I have a new bed ready for next year, thanks to hubby. It was a lot of work. I have to replace all the serpentaria he dug up while I was in Australia. :-( I'm going to add the baetica plants to this bed and see how they do.

I also have seeds stratifying in the fridge. I put them in one fourth cup of sand with one fourth teaspoon of water like it said to do on the Butterfly Encounters site. I think I always add too much water.

I am waiting for winter soltice to put out some winter sown seeds. Last year the Ptelea trifoliata did great being wintersown, as did White Turtlehead, Pawpaw, and milkweed seeds. I've got hundreds of cuttings in floral foam, and they are starting to root. The greenhouse is already full and I just got it! I've ordered lots of new exotic seeds from ebay--I like the small amounts so I can experiment--including lots of morning glories. I'm trying to grow some Alabama Crimson Honeysuckle from seed. It's so much fun to see if you can get new seed to germinate. I still can't get Passifloras to germinate. And there are so many wonderful varieties out there.

And I plan to go see my friend Susan some time this winter, when I get over her way!

Yippee-ky-yay!

Questions - is white turtlehead in the genus chelone? I bought one at Walmart of all places in a 3 gal pot. It is a pink flower, though. I just thought it was pretty.

I didn't realize that passion flower was that difficult to germinate. Did you check out the PF forum here to see if they have any suggestions?

I'm thinking about doing some Japanese Morning Glories myself. Found a couple of good sites to order from. They are so so pretty.

Is A. baetica vining or more like clematitis? I am reluctant to pay $5 for 4 seeds like some offer, you know?

I continue to enjoy the Salvia Forum, too! Lots of good info there.

What exotics are you planning to grow?

Sus

The first thing at the top of my list is that I have to go buy some potting soil to do my winter sowing next month. There are also several types of seeds that I need that I have to order sometime before then (I'm running out of time!).

I plan on getting some Baptisia australis seeds somewhere and winter sowing them so I can add some more plants to that area of my one garden in the spring.

I think I will be digging out most of my swamp milkweed plants the end of March or beginning of April and replacing them with tropical milkweed. I know the tropical milkweed isn't perennial and I'll have to be replanting it every year, but I spend a lot of time each year cutting off seeds pods from the plants to prevent them from coming up where I don't want them. I figure I'll be saving time by switching them out for tropical milkweed. I just wish I weren't allergic to it like I am.

I decided to replace the portulacas with something else only don't know what yet. I've had them planting in the very front of the garden for the past few years. Even though I like their colors, because of their growth habit, it makes it very difficult for me to weed that part of the garden, especially trying to dig out the crabgrass. If anyone can think of a low-growing host or nectar plant, I'll certainly take it into consideration.

I want to add more sand into the part of the garden where I have the lupines planted. I know they like a sandy area, and although I did add some into the soil when I planted them last year, I think it could still use some more.

I have to secure my passionvine trellis better because a strong wind came along and blew it over, bending the wire at the bottom. Right now I have it propped up with a heavy lawn chair. lol I'm hoping that the passionvine makes it through the winter this year. I also had some growing last year but none came back in the spring. I was glad that I had bought some P. incarnata from PM Nursery and a packet of P. caerulea at Lowe's.

I think I will probably winter sow a few butterfly weed seeds. I have an area of the garden that I've had bw in for at least 3 years and it's always been beautiful and well liked by the butterflies for the nectar (just wish it would bloom longer), but I keep losing plants every year and by next year I'll probably need to replace at least half of the plants. The Monarchs aren't real enthusiastic about laying eggs on it, but I love the brilliant orange color of the flowers, and it's one of the few early blooming flowers in my garden.

I want to start some more Aristolochia macrophylla here. I already have some climbing up a 12-ft high trellis that I fashioned out of a roll of 2"x4" wire. Pipevine Swallowtails have become my favorite cats to raise, and that's why I want to grow even more of the pipevine.

I want to put some paw paw trees out in our back yard to try to attract the ZST here. I'm also hoping to enjoy from fruit from the trees when they get old enough to bear.

