I found 3 more early instar GF cats yesterday evening, too, Susan, so now I'm up to 6 cats - I can't ever find them all at once, either.
Buckeye cats must hide out somewhere during the day, because by the time I find them, they're at least 1" long, usually longer. I've noticed that I usually find them late in the evening on a cloudy day, so I assume they feed at night. They grow very quickly, pupate quickly, and emerge quickly, so you don't have them long!
Congratulations on finding them, they're one of my faves! The ones I raised this year were the spring form, with the paler undersides that show "eyes" - the others I've raised have all been fall forms. Here's a picture of the underside of one from this year, the spring form -
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And here's a picture of a fall form -
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MissSherry

Susan,

Just today I went out and saw buckeye caterpillars on the plantain. I don't know what instar, but they weren't first. I was so excited, I know have to figure out how to bring the plantain in, because I really want to see these butterflies up close.

The Black Swallowtails will not stop laying eggs, all day yesterday and all this morning there have been more butterflies laying eggs, and even though I have a huge amount of fennel, I think they are going to cover every spare inch of fennel that I have. I never imagined this would happen.

But, about the buckeyes, it looked they they came to both of our houses around the same time!

Elaine

MissSherry and Susan,

The plantain that you are using-what variety? I ordered seeds and I'm sure that I probably could have found some growing wild somewhere. I want to grow buckeyes. I grew tons of them one year on butter and eggs, but after that I never could find them again. Help me out, please! I have seen the bfs around here, but I don't know where they are laying their eggs.

Sandy

Sandy, I live way out in the country, where agalinis fasciculata/wild foxglove grows - it's a parasite on the roots of wild grasses, and grows on my road/driveway. I've never found buckeyes on anything but the agalinis, even though I planted some angelonia for them in my garden, because somebody said they found a buckeye cat on theirs. I recently planted some plantago lanceolata as an alternate host for buckeyes - so far, they haven't used it.
MissSherry

You are all so lucky, I would love to see one of these butterflies up close. I thought I saw one yesterday when i was out but it turned out to be a Common wood Nymph. I saw it with it's wings closed and it fooled me.

I have False Foxglove seeds to plant, the directions say to plant it in the fall.

Aggie

Congrats,Susan! Buckeyes are really cool,and I wish we had them up here.Like many other species,they are fairly common in southern Ohio and in WV and KY.

Thanks Miss Sherry, for your response. I'm not familiar with the wild foxglove. Would it grow in NE Oklahoma? I have lots of wild grasses around.

Sandy

Sandy,

I ordered some narrow-leaf plantain from Shady-oaks gardens online. It is considered to be a weed, so I did not plant in my regular garden, but over where we grow pumpkins. I've been looking all summer and this is the first time, there are eight little caterpillars there munching down.

Elaine

It probably does grow in northeast Oklahoma, Sandy - it may not be a. fasciculata, but some other type of agalinis. When it blooms in the fall, it makes a pretty pink flower that looks like a snapdragon, to which it is related. If you can find some in the country along the roadside, then you can gather the seeds and strew them in the winter. It took mine about 2 years to really get going - I got my seeds from roadside plants.
MissSherry

Congrats to you, too, Elaine! They must have come up from MissSherry's place! Heehee!

I'm going to link to some photos of plantago lanceolata and major, which you may find you already have around you. It loves moist soil so I'm sure it will be growing in large numbers. Check around and see if you have it. The flowers are held on tall stems and are rather small in proportion to the length of the stem.

I got mine from Cathy and Linda because I have looked for it in my urban neighborhood and cannot find it anywhere. Are you up in Miami or Grove, that area? I bet you have some of it. The leaves are long or spoon-shaped and are "ribbed" - they're often commonly called ribwort. It is an edible plant, too, so if you have small children around, you need not be concerned about it.

If you find you don't have any, I can send you the seedheads of some of my plantain.

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Plantago lanceolata and Plantago major

Thanks Elaine, MissSherry, and Susan for the info.

