Congratulations, Cathy! Sounds like you're having a good year!
This must be the 'spider popping out' time of the year! Everywhere I go there are spider webs suspended between bushes and trees, with those yellow bodied ones that get so huge by fall.
MissSherry

Woo-hoo, Cathy! Way to go, girl! I know you love those Monarchs. I haven't had any yet, but will probably get some in August......duh, hopefully!

Susan

MissSherry, Thanks! Yes, I'm really pleased with this year. At least now I feel like I know what I'm doing and don't have to be asking a bunch of "dumb" questions like I did last year. Ha. Everyone was so nice to answer them and help me learn about Monarchs and how to care for them. I think I'll probably always want to do this now. Monarchs are the only kind I've been luck enough to get here, but the numbers of them are great!

'Spider popping out' is right! They seem to be everywhere! Yeah, I hate when they are between bushes and trees. I almost always manage to walk into one...ewwww, gross me out!

Susan, Thanks, and yes, for sure I do love those Monarchs. I probably act like a kid staring at them, but it just amazes me that a caterpillar can become a butterfly! I like to watch the cats eat, and I get a kick out of it when two are butting heads. I think that looks so funny! I also love to watch them pupate. I still haven't managed to see any do that this year. It's like they all have a conspiracy against me. I think they say, "Hey, she just went outside for awhile...let's do our thing!" Honestly, it's almost unbelievable how their timing is. The one day, my daughter came home and asked if any had pupated yet that day and I told her that one of the six did. I had just checked on them about an hour before she asked. She came out of the living room and said, "They all did!" I really thought that she was pulling my leg, but by darned, those other five all pupated within an hour!

Of course, I love watching the butterflies eclose, but that involves timing too. I saw these thins last year, but it's hard this year since I'm outside most of the time. When I'm not planting something or digging sod, I'm gathering eggs. I almost hate to look tomorrow because I'm getting backlogged here! lol

Oh, I sure hope that you get some Monarchs one of these days. I'll keep my fingers and toes crossed for you.

Cathy

Thanks, Cathy! I think Monarchs pupate faster than some of the other butterflies. The BSTs sure take their sweet time. Even the PVS's are faster than the BSTs. That always make me pause and wonder why.

Hee Hee - you're gonna be in CalSherry's shoes before long here!

Between the Gulf Frits, RAs, BSTs, PVS's, and QMs, I have plenty of caterpillars to watch after right now, so I'm kind of glad the Monarchs haven't hit yet.

Susan

I don't have any monarchs, either, Susan, but then I usually don't until they're heading back to Mexico!
MissSherry

Susan, I have yet to find out how fast Monarchs pupate compared to others because that's the only kind of cat I've had so far. :( I have pretty much parsley and rue for them and some fennel and two zizias; I didn't have much luck with the seeds that I winter sowed for them. I saw a male BST butterfly here at the zinnias one day a week or so ago but that was it. You say they take their sweet time pupating; I think they also take their sweet time finding my place. Ha. I think I'd really rather wait a few years to see if various types of butterflies show up here on their own than buy them. I don't know, but I just think that I would get more excitement out of it knowing that they found my place on their own. I'm not criticizing anyone who does buy them, but I just think that finding them on my own works better for me (also less expensive). :)

Well, I guess I have a long ways to go before I get to the point of having as many as CalSherry, but I guess you never know. I just hope that I can keep my sanity in the process. Ha. I really wouldn't mind raising a thousand if I knew I could handle it and everything else. I don't know if I still found the best way of doing all this. It seems like no matter how I keep the Monarch cats and the plants, a LOT of work in involved, but I really enjoy having them around. I love watching all of the other butterflies too.

Yes, with all of those different kinds that you have to raise, maybe it's good that the Monarchs haven't shown up yet. That would really take up all of your waking hours to have all of them at once, but maybe they'll all be there at the same time anyway, huh? I don't know if the other kinds are done laying eggs at your place or not. It sounds like you have a regular production line going there. ;-)

One of these days I'll get around to posting pics of my garden. It's not really at its peak right now and besides, I have a lot of things sitting around in the yard right now because I'm still working on it (wouldn't make for very good pics). My pussytoes are doing great! I planted them where we cut down a plum tree and had the stump and roots ground up. It made for a decent-sized area for them (about a 6-ft diameter circle). I didn't know if I put them in the garden with the other plants if they'd try to take over since I read a description of them "forms a thick mat" etc. and I thought just in case, I'll put these where they won't grow into the other plants, just the lawn, so they have their own special place. :) My pipevines are growing nicely, way above my head now, but after reading on here how much the PVS's eat, I'm wondering if they could just feed one or two PVS's. For their sake, I hope they don't show up this year because I want to have enough leaves to feed the cats. I don't even know if where I put them was a good idea or not. We have a cut-off "stump" that we had cut about 20 years ago and we used to have our clothesline attached to it. It's been sitting there just waiting for something, so I thought I'd put the A. macrophylla there; however, I'm not sure that there's enough space for the vines to go just wanting up an 8-ft high little trellis. I hate to move them though now that they got a good start, and besides, I don't know where I'd move them to if they like sun. I'm not sure how you start new ones from these (of course, I wouldn't do digging around them now yet), but I could someday put one (or two?) on a small wire archway that I bought at a craft store yesterday that's going out of business. I'm not sure where I'd put it yet, but that's a project for sometime in the future. I always have projects lined up. When I came home with this archway, hubby had that "What is it this time?" look on his face. Ha.

I'll hope that you get the Monarchs but not that you go bonkers taking care of everyone. :)

MissSherry, So you never get them in the spring then? Until I read you saying that before, I was always under the assumption that people living in the south would get them before places further north, just like when birds migrate. I've been trying to get purple martins for 19 years, and I know that they start showing up in Florida first and then Texas and those are the first places to have them nesting. I guess that doesn't necessarily hold true for butterflies? Or is it just Monarchs? Or just certain places in the south?
Cathy