Congrats, Mary! Considering how easy giant swallowtails are to raise, I'm sure you'll have time to raise a few. A giant swallowtail passed through here, but left me no eggs - maybe it was a male. You sure need something like a few caterpillars to keep your spirits up these days! And I hope things are looking up for your hubby! I'm not surprised your pipevines didn't make any seed pods, since that's apparently a once-in-a-life-time thing. But A. tomentosa really colonizes, not the first few years, but after it gets a little age on it, it really spreads. Mine have colonized all down the length of long fences around my garden, and some is growing into a gardenia bush in the corner. The pipevine swallowtails have found it all and laid eggs everywhere, including on the A. fimbriata plants I got from seeds you sent me, Mary - thanks! Two of the monarchs in the cage are chrysalides, and all the rest but one are in the "J" - the ones outside must have pupated or are now doing so, because they were farther along than the caged ones. The two chrysalides look healthy, no sign of having been parasitized or having any disease - knock on wood! I'm raising two spicebush swallowtails and will soon bring two more in to raise. I'm also raising two palamedes and one tiger swallowtail, plus two red-spotted purples - there are LOTS more of these on the host plants outside. I seem to have gotten over compulsively bringing in as many as I find to raise myself - I just can't handle a lot of cats at one time any more. The red admirals and American ladies in my cages are emerging daily, about ?three of each so far, with plenty more to go. I also raised four little sleepy oranges, which are now chrysalides, soon to emerge. The 25 or 26 pipevine swallowtail chrysalides in the cage should emerge in a couple of weeks, and there are undoubtedly a lot more outside on about the same time schedule. With the almost daily addition of new eggs to the vines outside, there will now be overlapping generations of pipevine swallowtails, good news. We've had 2.20" of rain over the past two days, with more expected this weekend. I love not having to water!! Sherry

MissSherry, Hee hee, I had to laugh when you said about sneaking over when nobody was looking and get the pots. :) There is a town about 10 miles from here that has a big trash day and now I remember how someone described how people cruise the streets looking over other people's junk to see what they can use and jump out of their cars and grab what they want. Ha, that sounds like something I could go for. I think they might have already had their trash day this year though but not sure. Yes, I bet that nursery was glad that you took care of their unwanted pots. I'll have to look at Lowe's and see if they have any broken bags of potting soil. Sometimes they do and put it on sale for half price. Yes, I think I probably do have enough milkweed to feed an army of cats and so I'm not worried that I won't have enough this year. :) tdogmom, You make it sound like your hubby likes his Plumeria as much as you like your Monarchs. :) Does he raise them to sell or he just likes to grow them? I bet between his plants and your butterflies, people passing by your place must think that they're in some tropical paradise. That's cute how you both have your nursery friends and nice that they save containers for you. It sounds like cleaning those pots was good therapy for you. Hee hee. It also made hubby happy at the same time. We don't have a Home Depot around here, but we have a Lowe's and sometimes they'll have broken bags for 50% off. I'll have to check that out. I forgot all about that. Susan, You sound very resourceful and I could do that too if I can't find any pots anywhere for free. Yeah, I saved my plastic pots too that I purchased plants in. I don't even know anymore how I ended up with 20 some one-gallon pots. Those already have swamp milkweed growing in them (they're just poking their heads through the soil...just soil that I used from our place). I don't know why I didn't even think of the gallon size jugs...we have some of those that we bought milk in and I could use those. Jill, Yes, I'll definitely have to buy the potting soil. I just hope I can find some for half price. I know the SuperWalmart has real big bags of it for something like $9, I think. I never heard of Freecycle. I just learned something new again. I had been buying the small bags of potting soil for convenience. I have back problems and can't lift a whole lot like those bigger bags of potting soil at Walmart, but surely I could get hubby to do it. MaryAnn, That's a good idea too, using the half gallon milk and oj containers. I imagine that some of the plants that I'm starting later than the others won't get real big and I could put them in those. I wish I could get big bales of potting soil like you describe. I never saw anyone around here have those. They'd last quite awhile! Well, for me, that's a month or so. Ha. That's for sure, at least starting the plants myself is much cheaper than buying all of them. I can just imagine that if I'd go to buy all the plants that I started from seed this year, they'd cost hundreds (maybe even a couple thousand) of dollars. Paul, I wonder if I'd be able to keep milkweed in pots up here year-round without them freezing considering that I live in PA. I'd do that if I knew it would work. It would save some time. If I'd try keeping some over winter and find out that they don't make it, I could at least use the soil over, I guess, rather than keep buying new every year. I wish I knew for sure if I could keep them over winter without them dying. That's a good idea you have about mixing the potting soil, sand, soil, lime, and fertilizer granules. I do that sometimes when I feel adventurous. :) I also built a new cage but didn't get it finished because of all this plant stuff. I hope I can find time to finish it this year yet or else I'll have tons of caterpillars on our back porch this year. THANKS, EVERYONE, for your excellent advice!! :) Cathy

Hi Docmom, congrats on your eggs! That is an interesting milkweed, and I don't think it's A. syriaca. Most of the A syriaca I see has fatter leaves, farther apart on the stem, and it doesn't grow in such close groupings (such as astute botanical analysis, huh? lol). I wonder what it is? I actually have 5 small 2nd instar caterpillars myself right now. It is very exciting, since last year I had nary an egg or cat! But a female came through the garden and laid eggs on the A. incarnata seedlings, and one of the small A. syriaca shoots, totally ignoring my larger plants. Yes in my experience they do prefer the smaller plants. I am hoping we will get more Monarch activity in August, and maybe one of these babies will be a female who leaves me lots of eggs?

How unusual that so many of us are seeing Monarchs! Actually, this is the 2nd Monarch this summer to come through my gardens and is the second FEMALE no less! The first didn't leave anything but I am thrilled that this one is leaving some babies for me. I don't know if I've mentioned this here or not but I have left Kindergarten. I am back teaching mathematics at the middle school as of the end of this month. I WILL, however, be taking my butterflies with me. Absolutely. I know that there will be a number of students who were at my former elementary school AND a number who were in my Kindergarten class who will probably be my students once again. PLUS, there's a garden club at my school (I used to teach here 20 years ago) as I've given the garden club teacher Milkweed seeds and he has lots of Milkweed growing. I've also given Monarchs during a butterfly presentation in the past so it is a foregone conclusion that bringing my 'babies' will be a welcome addition. :) I am so excited about having Monarchs and look forward to raising a bunch of 'em alongside the Giant Swallowtails (Heraclides cresphontes) I currently have as well as the Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) and Cabbage White (Pieris rapae) and...yep, it's been a busy summer and I wouldn't change it for the world.