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Butterfly Garden

Butterflies love my Quick Fire Hydrangeas

11 years ago

I don't usually post here, but stop by to read on occasion. Hello! :-)

I raised Monarchs with my kids one year, but the patch of milkweed where we found the eggs was cut down years ago. I don't have enough sun (and too much wet soil) for Asclepias syriaca, but was excited to find Asclepias incarnata at a local nursery this summer.

I planted three good-sized plants a few weeks ago, hoping they'll get enough sun to bloom next year. I was excited to look out the other day and realize that an Asclepias incarnata had volunteered in a wild area at the back of my yard. Now I know that I should have the right conditions for it to make it through the winter and bloom next year.

But the plants in my garden that I see the most butterflies on by far are my Quick Fire hydrangeas. (The bees love them too!) Today I saw a few Red Spotted Purples, two Monarchs, and a Red Admiral, all on the Quick Fires. I also saw a couple Giant Swallowtails, but they seemed most interested in zinnias.

I've seen a monarch on the Asclepia once, but that's it. I keep checking it for eggs, but is it too late for that?

Also, yesterday when there was a smaller monarch flitting around and stopping on the Quick Fires, there was a larger one flying very fast in circles around the gardens, and even over the deck. It only landed once, on a just-budding Limelight Hydrangea, but it appeared to be just resting. I wasn't close enough to see if it was a male or female. I know nothing about Monarch behavior, so it made me curious about what it was doing. Any thoughts?

I think it's awesome what some of you are doing to try to encourage milkweed planting and monarch/butterfly awareness.

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Ruth_MI
Original Author

11 years ago

I just transferred a few pictures from my camera.

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Comments (7)

Ruth_MI
Original Author
11 years ago
I was too slow to catch the Giant Swallowtail while it was on the zinnia! Sorry about the blurry picture.
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There's some good info on line that's pretty extensive. The HydrangeasHydrangeas site has pretty good info. http://www.hydrangeashydrangeas.com/propagation.html I always try to use rooting hormone if I can, and use a good potting mix with a bit of sand mixed in for drainage. If you're good about watering the whole mini-greenhouse thing may be optional. I've had plants get damaged before like that, and if it's already broken off - you might as well just give it a try.
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You can Google image search for various states of bloom. All hydrangea paniculata begin mostly white and fade to pinks and browns. Both are "dwarf" hydrangea paniculata, as they aren't supposed to exceed 5' in diameter. There would be zero dieback down to zone 3. All paniculata are drought tolerant and require full sun in zone 4. 'Long as the soil stays moist and mostly shaded, little manual watering would be needed. Little Quick Fire just came out this year, so not many people have it. It would be a wise choice for mixed borders as full size QF (like mine) can exceed 7' in diameter. QF (a rare case) should NOT be pruned past early fall (when the leaves turn), and never after the plant begins to leaf out in spring - otherwise you will eliminate blooms before they happen. Little Lime is a top-rated shrub. Each spring, simply prune out tiny outer branches and leave the thickest toward the middle. There are no pruning restrictions on Limelight. QF stems are ruddy in color and have dark, rough, medium sized leaves. Limelights have much lighter stems and leaves (light green across the board).
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Thanks for the tips on the pictures! I did nothing to the reblooming Hydrangeas. (Endless Summer & Forever & Ever) But they all died back to the ground except for my two Blushing Brides. They of course were the first to bloom. I have around 20 between all the different kinds. The only one not to bloom was my Forvever & Ever Double Pink. Also I have been sort of disappointed with one of my two ES's. It has only had three blooms and is huge, but the other planted the same time grew very small and was loaded with blooms. So I guess this was a growing year for it. Love to see a pic of your QF.
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@luis_pr, it’s performing well, though just now starting to turn pink…in comparison, LQF and QF started turning pink two or three weeks ago. It doesn’t bloom earlier than either of those shrubs, perhaps around the same time as Fire Light, which is a few weeks behind the Quick Fires. It doesn’t grow as quickly as full size Quick Fire, either. Here’s a pic of it, taken today, in my most neglected bed, with Walker’s Low and spirea. I guess all things considered, it’s doing pretty darn good - it gets no supplemental water and is blasted by the sun all day long. Part of it has been browsed by deer; I find it interesting that they come around to the back of the shrub so they don’t have to brush against the nepeta on the other side, which they seem to find too stinky for their tastes!
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Ruth_MI
Original Author
11 years ago
Here's the Red Spotted Purple. He used to like my Oriole jelly feeder, but I had to take it down because of the bees.
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Ruth_MI
Original Author
11 years ago
I guess the Red Admiral was on a Vanilla Strawberry hydrangea.
bandjzmom
11 years ago
Your photos are just gorgeous Ruth. The butterfly in the first photo is not a Monarch. It is the wonderful Viceroy butterfly and it fools people into thinking it's a Monarch. The Viceroy has lines that run across the outside hind wings, and that is how you can tell the difference.
Angie
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Ruth_MI
Original Author
11 years ago
bandjzmom - Thanks for letting me know that. I'd never heard of the Viceroy - really a newbie at this. I wonder if the Viceroys are smaller, too, as that might explain the size difference in the "monarchs" I've seen.

I just did my daily check of the asclepia for eggs. My egg-spotting skills must have gone way downhill. I didn't find eggs, but I found ten tiny monarch cats! (I just Googled to be sure the Viceroy cats didn't look the same.)

Now to set up a place to raise these little guys...
bandjzmom
11 years ago
Welcome Ruth! Congrats on the Monarch cats!! I almost never find eggs. I am happy to snag the caterpillars when I find them. As for butterfly size difference, I believe that there can be pretty significant variations in size even within the same butterfly species. So, it's normal to see different sized Monarchs. Just look for those lines, and the Viceroy will never fool you again! So cool to have the Viceroy!
Angie

" Early in the season when few flowers are available Viceroys feed on aphid honeydew, carrion, dung, and decaying fungi. Later generations feed more often at flowers, favoring composites including aster, goldenrod, joe-pye weed, shepherd's needle, and Canada thistle.Caterpillar Hosts: Trees in the willow family (Salicaceae) including willows (Salix), and poplars and cottonwoods (Populus). "

http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Limenitis-archippus
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