Thx Dena I really dont have enough to feed them anyway I have a ton of Frimbrata now but not sure how goldrims do on them.I have seen a pipevine swallow tail 3 days in a row on my butterfly bush she flys around my pipevine and doesnt lay 1 egg Its raining today so havent seen her but maybe shell be back tomorrow.Iv had really bad luck with my butterfly release this year over 100 monarchs ,25 painted ladys,50 black swallowtails ,50 red admirials and I never saw another after I released them havent got any eggs from none of them and no sigh of the GF this year kinda a bad year for me here.

I was referring to the goldrims/polydamas swallowtails that don't need special pipevines, Susan, at least that's what I meant to say. Pipevines are somewhat mysterious to me, too - my newest ones aren't growing as fast as I'd like. I guess I need to be patient and maybe fertilize them with chicken manure and/or a little chemical fertilizer. I never thought my garden a. tomentosas would colonize, but now they're coming up everywhere down the long fece, so, again, these are vines that require a little patience - plus a little fertilizer, neutral soil, water and good drainage. MissSherry

Hi Sherry and Sandy, Thanks for your comments. I hesitated somewhat posting on this forum as I had read that A. gigantea (and I believe A. elegans) are toxic to some butterfly larvae. However, I assumed that there would be people with considerable experience growing Aristolochias on this forum. The nature of the toxicity is not clear to me, nor is it clear whether a hybrid would share that problem. Is it even known whether the "toxicity" is due to a poisonous substance or substances, or whether the plants are "poisonous" simply because they lack some molecule(s) necessary for the caterpillars' survival? Regardless, I assumed that on a forum like this there would be a number of people who started growing Aristolochias for the butterflies, but then fell in love with the genus for the plants themselves. I know that is true of many who grow Passifloras. I'm not familiar with the debates over the naming of A. durior and A. macrophylla. For some reason I had thought they were synonyms. I have a friend who used to be involved in vine propagation at UCBG and I'm hoping to get his thoughts as to whether the parent could have been A. gigantea. I'm sure there are cases where the flowers of a hybrid are larger than either parent, but (particularly in the absence of polyploidy) I would expect they are rare. An 8 inch flower (assuming the description is correct) is a pretty dramatic increase in size. The white flecks on the leaves are also highly suspicious. Again, my impression is that those are diagnostic of A. gigantea, and never found in A. durior/macrophylla or A. elegans. The white "flecks" are odd enough that many people think their A. gigantea is diseased the first time they notice them. My interest is in the ornamental aspect of the plant, as well as its adaptability. I've grown other Aristolochias--A. gigantea, trilobata/macroura, elegans, and fimbriata. I've offered both unrooted and rooted cuttings of A. gigantea for postage in the past, and at the moment I have rooted cuttings of A. trilobata/macroura that I will need to find homes for. What intrigues me about this particular hybrid is the possibility that it could resemble one of the tropical species in terms of large and dramatic flowers, yet have unusual hardiness. The hardiness is not an issue for me, but it would be for people living in most of the rest of the country. I would guess that there would be people interested in growing such a hybrid outside if it were possible in their climate. Passiflora incarnata is an example of a plant whose hybrids differ in their hardiness. Passiflora 'Incense' (P. incarnata x cincinnata) is one that is reasonably hardy for many people (typically given as zone 7, I think, sometimes even zone 6). Others are much less hardy. In that case the origin of the P. incarnata parent may be one factor, as strains from more Northern regions are not nearly as hardy as those from the Deep South. The bottom line is that for either P. incarnata hybrids or for Aristolochia durior x elegans, the hardiness of the hybrid can't be easily predicted. It needs to be tested. But yes, for those whose sole focus is attracting butterflies, the issue of toxicity is probably more important than hardiness. By the way, I think the Yahoo Aristolochia group has essentially died, with almost no posts in the last year or two.

Kathy, I seem to recall Mary in central Florida saying that polydamas and pipevine swallowtails occasionally laid their eggs on the wrong pipevine, but she just raised the mislaid eggs herself and fed them the right leaves. My memory may be wrong here, though, so hopefully she'll see this and chime in. I think the problem was mainly with polydamas swallowtails laying their eggs on the A. tomentosa vines that she wanted to save for the pipevine swallowtails, which can't survive on the A. grandiflora. Polydamas swallowtails can use either. I'm sorry you got misinformation on this forum about Lady Margaret. There is so much of it on other sites, I'd hoped that this one would be different. That's why we decided that the host plant list on our FAQ section would list only plants that one or more members had actually used to raise a given butterfly, first hand information. Lady Margaret is a hybrid of P. incarnata, a very non-toxic, much used host plant for gulf frits and zebra longwings, and P. coccinea, a toxic variety that they rarely ever even lay their eggs on. So maybe Lady Margaret has a little toxicity, but not enough to kill the caterpillars? I don't know, but it's certainly worth keeping, and the flowers are such a beautiful burgundy color! The flowers are small, especially compared to the very big P. 'Incense' - unfortunately mine couldn't survive our freezes, and didn't come back in spring - Sherry