great day for butterflies

13 years ago

As many of you know, we have a one-acre butterfly sanctuary in SW VA near Roanoke. I try to make my butterfly counts more comparable by limiting myself to a ten-minute walk around our entire garden when counting butterflies. Today was my best day this year with a total of 121 butterflies in my 10-minute count. The most frequent leps were Tiger Swallowtails and Silver Spotted Skippers. (Temperature was in the mid 90s with very little wind from 4:30-4:40.)

mike

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Comments (9)

larry_gene
13 years ago
You have as many 10-minute 1-acre butterflies as moth numbers I saw in the headlights last night on a 30-minute drive covering 20 miles.
docmom_gw
13 years ago
Wow! And I was thrilled to see 4-5 in my yard today while I was out for 30 minutes! Of course, I only have a 1/4 acre suburban lot surrounded by pristine lawns. Every year things get better as my plants grow and the gardens expand. Keep up the good work!

Martha
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Dan, yes we do get RSPs here in Oklahoma, I just haven't seen any yet. But, that doesn't mean I won't eventually. I had never seen a lot of butterflies until I started planting nectar and host plants for them. Last year was my first year for Question Marks in the garden and this year, I have them by the gazillions. I am regularly seeing the QMs, Commas, Hackberries, Tawnies, Mourning Cloaks, Sleepy Oranges, Pearl Crescents, and Red Admirals. I find eggs of the Black Swallowtail, and I have PVS eggs, too, but I rarely, if ever, see these butterflies. They just sneak into my yard long enough to lay eggs, and they're gone. I will probably see the Monarchs in late summer, since I am just beginning to beef up my milkweed collection. Last year I had tons of Monarchs in late summer (Linda helped me get started with some caterpillars), I had planted lots of Tdogmom's tropical milkweed, and I had lots of them--probably raised about 100 of them. Right now I'm raising QMs, PVS's, Mourning Cloaks, and Black Swallowtails. I just acquired a couple of small wild cherry trees for the RSPs. I planted persea borbonia, magnolia virginia, lindera benzoin, pipevine tomentosa (I already had A. clematitis, macrophylla, and serpentaria, but they're all still relatively small plants), false nettle, astragalus crassicarpa, partridge pea (already have Senna bicapsularis and S. hebecarpa), plaintain, fennel, more Rue, viburnum (for my moths), more honeysuckle (for the hummingbirds and moths). I have two pawpaw trees, and maybe one day the zebra swallowtails will extend their range a bit further west. Right now they populate the eastern part of the state and I'm in central Oklahoma. Oh, Linda gave me a start of Golden Crownbeard for the Bordered Patches, too. I had tons of them last year, but no host plant for them. Oh, and I planted that hardy lemon tree for the GSTs, altho mine will use the Rue as a host. So, I have really worked last year and this year to acquire more plants. I am a certified Monarch waystation as well, and raise as many sphinx moths as I find on my Virginia Creeper and honeysuckle (so far). I have 3 Nessus sphinx cocoons pupating - they should be emerging any day now. I really love the moths, too. I hope one day to get one of the silk moth species that are found in Oklahoma, too. I don't think there is much more I can add to the garden at this point.
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mcronin
Original Author
13 years ago
You may not believe it, but today was even better than yesterday!!!!!!!! My 10-minute walk through our butterfly sanctuary (6:30-6:40, 95 degrees, no wind) revealed 135 butterflies. Probably 80% were Tiger Swallowtails including at least 25 on ONE BUTTERFLY BUSH. My wife took video of that bush and will include it on our second video of our butterfly sanctuary which will be completed in the fall and made available for free to any of you who wish to view it. I may tap your expertise to find a way to make this video available on line instead of the tedious mailing method I used for DVD number one.

mike
susanlynne48
13 years ago
Hey, Mike! Sounds like your butterfly sanctuary is doing very well! Have you added anything new this year?

I am seeing lots of butterflies I don't see every year in the garden, including Snouts, Texas Crescents, and Checkered Whites. It's really been another amazing year.

Susan
mcronin
Original Author
13 years ago
Susan,

It is a great year for butterflies here and we have added a lot. Major additions include about 50 more homestead purple verbena, three big raised beds of lavender, three big raised beds of lupine, much more cup plant, mexican sunflower, verbena hastata, and harlequin glory bower trees.

mike
bettyd_z7_va
13 years ago
OH MAN!!!

I wish I had known y'all were that close! I just started my Butterfly garden and my 6 year old grandson is interested in Butterflies, also.

We were at the hospital in Roanoke last month where he had some tests done. I would have LOVED to have brought him to tour your garden after the procedure. We thought he would feel weak, nauseated and sleepy afterward. NOT!

The day wasn't totally wasted. We found 2 red bee balm plants at the Walmart on 460 east of Roanoke on the way home. (Haven't been able to locate any around here)

WOW! A whole acre? I don't want to impose, but if you would ever consider allowing us to come 'visit' your Butterflies, we would feel so HONORED and Blessed!!

I can't wait until I have more host/nectar plants on our property. I'm going to try my luck at wintersowing to increase my garden without going broke! lol

I would also love to have a copy of your Ist DVD of your garden if there are any available.

Oh, I forgot my manners....Howdy Neighbor! I'm Betty from Appomattox and my 6 year old "Shadow" is Eli. Nice to meet ya!

I might even get the Hubby more interested if he saw 135 Butterflies in 10 minutes!!!!

WOW! A Whole Acre? I could learn A LOT from Y'all!

Betty

P.S.- I'm going to put this in my favorites so I can have the list of plants you added handy when I get ready to order seeds/plants. Care to share what else you have that you've found successful in your garden? I sure would appreciate it!

BTW- Did I say, "WOW! A whole Acre?" lol
bettyd_z7_va
13 years ago
I forgot to ask in my first post.

Since we are so close, do you have any favorite nurseries/garden centers that carry a lot of Butterfly host/nectar plants and/or seeds? I still can't find any regular fennel plants or seeds around here.

Haven't been able to locate any other people close by interested in Butterflies.

I guess that's why I got so excited about finding 2 bee balm plants! There just isn't a lot to chose from locally.

I'm hoping, since I asked every place I went, that next year they will have a larger selection. I guess I will have to do some mail/internet ordering for the first time. Still a little nervous about that. I'm the kind of person who likes to see it, then bring it home with me. (Hard to teach an old dog new tricks!)

Thanks,
Betty
mcronin
Original Author
13 years ago
Betty,

You and Eli and hubby are welcome to visit. Just arrange a convenient time for all of us. I'll give you a list of the plants in our butterfly sanctuary when you visit. We love to share ideas with others interested in butterflies and butterfly gardens. The butterflies were plentiful from 10-1 today but the greatest numbers seem to frequent the garden between 5:30-7 p.m.

mike
bernergrrl
13 years ago
Mike--That is an incredible amount of butterflies so early in the morning!

I can't wait to see the DVD or an uploaded video of your sanctuary--sounds amazing!

Depending on the size and the speed of your connection, you can upload videos to a number of hosting sites--photobucket and youtube to start.

If you did that, the exposure would be huge--so many more people would be able to access it. Hope you do it!

great day for butterflies

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great day for butterflies

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