I have host plant seeds!!!!!! smooth blue aster:for pearl crescent blue vervain:common buckeye hairy beardtongue:baltimore checkerspot rue:giant swallow tails dutchmans pipe vine: pipevine swallowtail butterfly i have a few requests for trade: cuphea bee balm cleome violet queen blanketflower rattlebox let me know if you'd like to trade. Thanks! stazia

"About passionvine...do you know if it spreads so easily like that up north?" Most varieties of passionvine do go crazy, but the cats make quick work of it once the gulf frits find it! Last year, I had dozens of cats at any one time, and most of the summer, they'd eaten every tiny speck green from the vine (they'd sort of crawl around pathetically looking for food... I gave a couple hundred cats over a period of a few months to a friend who grows a ton of passionvine so she could feed them). My vine has recovered and is growing wonderfully right now, nice and lush, but I've seen frits in my yard already, so it's just a matter of time before they devour it again. So, in short, if you're growing passionvine for butterfly gardening, you can never have enough, and I consider it a plus that it grows so well. The first butterflies I ever raised (I'm in Houston, too) were swallowtails--I went to harvest some parsley one day, and discovered cats on it (that's how I got into butterfly gardening, actually--it was a happy accident). Now I grow a bunch of fennel for them, which they prefer over the parsley (they won't touch the parsley until the fennel is gone), and the fennel grows really well in our area and is very easy to find at all the garden centers, so try that, too. I'm also growing frog fruit and blue pea vines this year, and both of those host plants are growing very nicely right now, but no cats yet on either. And, of course, milkweed, but no matter how much I have it's never enough. Good luck!

Yes, I am glad I asked too. I had a feeling you would be right on top of this! I guess you need common names and not botanical names. Looking on the internet, I did see lamium listed as dead nettle, but this nursery calls it false nettle. However, he didnt want me to get the wrong one so he told me to get the information I need. Thanks for the help. Er, where does one go about getting nettle/false nettle? Do nurseries sell it? Or is it only sold in certain states? Is it something I would have to send away for? I wonder if it is even hardy here. Since we have red admirals, one of their host plants must be around! I know Aggscott found nettle near the Poconos, so regular nettle grows somewhere here! And I think I saw a red admiral, so that would also indicate one of their host plants is in my area. This is frustrating trying to locate host plants for these little critters!

Hello Butterfly lovers! Does anyone out there have or know where to get these seeds/plants. false nettle, thistle (Cirsium species), spicebush, indian paintbrush, pipevine and curly dock. I know some of these are pretty nasty weeds but they are worth maintaining for the beautiful jewels that need them! I have had great success with attracting black swallow tails, painted ladies, monarchs, pearl cresents and great spangled fritillaries to our butterfly nursery. We have had many cats. live, hatch and have been released these past few years!! I have seen the other butterflies in my garden that need the previously mentioned host plants so I would greatly appreciate any help I can get in locating these plants!!