Susan, I am Sandy from okleps. You helped me identify my tiger swallowtail cats, which are turning green and getting eyes!

After looking at the pictures, I think I might know where there is some plantain that I can dig up. I remember that there was lots of plantain around my DH's family home in C'ville KS. I don't remember seeing any BFs around, but I probably wasn't looking for them then either.

I'll do some research on the wild foxglove and see if I have ever seen any. I've been around long enough that I probably have!

No kids, Susan, just one grandson half way around the world in Laos. I know you have a GD that spends a lot of time with you. Lucky woman.

Back to the Buckeyes. There are plenty around here, I just have to entice them to lay their eggs in my yard! I've added TS's, RA's and Viceroy's to my list this summer, so all in all, it's been a pretty thrilling year. Right now I have 8 varieties in various stages, from eggs to chrysalids, and what do I want? I want Buckeyes!

Thanks everyone!

Sandy from Bixby

Congrats, Susan. I knew that the Mama Buckeyes would find you. :) My Plantain has reseeded all over, and I have lots of Buckeye cats!!! They are so cool. I rarely water mine, Susan. I think that they are pretty drought tolerant.

Glad that they found you, Elaine, also. Congratulations!!! :) The only way that I've found to bring them in is to dig up the plants, and put them in pots. You may need to scout the ditches, and see if you can find more plants. I left some of them in pots, and they did overwinter.

Welcome to the Butterfly Forum, Sandy! :) If you don't have any luck finding any plantain locally, I'll share some with you. Perhaps, we could work it out sometime, when you go to OKC to see your Mom. I am so thrilled to hear about your Tiger, RA's, and VR cats! That is awesome! Keep me updated about them.

Sandy, there is wild foxglove around the Tulsa area. Friends from the Okla. Native PLant Society have told me so. They have said that it is almost impossible to transplant, and they have not had any luck with seeds. You may have to watch for it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Wild foxglove- Okla.

Thanks, Linda!

It was good to hear from you. I kept trying to get on the garden web with my laptop which I normally use, but my computer wouldn't cooperate. So I cranked up the old desk top computer and finally made cookies!

I looked up your link, and I know what purple gerardia is! When my kids were in JHS, their science teacher assigned them to collect and make wildflower notebooks. I still have my daughter's and there is PG in it.

I think I'll try the plantain. Sounds like it does pretty good at attracting buckeyes in OK. The wild foxglove doesn't sound easy to get started, but I really like the plant. Butter and eggs attracted buckeyes, but it is so extremely invasive, that I don't want to get it started here.

I would like to meet up with you and Susan sometime when I come to OKC. I think the next time I'm going is next Saturday. I have realized what a plebe I am after checking out the gardenweb. You all know so much! Thanks for sharing your expertise, and your enthuasism.

And, congrats Susan on the Buckeyes. It's exciting to have success when you plant a host plant.

Sandy, do you recall type of habitat area where you have seen the purple gerardia?

I still have so much to learn. We have such a knowledgeable group here. If you have a question, someone usually comes up with an answer.

I am working next Saturday, so that won't work for me.

Plantain is a "weed", and it can be invasive. You may not want it in your regular butterfly garden.

Susan, I don't know what we're going to do with you! You just have too many cats for one person! ;-) Seriously, I'm really glad that you got Buckeyes. I'm anxious to see one here someday. Neither my Verbena hastata or my Agalinus tenuifolia seeds came up when I planted them inside, so I think those are off my list of things to have for the Buckeyes if they're that hard to start. I do have plantain and it's probably always been here, since we first moved here anyway 20 years ago, and I'm wondering if I ever had any Buckeyes here at all. I have lots of that in our yard, so there's not a lack of host plant here. I also have snapdragons planted, but I don't know if a certain kind of snapdragon is a host plant for them or if they'd eat any kind. I had mimulus here last year and nothing was on that. I liked that plant for the unique color of the flowers, but I won't grow it again because I had trouble keeping it alive. I had at least a dozen plants and I think only 2 or 3 made it to the end of the summer. If it's that finicky, I don't want it.
Well, you sure are lucky to have those Buckeyes, and I hope you get some more. Your place sounds like Butterfly Central. ;-)
Cathy

Cathy,

Butter and Eggs is a type of wild snapdragon. You used to be able to get it from Clear Creek. It does attract Buckeyes, but it can get really invasive. If you have lots of room, it might be worth a try. One year I raised over 30 buckeyes on it.