I could probably think of some more things, but I already wrote a book. ;)

Cathy

I am a newbie here and just started a winter sow with malva Zebrina and columbine seed. Got an area tilled up for a butterfly garden when I get some seed, plants or something in it to attract butterflies. Just looking forward to spring already. I think butterflies are attracted to hollyhocks too aren't they?

Hi and welcome! Malva zebrina is said to be a host plant for the Painted Lady but I have never found any on mine. I have not seen that many in my garden either.

Check out the link attached to find the butterflies that frequent your particular part of Missouri. There are a few host plant listings for each butterfly but there are additional listings on this forum's FAQs together with a list of favored nectar plants.

Cathy, Prairie Moon should have the seeds you mention. I grew one of mine from seed. The seed is huge! Scabiosa would be a good nectar plant to add to your bed, or gaillardias. The only host plants I can think of off the top of my head are ones you already have, e.g. pussytoes, violets. Red or regular white clover would be good for the Clouded and Orange Sulphurs. You could also try a Rock Cress for the Falcate Orangetips. I think it's RC that they like. Someone will correct me if it's not. You sound like you're gonna be a busy lady as usual!

I save my clean up til spring because I grow a lot of borderline hardy plants and leaving up the stalks privides some protection for those things during the winter.

I need to get potting soil, too. I have some but not near enough.

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Butterflies of Missouri

Susan, Prairie Moon is definitely going to be my first "stop" at shopping for garden seeds. I've ordered from them before and have always been a satisfied customer.

I've seen pictures of blue scabiosa and it looks real pretty. If it's shorter than gaillardia (I think I forgot to mention that gaillardia are directly behind where the portulacas are/were), then that would be fine. I'm not sure of the growth habit of scabiosa. I had bachelor buttons, a similar type of plant (at least to me it seems similar judging from pictures I've seen of the flowers of scabiosa) planted in our garden in 2007. I guess for me it's more convenient for a plant to all bloom at once for just a month or two and then I can cut the dead flower heads off all at the same time rather than if it's the type of plant where they say it will bloom all pretty much all spring and/or summer (constant deadheading isn't my thing). Another thing I didn't like about the bachelor buttons was that they came back the next year with a vengeance (too much of one), and I didn't even see any butterflies on the flowers. I certainly could try the scabiosa because I think those plants have beautiful flowers. If it doesn't suit me, I can always take it out. I've done that before. I've moved and pulled out lots of plants already for one reason or another. My garden is almost a constant surprise! Ha.

Oh, it's funny you should mention rock cress. I had actually been considering that and still kind of am. I have it planted down at the side of the swamp milkweed patch, but it's dying out. I could try moving the few that are remaining. I had first planted it in 2006 to try to get Falcate Orangetips here but never did see any even though they've been reported for my county and in most or all of the surrounding counties. I'm not giving up on them though. I don't know if the plants don't like the soil or if it's a little too shady where I have them planted. I don't know if it's a regular trait of that plant but mine started out looking nice and started getting leggy towards the middle and worked its way out I guess to the whole plant until a whole plant would die. I think I only have 2 left out of the 8 that I originally had. For me it doesn't make much of a ground cover. I thought that would be the added bonus to help keep weeds down, but my rock cress (Arabis arensii 'Compinkie') isn't dense enough and easily lets the weeds through. It gets very pretty little flowers in the spring though.

I think I'll be getting potting soil sometime this week since I have to go that way to take my daughter to the optometrist to get her glasses straightened (she's like me sitting on her glasses and bending them once or twice). I just got a few milk jugs cut yesterday to winter sow seeds in then, after I buy some, of course. :)

I've been buying packets of Avena sativa (oats) at the same place (not the optometrist but the potting soil place :)), but I was just looking at Prairie Moon's website the other day and a lightbulb came on! Why pay $1 something for a seed packet of oats when I can buy a few pounds of it at PM for just a little bit more and it will last the whole year and then some! I get the oats for our cats to chew on. They're not outside cats and they just love eating them. It even says on the packet "Cat grass". That's actually what caught my attention in the first place and made me want to buy it for them.

