?! Might sound like a strange comment to write in a butterfly forum, but this is my first visit, so, ...how cool!!! And your knowledge? I'm so impressed!!! Thanks for sharing!

You have Gulf Frits? OH my! I am so envious! For some odd reason (we think it MAY have been our strangely cold, freezing winter) we have had almost NO GFs this year. I mean, I have ONE little cat right now and have raised, I think, a total of six? seven? all year!!! This is just awful since this is the one butterfly that usually lives year-round in my yard. :(

Valentinebear, welcome! You may want to add some host plants to your garden. Nectar plants are great but if you want to keep the butterflies around, host plants are what you need. Host plants are what the butterflies lay their eggs on. :)

Valentinetbear,
Yes, I bring the eggs and small cats (the bigger ones may have been parasitized or have the OE spore) to an inside enclosure that I made. Just keep the cats fed (stems of their host plant in small vases of water) and a clean enclosure (clean out the frass-their poop-regularly and they will pupate inside without the dangers of predators. Then I release them when their wings are dry and they are ready to go out in the world and reproduce.

Tdogmom-yesterday was the first "real" sighting I had of the gulf frits. I had 4 or more in my yard scoping out the duranta and tithonia. I didn't see them pay any attention to the passifloras I have for them, but that doesn't mean they didn't leave some eggs, I just didn't see them do it. I had some visitors a week or so ago that I could not id, I thought they may have been gulf frits, but couldn't be sure. The last couple of years, they were so plentiful that I saw at least 2 a day (usually more like 7 or 8) for all of the summer. It has been a slow start this year, but I think the butterflies are finally coming back. Yah!
Mechelle

Gulf Frits are a year round butterfly for us here in Central Florida. On warm sunny days in Jan. you can see them out flittering about. They usually lay on my P. Suberosa, which is more of a weed that grows up into shrubs and on the ground as a groundcover. I do find eggs on my P. Incarnata but not as much as on the Suberosa.

Yesterday in search of Milkweed, I stopped by a local guy who kinda has a "Go Natural" nursery. He is big into starting up butterfly gardens for the schools at a cost of course, and he is well known in the area for his knowledge. (Remember I once commented about a guy that raises Monarchs in his truck and had hundreds of chrysalis hanging from the roof liner?!) Well that's Gil! Anyway he had planted alot of Passionvine Incarnata on the ground outside his nursery fenceline. There were tons of Gulf Frits cats on his vines, of all sizes. There was also a nasty looking bug, similiar to the Milkweed beetle on the vines. They were about the same size and had a zig zag pattern of orange black and yellow on the back. I made sure not to have any on my shoes when I got back into my car. I don't need them!

Gil has a butterfly flying enclosure inside his fence. It was locked so I couldn't get close enough but I did see butterflies flying around. He usually has lots flying around his property but all I saw were some small skippers and maybe some small whitish/yellow sulphurs off in the distance. No Monarchs, no Frits, or even Eastern Blacks, despite a huge bed of carrots that were in his organic garden. I know where to find CARROT tops now if I need them to feed my EAstern Blacks HA!

I just had to vent as to my disappointing year with the butterflies. I did bring in the two eggs from my Incarnata that the ZLW laid yesterday. I haven't seen her back again yet. She needs to lay me more of those GOLDEN EGGS!

I'm a city girl, too, and I don't see near the numbers that some of the butterfliers do that live on large acreages and in rural areas. But, I am not complaining, because I know I see more than more gardeners in the city because I specifically grow plants for them, hosts and nectar.

Last year, we had very few butterflies early in the season - our drought was a significant factor. This year started out really, really good, but then came the rains and I have seen few in between showers. But, I have had Question Mark, Black Swallowtail, Pipevine, and now Silvery Checkerspot (I think this is what they are, MissSherry, because they are pretty black, with no defining coloration on them), and a few moths I've raised, too. No Monarchs yet for me, but my milkweed patch will not be available to them until they are on their return trip home. I grew a lot of species milkweed from seed that I need to plant out. They will be big by the time they begin their migration back south, and I have will have a lot of nectar plants then, too.

So, I understand what you're talking about by not having as many in an urban setting. Earlier this year, I was rewarded with so many Question Marks, I could barely walk down my sidewalk without being dive bombed. So, I have been very lucky.

Susan

I'm sorry this has been such a bummer of a butterfly year for you, Mary! :( Summer is the rainy season for Florida, isn't it? Maybe the rains will start coming regularly again, and the natural, native vegetation will flourish again - that would have to help.
I wish people would quit moving into Florida and turning the landscape into sterile neighborhoods - I never see any butterflies where my daughter lives in Tampa, and wouldn't expect to, with no natural host plants left.
MissSherry