You have a nice stand of verbena! I'm not an expert on identifying butterflies, but it looks like the ones in my book. Those have a little patch of orange/red on each of the middle sides just below the body on the wings. (I'm not too sure how clear that was.) You could also look it up on the internet.

It would help to know what state and what part of the state you live in.

Sue

It's a zebra swallowtail - congrats, congrats!!
Sherry

Hi Sue,

Sorry I forgot to mention--I live in Louisville, Ky. I did look up a picture on the internet and they all have some red in the wing. This one has no red. That verbena is doing so well. I deadhead it and it has been going strong since June. I hope it reseeds--guess I need to stop deadheading it now.

I am so excited. I have a lot of BST chrysalides and 5 have emerged since yesterday. I was looking at them just 5 minutes ago and so one came out. I cannot explain this but the last 8 have all been males. I brought in the eggs and they were all from the same Mom BST.

I also have 47 BST cats in all stages.

Now if I can just find enough Passion Flower for 27 GF that hatched a few days ago on my small Passion Flowers, started from seed last May. I have maybe 20 leaves on all three of those plants. I purchased 6 from Florida that have 10 leaves each. Still not enough for this many GF. Going to keep looking tomorrow. No luck trying to find Passion Flower in the park yesterday. I was not prepared for this. I thought GF were mainly further down South. I had never seen one in person and she just kept laying eggs on those 20 leaves, with me watching her from 2 feet away. I got some great pictures too. I am a newbie and this is my first year raising cats and it is so much fun.

Betty

I have not ventured into the raising cats inside, but have done it with one at a time when my kids were young.

I'm going to let more verbena grow closer together next year, and trim it back more as it's growing to see if it will look like yours.

I think we went through your town 2 years ago on our way to North Carolina to the Outer Banks and Atlantic Beach. We had never seen the ocean, and I was determined to, so we made it! On the way, we went through Pleasant View in Whitley County to see the area where his grandpa lived as a boy.

You live near the Blue Ridge Parkway and Smokey Mountain National Park. That's a lovely area. We experienced fog in the late afternoon from the national park, and had to get off near Asheville. I wish we had been able to go further on it.

I hope your cats get enough food. I'm glad Sherry was able to id the butterfly.

Sue

Thanks Sherry,

We must have made our posts at the same time. That is neat lvtgrdn that your relatives are from Ky. At first I thought you meant Wheatly, Ky.--which is where my Dad was from. Well I am glad you finally got to see the ocean. It is breathtaking when you see it for the first time!!

That is Verbena Bonariensis. I love it and so do the butterflies.

I planted Black and Blue Salvia to attract hummingbirds to my yard and all I have attracted all summer are a zillion bees. The hummers try to sip the nectar and the bees chase them off. I will never have this plant in my yard again.

Betty

I planted black and blue salvia for the first time, and love the flowers. We rarely see hummingbirds here. I haven't noticed if the bees like mine, but I see a lot of them. I also had loads of black wasps on my Virginia mountain mint. I never was sure if they chased the butterflies away.

Sue