I agree with you about leaving those plants till spring to clean up the dead stalks so they stand a better chance of making it.

Cathy

PMs 2010 catalog was issued yesterday and you can view/download it online now. Yippee! I have to wait until end of month to get my seeds and to start winter sowing. How do you do your milk jugs? I tried to use them one year by cutting around the middle not all the way around, but leaving about 2 inches attached so the top was like a sort of flap. My problem was that they would flop open and dry out, etc. The 2 litre soda bottles did better for me.

I think the Scabiosa is a low growing mound or rosette of foliage and the flower stalks rise above the foliage giving it a kind of airy appearance. It is supposed to be a good nectar plant. I know 'Butterfly Blue' is kind of a light purple blue and there is a dark red flower as well and probably others. Another is Stoke's aster that comes in several pretty colors, and is a known nectar plant.

Meanwhile, I am drooling over seeds!

Susan

I love the Pink Mist and Butterfly Blue Scabiosas. They are slow spreaders, but the mounds get larger each year. They are early to bloom, and will bloom all summer. They are better if deadheaded. The butterflies adore these flowers.

I've included information for you, Cathy.

Here is a link that might be useful: Butterfly Blue Scabiosa

You are all so busy!! I just added a new lasagne bed at the end of the fall, so I'll be filling that with some divisions of good ole standbys for me here.

My big thing next year is taking back some of my gardens from the sheep sorrel. Sorry American Coppers, but I gotta take care of some the other butterflies.

I also need to do a lot of dividing--things are getting crowded, so many plants seemed to me stunted and/or losing their vigor. A couple of weeks ago, I manhandled my NY Ironweed, and have many divisions of it. I replanted some in a different bed, and I've got divisions hanging out in my garage. They'll probably be okay for next year.

I'm sure as spring rolls in, I may be buying some plants or seeds--can never help myself.

I've got a white scabiosa, but it's never really attracted any butterflies to it. I do love Stoke's Aster--a pretty blue, and butterflies, especially skippers, love it. One year it was always covered and sometimes with three or four different species of butterflies.

Have fun!

There are several cultivars of Stoke's Aster (Stokesia laevis) today, and the species is native to the US, hardy to zone 5. I attached a link to Bluestone Perennials which reflects a few of the cultivars. I grow the older one, Blue Danube, but would like to add others to the garden, especially 'Honeysong Purple'.

Both Scabiosa and Stoke's Aster would work equally well in your garden, Cathy.

Another one you might consider is the Chocolate Daisy. I have that as well and it is a gorgeous plant from the genus Berlandiera lyrata. When you smell it in the morning it really does smell like chocolate! The foliage kinda reminds me of that of an artemisia, silvery and feathery in appearance. It would be a hardy perennial in your zone.

I hope mine seeds around some - it is supposed to. The seed pods are unique looking. The flowers are open in late afternoon to morning and close during day. It does attract butterflies and probably moths too. It is also native to the US.

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Stoke's Aster cultivars

hummm........lets see...

1. expand garden
2. have a raised bed in the middle for the veggies
3. buy a rustic old barrel, fill it with water and grow lotus flowers.
4. plant some wild Queen Anne lace and hackberry seeds I found
5. Finally plant tropical milkweed,Virginia snake root,sweet bay, passion vine lady Margret/ purple,woolly plantain,bachelor's buttons, egg plant( black beauty), watermelon, lettuce, sweet peas, squash,celosia, tritoma, Shirley poppies,cosmos,butterfly weed, black-eye Susan,snapdragon's, cucumbers, garden bean, gay feather, wild black cherry, cyclone spider flower, Mexican hat sunflower, hibiscus, saliva, giant marigold, purslane, sweet William, peony, button bush, lavender, indigo,purple cone flowers, turtle head, johnny pop-ups, mourning glories, luffa plant, and my precious lotus flower. seeds.