Linda, maybe we can make it another time. 30 years ago today I was in your town visiting my husband who was starting up a gas plant. It was his 30th BD, and I brought our one year old daughter, a BD cake, and fresh tomatoes and squash to him. We celebrated in the hotel where he was staying!

Thanks for the info on the plantain. I thought it might be invasive. I have a corner I can put it in where it can spread as much as it wants.

I am not sure where we found the gerardia. It may have been North Tulsa. It's just been 17 years! I'm sure I've seen it since, though. I will definitely keep my eyes open. I have lots of places around here where it might be growing.

Sandy

Sandy, do you still have relatives in C'ville, KS? If so, I hope they're OK after all that flooding! I'm actually from Neodesha, KS/Independence, KS area, so very familiar with C'ville and all the areas that were devastated by the flooding. My sister and her DH lost their home - well everything but the exterior. They've gutted the house after just installing new wood floors and carpet throughout the house 2 weeks before the flood! I feel so bad for them, and I haven't been able to reach her for a couple of weeks. I think she is really depressed. Runs in our family, darn it. I just keep leaving messages that I love her and am praying for and thinking about her.

Back to Buckeyes! Linda, you're probably going to kill me, but that plantain is still in its pot, so I moved the two from the plants I put in the ground to the potted one so I can keep an eye on it. I need to put it in something, but haven't found anything big enough yet.

Cathy - that makes two of your plants I've already had cats on now - the violas and the plantain! You're my muse! I still have the cherries, and I am so bad, just so bad. I will try to do better very soon.

Linda, girl, where have you been? I know you're busy, but we miss you on the forum.

Glad you found us, Sandy, and look forward to your pics and experiences - I know you have plenty. Post some of your Laos butterflies here so we can see them!

So far I've raised or had Variegated Frits, BSTs, GFs (have tons of them right now), Pipevine Swallowtails, Sleepy Oranges, Question Marks, Silvery Checkerspots, Bordered Patches, Hackberry Emperor, Red Admirals, and now Buckeyes can be added to the list. I am hoping I get Monarchs on the fall migration. I've yet to get Painted Ladies or American Ladies, although I have some helichrysum and Dusty Miller, malva and hollyhocks. Picky things! The BSTs have shown up in the largest numbers ever here in Oklahoma.

Susan

Susan, my husband has family in S Coffeyville. His cousin had 7 inches of water in her house. My DH's family home had water up to the windows. My SIL went through C'ville this past week and said the house looked abandoned. My FIL started the Schwinn Hotel on HW169 and it was also flooded. Both the house and the hotel will probably have to come down. We have lots of memories of the time we spent with our kids at Grandma's house. We have been looking at all the photos on the internet and it is hard to believe. This flood was worse than the 1940's floods, and it has destroyed a lot of lives.

I posted new Lao BFs on the okleps site. I'm not for sure how to post pics here.

It is just such an incredible year. I went over to the WF meadow close to my house, where they are clearing part of it for houses. I saw so many BFs! The ironweed is in full bloom and was covered with BFs. I got a picture of Pearl Crescents puddling! I know that next year the meadow will be gone, and in its place will be roads and houses. It will be incredibly sad.

Susan, I looked up the different milkweeds in my OK Wildflowers book by Doyle McCoy, and the Asclepias asperula, or Antelope Horn is listed as the first to bloom--April to June. Asclepias viridis is shown as May to July.

