It may have been me Susan. I got prickly ash in a trade last year and found three Giant Swallowtail cats on them in late summer/early fall. When the leaves ran out I brought the cats in and tried to get them to eat rue leaves, but they pupated instead. I was afraid it was just in protest but they did successfully emerge this spring so I guess they were just through eating. That's the first GST's I EVER remember seeing. It took quite a bit of patience to wait all winter to see them. I never did find any GSTs on my rue so I'm curious whether they will use yours WebKat. This year, I haven't found any GST cats on either but last year it was late so I'm still hoping. The Mobot site has descriptions of both Prickly Ash and Hop Tree and mentions that Prickly Ash has "considerable defoliation" some years from Giant Swallowtails. That's what I'm hoping for. : ) Normally BLACK Swallowtails are one of the most common butterflies here but I'm just not seeing them this year so my rue is still untouched.

Have you visited any other gardens in your area to see what is attracting the butterflies there? Always a good idea, too. Don't know why you are not getting any. Is this the first year you've either not had many show up, or have you just started your garden this year? I know it took me a good 3-4 years to really get a good population going. Maybe it's just not a good year for butterflies in your location. Like Sandy said, last year was awful for us, altho we had a really nice population of GFs and Monarchs late in the season, starting like mid-August. Butterflies are also capricious - for example, they have never really nectared on pentas in my yard before, especially the cultivars like the Butterfly series. However, this year the Pipevines are going nuts over them. Next year, it'll probably be a different story. Lavendar is also a popular nectar plant as well as lantanas, Cosmic Orange cosmos, zinnias, cleome, and verbena bonariensis. If you get pipevine swallowtails in your area, you might want to consider Aristolochia durior (macrophylla), A. serpentaria, A. tomentosa, and A. clematitis as host plants for them. Most Black Swallowtails like fennel, parsley, dill, and Rue. The Giant Swallowtails will also use Rue as a host plant, so it's a good herb to get for both. Almost everyone in the eastern U.S. will get Black Swallowtails if you plant their food plant. Generally speaking, they don't like Queen Anne's Lace for some reason. Gulf Fritillaries use passion vine, and the natives are Passiflora incarnata (and its cultivars like 'Incense'), Passiflora lutea (likes shady areas), and Passiflora ceurulea (Blue Crown). For nectar plants, it's a good idea to try to have something in bloom during the spring, summer, and fall. Your salix should attract Viceroys and also possibly, Red Spotted Purples. Altho Wild Cherry (prunus serotina) will also attract both. The rotting fruit should definitely attract the sap-dung-fruit butterflies like your Mourning Cloaks, Hackberry Emperors, Question Marks, and Red Admirals. I planted Hops vines this year, but the QMs here prefer the Elm trees so far. I find them on the saplings most of the time, and they're easy to spot because they lay numerous eggs, with a few that are "stacked" on top of the others. Butterflies that use a number of different host plants? Sometimes you have to just take a "wait and see" to know what their favorite host plant is for your region. For example, your tiger swallowtails may prefer Cottonwood over the Sweet Bay. You can also try Ptelea trifoliata (hop tree). It can take a bit more shade than most host plants. I don't have an answer for you on your other questions about the RSPs and Tigers, so maybe someone else can pop in here and answer. Are you planting milkweed for the Monarchs? Sounds like you have a good start. It is good to have host plants and nectar plants available. Egg-laying mommas like to re-energize after a bit of egg laying. I see them nectar and then oviposit, nectar and then oviposit, so having both will assure you of an ongoing population. Welcome to the forum and good luck with your garden. We have a saying, "if you plant it, they will come"....and believe me, one day you'll have more butterflies than you know what to do with. Take if from my experience!! LOL! Susan

Butterflyman, That's very nice of you to offer ptelea seeds, and I will gladly take you up on that. I will email you through your My Page if your email thing is set up, which I forgot to check before I posted this, but I will shortly. If you've had a lot of success with the trees, I'm willing to give it a try. Right now rue is the GST butterflies' only choice for a host plant here. Thanks again! Sherry, I think I'll try the ptelea (of course, I guess it will be a few years before they'll be big enough to raise any on) to see if it makes a difference. I'll bring them in, or at least some of them at some point and raise them on those and see how it goes. It surely can't be any worse than what it's been this year. I'm so disappointed and feel kind of bad thinking that they probably would have been better off outside. Maybe they just don't like something about being inside, if that's possible with a cat. I'm glad you mentioned about your pteleas dying to the ground, so if mine would happen to do that sometime, I'll remember what you said and think they'll probably be okay. Thanks for the moral support, Sherry, and I'm also sorry for your ZST losses. I remember reading about it and thought how frustrating that must have been for you. The ZST is actually my favorite butterfly (PVS are my favorite cats though) because I've always admired those long tails of the ZST and have always loved the colors of black and white together. Due to lack of information before when I had tried to start paw paw trees a few years ago, they all died (didn't know they needed shade the first year or two). I also bought two 3-footers on ebay with neither of them making it. I've come to my own conclusion that it's probably best to either start them from seed in tree pots or buy them as a very small tree. So I obtained a few seeds and am growing trees in tree pots to hopefully plant in our back yard in the spring. Now the challenge will be trying to get them through the winter, since that's not exactly my area of expertise either (nothing is actually...ha). I guess I'll just play it by ear and hope I don't have a crop failure. Ha. I really do want to get ZSTs here in our county and would be absolutely thrilled when I see the first one flying around in our yard. Cathy

Newt As bad as it is along the coast, and as widespread as the hurricane damage was, not every garden was devastated. I just received an email acct. from Nancy Newfield who lives in Metarie, La. on the west side of N.O. and many of her plants came through unscathed. Her part of New Orleans was spared much of the devastation as it is on higher ground. Also there are pockets in and around Biloxi that only had minor damage. Nancy in fact just drove down from Baton Rouge to water plants, refill feeders and check on her home. Yes there may not be an abundance of feeders but our little ones have survived since the dawn of time without our help and I think they will be fine. With all that said I worry about them too. Penny