I'm just overwintering plants that I potted up or planted out this fall, Susan. I've got 6 or 7 Asclepias currasavica plants in containers that I plan to plant out in early spring for the monarchs that pass through here every spring. In addition to hosting monarchs, A. curassavica is one of my most used nectar plants, so you can't have too many.
I'm also overwintering some new passionvines, both in pots and in the ground. I'm most excited about P. umbilicata - in a pot - because it makes a beautiful flower, and after gulf frits laid eggs on it last year, the cats did very well. I've got some more P. mucronata plants in the ground that I've covered with a thick layer of leaves - the ones I had before died after we had a somewhat hard freeze. These are planted in my garden close to the place where we burn limbs, so if we have a hard freeze, we'll burn some of it overnight, to, hopefully, create a warmer-than-the-surrounding-area micro-climate to keep the plants alive. This was another favorite of the gulf frits.
I planted some new salvias, and I'm waiting to see how they survive the winter - they're all in raised beds, so that should help them. We've had nearly 15" of rain already this month, and they're predicting more for today and all the rest of this month, so thank goodness for raised beds!
Sherry

Sherry, I am curious to know what Salvias you planted out. Also, I recall you mentioning a salvia grower some time ago but I don't remember the name. Was it Rich Dufresne of A World of Salvias? Check out Bustani Plant Farm's website for some really nice natives and salvias, Steve is a top 30 Garden Watchdog company and word is getting around about his excellent plant material and packing. I definitely plan to order some from him this spring.

We are having dry weather right now - very cold. My water pipes froze earlier this week and it took awhile for them to thaw. I hope we get into a warmer pattern in January, but everyone is saying this is an El Nino year for us, which means it should be wetter than it is, but so far, just very cold.

Your PVs sound gorgeous!

Sus

Susan, Oh, I'm drooling over seeds too! I'm so glad for winter sowing...it helps the winter go a little faster when I'm kept busy doing something. I guess I don't understand online shopping carts. I was on PMN website for at least an hour looking down through the seeds and deciding what I'd like and clicking on them along the way. I thought those things would stay in the cart, but apparently when my daughter restarted the computer it lost everything and I have to start all over. I thought I'd go back to it and finish order, but it went *poof*. So when I'm in the mood some other day, I'll go back to the beginning. No big deal because I love to look at plant pictures anyway and dream about the spring and summer and how the garden will look.

I just hope I start seeing more butterflies than I've seen here the past couple years. 2008 and 2009 were pretty bad as far as numbers of butterflies here. I was glad that I got the PVS for the first time though and got to raise a bunch of cats. Oh, I can hardly wait to see if they come here again in 2010! Those are definitely my favorite cats to raise. I want to try to devise some kind of system to make it easier to raise cats, but I only have part of it in my head. I have to really think about it sometime when I'm not thinking about a bunch of other things.

Thank you for the suggestions of plants for the front of the garden. I'll most likely go with one of those. I bet any of them would look very pretty. Thank you for the Stoke's Aster link.

Sandy, Thank you for the scabiosa link. I didn't look at it yet but will right after I do a couple things here. I think the older I get the more I feel like I have way more many things to get done than I have time to do them. Haha. I really love gardening so much. It's time consuming, but I'm all for helping the butterflies, and I love the look at the flowers. My family likes them too.

Cathy

Cathy, as usual, your enthusiasm is an inspiration to all of us here. I cannot wait to winter sow either, but I am trying to curb my behavior so that I don't bite off more than I can chew when it comes to ordering seeds. I just don't have a lot more room to expand my garden, so I need to be judicious and thrifty LOL!

I am getting into bird watching right now, too, but the number of sparrows is beginning to dim my enthusiasm on that. I started out with Purple Finches and House Finches, but the sparrows have kind of scared them away I think. The Cardinals don't seem bothered by them, though. Gonna try to make some suet to attract the woodpeckers.

I have only had PVS one year in 2007. Nada since then. Don't you raise a lot of Monarchs? PVS cats are so energetic. They are like hyperactive kids IMHO! I have had a lot of other butterflies in 2008 and 2009, like loads of BSTs, and this year a lot of different species such as the Tawny Emperors, Buckeyes, and Red Admirals. So, I am not complaining about not getting the PVS. Every year brings a new surprise so I am excited about 2010.