Sandy

I have one little lone A. asperula seedlings, Sandy. I had two, but the weed whacker (my lawn person) got it. I hope it comes back next year.

I guess it probably depends on our weather, too, and you know how unpredictable our weather can be approaching springtime, right? I think the late frost got a lot of things this year. My A. verticillata did not come back, and I'm not going to plant any more of it because the leaves are so fine and insubstantial. I've planted lots of A. incarnata, syriaca, viridis, purpurescens, and some others, so hopefully something will come up early next year (crossing my fingers)!

So sad to hear about your family, too. I hope that everyone is able to recover from the devastation, and hopefully FEMA will come thru for them. I am skeptical about FEMA because I've heard so many folks that suffered from Hurricane Katrina are still waiting on $ to rebuild. Of course, I didn't tell my sister that.

Susan

Sandy, I had never even heard of Butter and Eggs before just reading the name here on the forum. I think someone else (I forget, maybe it was you) and I thought then I wonder what that is. Now I know. I want to get buckeyes here, but oh my, if it's invasive, I just don't know about planting it here. So I wonder if the buckeyes will lay eggs on any of the hybrid snapdragons? I forget exactly which I planted but I'm sure it's not a wild kind.

Susan, I'm so happy that you got cats on the plantain and the violets. At least one of us did. lol Actually, I guess I obviously must get cats on the violets here since I have so many fritillaries, but I don't notice them because our lawn has probably a few thousand violets in it. Can you picture me looking at all of them to see if there are frit cats on them? Ha. I don't think my back could take it and I'd have to do it sitting down just like I do my gardening. Honestly, it's literally a pain to go out and collect Monarch eggs because of having to bend over to look under the leaves. I've considered quitting it, but then I think of the spiders possibly getting at the eggs/cats. I don't actually know if they eat the eggs or wait until they hatch and then get them. I know that I found more than just one or two plants with evidence of a cat having hatched but it was nowhere to be found. Since there was a spider on the plant, I assume that it had gotten the cat, and that is why I feel compelled to bring in the eggs even though it gets to my back.

I'm glad that my planting is almost done. I was going to plant the last 20 milkweeds outside today in my milkweed patch, but it's raining. That's okay, we need it. The plants will have at least two months to get a good root system before we get a frost, so that should be okay. I just can't believe how tall those Swamp Milkweeds got already this year after having just sown the seeds last fall! I'm talking about the ones I planted in containers; I don't know why the ones in the ground didn't come up, so I used my extras in the containers to plant down there.

We finally got the cage up yesterday. I don't have anybody in it yet, but they will be soon. Our daughter is at the beach with a friend or I'd have taken a picture of the cage. I wanted to wait until after she gets back to put some caterpillars in it. I don't actually have a whole lot of them right now. I have 7 that will pupate with the next few days, 8 that are about 1" long, 6 smaller ones, and sheesh, at least 130 eggs...unless some of those hatched by now; I haven't even gotten a chance to check yet. Saturday really made that count high since I found 93 that day. Geez, if all of those pupate on the same day, won't I be busy! I thought it was great last year when I released a dozen on one day. This year is really busy and there is no way I would raise all of these in individual containers. I really think I would go batty. Believe it or not, I do have other things to do besides raise Monarchs. Ha, I don't know what hubby would say about that though. Things get neglected around here when the Monarchs are here.

Oh, and I can't be your muse if you're mine! :)

I wasn't worried about the cherries. I have been so busy with planting other things that I was beginning to think that I'd never get done, but I finally see light at the end of the tunnel...only 20 Swamp Milkweed left to plant outside, some transplanting of milkweed from small pots into bigger ones, and a few odds and ends one to do yet but nothing major. If I wouldn't have had to dig all the sod by hand with a trowel, I'd have been done two months ago. I like to plant things, but I really got carried away this year and took on more than I probably should have but oh well, I lived to tell about it. :)
Cathy