Sus

Susan, I've never heard of Bustani Plant Farm, but I'll sure check it out!
I ordered my salvias from Goodwin Creek Gardens in Oregon, because they carry Buddleia globosa, which I'd always wanted to try. I planted my B. globosa up by the main road on an extremely sunny, well drained site, usually dry in summer. It grew real well last year, but hasn't bloomed yet.
I ordered and planted several S. microphyllas, because I'd read that they tolerated humidity and wetness better than the many S. greggis, which like it dry - good thing, huh? They bloomed a lot, and I saw butterflies and hummers visiting them throughout the summer.
I also planted a S. gesneriflora, which has grown real tall and leggy with no blooms. It sets roots and colonizes at the drop of a hat, so I've dug up one of them and potted it up, still no blooms. I think it must need more sunlight than I've given it, so I'll probably plant the potted up gesneriflora on a much sunnier site this spring.
I planted 3 S. blepharophylla/eye leaf sages, and they bloomed nicely, but not excessively. The S. microphyllas did the best, still even have all their leaves.
Another passionvine that I'm trying is the P. caerulea/'Incense' hybrid, Indigo Dream. You can't have too much P. caerulea - mine keep their leaves all or nearly all winter long, and gulf frit cats have overwintered on them. There are quite a few eggs on mine now - 'wonder if they'll overwinter and hatch out in the spring?
It's finally quit raining, and it's supposed to turn cold, so I'll probably be bringing in the containerized plants today or tomorrow, depending on how low it's supposed to go. That's my gardening winter for you - hauling plants in and out of the house! :)
Sherry

Thanks for the info on your Salvias. I have e-mailed Rich Dufresne of A World of Salvias and he has sent me a list of what he is growing. He is very knowledgeable and he is going to let me know what Salvias would be best in my zone 7a garden. I have a variety of exposures, including everything from full sun to part shade. Some Salvias do not like full sun. Some like more water than others, too, so I really have to become more familiar with the various likes and dislikes.

I had thought about one of the Blepharophyllas, too, but I told Richard that I wanted only Salvias that are either hardy to zone 7 or at the minimum would reliably self sow. There are so many to choose from. Also enticing are other Lamiaceae family members that he carries, including Agastaches which he has hybridized. Drool........

The P. caerulia 'Indigo Dream' sounds delicious! Is is a hardy PV like the parent? Is it a sport of Incense? I wlll have to look it up.

It is so much fun to dream and plan.....

Susan

Susan, Indigo Dream is a hybrid with P. caerulea and P. 'Incense' being the parents - P. 'Incense' is a hybrid itself, from P. incarnata and P. cincinnata. Since the two parents are both hardy,I imagine it'll be hardy - P. caerulea is the cold hardiest in my garden, and P. 'Incense' comes back for me every year.
I looked through Bustani's and found quite a few plants I want to order next spring - they have a good selection and good prices - so I bookmarked it. I don't need to be buying any more plants, but you know how us plantaholics are!
Sherry

Sus, Oh but I've always thought that you had a lot of enthusiasm, so I don't think I have you beat there. You're nice to say that though. ;) I know what you mean about biting off more than you can chew. I do that a lot. Well, most of the time actually. I have projects galore that are sitting around waiting to get done.

That's great that you're getting into birding too. I've been into that for probably close to 25 years and really enjoy watching the birds out at the feeders. I have bluebird boxes up for the bluebirds and have gourds on shepherd's hooks for the tree swallows. I also get wrens nesting here and other kinds of birds and lots at the feeders. I love birds and of course also butterflies. I'll have to email you sometime about birding. You mentioned sparrows, and I have some things to say about them and some other things. Maybe none of it would be new to you but I'll at least mention some things then.

Isn't that odd how you have PVS one year and none the next two! Actually, that has fascinated me about different kinds of butterflies; I'll see them here and then not again for awhile. Well, I hope that you get PVS in 2010! Oh yes, I agree with your about those being like hyperactive kids. If you take the lid off the container, you'd better keep your eye on it because those critters move fast. I had one crawling on the table one day when I just walked away from the container for a short time thinking the cats would stay put. I might be imagining things, but they almost seem to sense when I take the lid off and want to hightail it out of there.

Yeah, I raise a lot of Monarchs if you call hundreds a lot. The most I raised was I think in 2007 when I released about 520. This year was 350. It's a ton of work and I want to try to come up with a better way of doing it.

You sure get to see a variety of butterflies there. I wish I would get to raise some more kinds. I only saw a Red Admiral here very briefly several years ago. Wouldn't you know it, I didn't have false nettle then. I actually thought I had it here because I have plants coming up here that resemble it but isn't that (don't know what though). So I planted some last year but didn't see any Red Admirals. I'm hoping that I will eventually though.

I saw a Common Buckeye here for maybe a minute in 2008 but didn't get a picture of it (dead battery). I planted Verbena hastata in hopes of getting them to lay eggs but didn't see any at all this year. The one I saw last year was nectaring on the Verbena bonariensis.

Unlike you, I've never seen any Tawny Emperors here, but I didn't have any hackberry trees here until this past spring/summer. They're not much more than a foot tall, but a Question Mark managed to find them and I raised a few of those cats.

I think I've had American Lady cats here every year since I planted some pussytoes that some very nice person got for me. It's kind of hard to cut those leaves off to bring inside and raise the cats in here, so I think I'm going to make an enclosure with some boards and screen (any other suggestions are welcome) and put it over the plants. It will only cover a small portion of the bed. I was thinking I could move all the cats to that area and then move the enclosure as the food supply dwindles. I really don't know if it's a good idea or not, but every year I worry when I don't see the cats on the plants anymore. I think they mostly hide during the day and come out at night though, so I always hope that nothing gets them, but I'd rather be more sure of that with a covering to protect them from wasps and birds, etc. Of course, with as tight as those plants are, I don't imagine that it would be too easy for me to try to find all of the spiders that are on them to remove them.

I don't have any overwintering BSTs like I did the past few years because the three that I raised eclosed in the spring/summer. I still have the GSTs here from last year when they overwintered. I think if they don't eclose in 2010, I'll probably take them out of the containers and give them up for dead. Only one of them eclosed out of about 40. I only have 5 out there (in another building, no heat) overwintering from this year. GSTs are discouraging for me to raise because a lot of them die. I feed them rue, but eventually I'd like to try raising them on wafer ash (I just started a couple from seed). I also have gas plants, but they are very small.

I hope that my Wild Indigo Duskywings are okay that I have out there bunking with the GSTs. I fed them Baptisia australis and Lupinus perennis, which they are still on but not moving (as far as I know anyway). I've never raised any kind of cats before that overwinter (I mean that the actual cats and not the chrysalids overwinter), so it's making me kind of nervous wondering how in the world they'll be okay in the spring. I don't understand why they don't freeze and die. If they are alive, I hope that they quell their appetites until after my plants have some growth on them.

You're absolutely right...every year brings a surprise and I'm so looking forward to this coming year to see what kinds of butterflies and cats I get!!! My head is always so full of plans! You've helped me and I really appreciate it!

Cathy

Well I've kind of had a bug or something the last few days, so haven't felt too good.

Cathy, you are lucky to have those American Lady BFs! I had some one year, but something got them and kept getting them. Was afraid, as you said, to bring them in.

I will e-mail you re: birds after Xmas. Kind of hectic getting last minute details done right now. This is probably the last year my GD will believe in Santa Claus so, WAHHHHH! I have another on the way, due in late June. So excited!

I ordered seed yesterday. Some from Prairie Moon, some from Everwilde Farms. I haven't ordered from them before, but the seed amounts are enormous. Asclepias curassavica amount is 1250 seeds for $2.50!!

Also got A. hirtella, tuberosa, purpurescens, viridis and a few other wildflower seeds. Gotta get my soda bottles ready and get some potting soil and that's about it.

I hope all of you have a very, very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year of butterflying!

Susan

I have long leaf pines being delivered sometime this month (Jan.) from the LA. Dept of Forestery. 500 of them. No typo 500 seedlings. Minimum order size. I will use approx. 200-250. part of an ongoing restoration on "my" land. Pine savannah. Will give the rest away. $40, forty dollars was the cost, can't beat that price.
I still have an acre or two to burn off/prepare for planting. 5-6 acres is ready to go, preping for the past couple of years (since Katrina)
Then there is also the usual spring burns to be done in my wildflower/butterfly patches. Thanks to caterwallin,
I also have some seeds to plant down in the bottom area.

Yeah for Cathy! And I applaud you on your restoration project!

You must be close to the gulf in zone 8b, no? MissSherry lives in that vicinity, too.

Got my PM seeds in the mail yesterday - they are soooo prompt!

We had 14" of snow Xmas Eve, and it is still pretty snowy out there. Roads are starting to clear but they melt and refreeze at night. We are in the middle of another bit of snow but only supposed to get a couple of inches. I've been busy trying to keep the bird feeders full!

Looking forward to hearing more from you, Ron.

Susan

I just got the PM catalog today--going to start going through it tonight! Been thinking about rearranging plants.

Susan, We've moved our feeders to be a little closer to the house, so we can see the action up close now. My favorite is a female Downy (or Hairy, whichever is the smaller one) Woodpecker. Makes me so happy to see her. It is freezing here today--10 degrees about half hour ago.

Ron--That is so fabulous that you are restoring your property! Do you time your burns around butterfly life cycles? I think it's tricky to figure out when to do it so that the proper habitat can be maintained.

Hi bernergrrl,
Tell you the truth, I don't (yet) have a solid understanding of the life cycles/timing. I do know/have learned that way before Smokey the Bear, forests burned on a regular basis, esp. N.American piney woods and the critters,plants evolved/depend on it. It was a regime of high frequency, low intensity fires. That regime has been supressed for many years now, resulting in bassackwards low frequency, high intensity (catastrophic)forest fires.
Google "prescribed burning" sometime.
Guess I'm getting long winded here, but I predominately use early spring burns for a number of reasons, clears off the prior years dead growth which in turn provides a nutrient flush, allows the sun to warm the soil. Three months later you would never know. It's flush with native grasses and wildflowers/nectar.
Do I roast/kill some over wintering cats? Probably. So to minimize that, I'll only burn 1/2 or 2/3 in any one year, rotate it, leave some cover/shelter.
My burned acreage abutts unburned for edge effect http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/178617/ecotone
and provides the host plants/trees, sassfras, tulip poplar,
blackcherry, oaks and hickories etc.
What was your question? :-)
Ron

I was hoping you'd leave some host trees, like the ones you mentioned, unburned, Ron. I don't think they can live through a burn, and I've never found a caterpillar on any pines.
My butterfly counts have been reduced quite a bit since the hurricane, and I don't think they're going to be like they were pre-Katrina in my lifetime. There are many people who have cleaned their wooded property of downed trees by bulldozing the whole thing - gross! I guess if you have big acreage, though, you can't pick through the woods and just haul off the fallen trees like I did, and then plant additional trees and shrubs in the open spaces. I only have 5 1/2 acres to manage.
Good luck!
Sherry

Hey Ron--That sounds like a good plan--I always wonder about burning; I understand that it's important, but I always stress about the caterpillars and chrysalides that are probably overwintering. But in order to maintain their habitat, the burns need to happen...so I like the idea about burning in a strategic manner like you are doing. Wish more people would think about burning in such a thoughtful way--butterflies generally don't figure into the equation.

I've allowed some areas of my yard to go back to a "natural state," and I worry about not burning or getting rid of the thatch, but the area is pretty wet, and it's in a state of succession, as it will return back to pine/birch/oak woodlands. I suppose I could do some scything...would be good exercise. I posted a link to NABA's page about dealing butterfly habitats beyond backyard butterfly gardens. Might be interesting for someone like you who is doing such large scale habitat support for butterflies. Thanks for the thinking of the butterflies; they're so neglected.

MissSherry--Only 5 1/2 acres to manage! That sounds like a lot to me! All by yourself and DH...

Here is a link that might be useful: NABA Pages about Butterfly Habitat Management