I'm in southeast Mississippi on the line between zones 8 and 9 - we had our first real freeze last night, got down to 29 degrees!
I had success with the usual plants, Susan -

Host Plants -

Aristolochia tomentosa - PVS
Aristolochia serpentaria - PVS
Ptelea trifoliata - Giant swallowtails/tiger swallowtails
Citrus - Louisiana Sweet orange tree and Meyer lemon - Giant swallowtails
Ruta graveolens/rue - Giant swallowtails/black swallowtails
Passiflora incarnata/maypops - Gulf fritillaries/variegated frits
P. biflora - Gulf frits
P. 'Lady Margaret' - Gulf frits/variegated frits
P. 'Incense' - Gulf frits
P. 'Anastasia' - Gulf frits
P. reflexiflora - Gulf frits
P. loefgrenii - Gulf frits
Viola floridanum/common violets - Variegated frits
Cassia bicapsularis - Cloudless sulphurs/sleepy oranges/little yellows
Humulus lupus/hops vine - Question marks
Pentas - Tersa sphinx moths
Diodia virginiana - Tersa sphinx moths
Prunus serotina - Tiger swallowtails/red-spotted purples
Persea borbonia - Palamedes swallowtails
P. palustris - Palamedes swallowtails
Sassafras albidum - Spicebush swallowtails
Lindera benzoin - Spicebush swallowtails
Liquidambar styraciflua/sweetgum - Luna moths
Boehmeria cylindrica - Red Admirals/question marks
Gnaphalium pensylvanicum - American ladies

Nectar Plants -

Senecio confusus/Mexican flame vine/Mexican love vine
Pentas lanceolata/pentas
Tithonia/Mexican sunflowers
Stachytarpheta urticifolia/porterweed
Lantana camara/lantana
Buddleia davidii/butterfly bush
Asclepias curassavica/tropical milkweed

MissSherry

I hope everyone continues to provide input. I am going home tonight! YIPPEE! Sad to say I won't be seeing you until I get my CPU, and they may be awhile. I was glad to get back and hear and chat with y'all while I was here at my daughter's house. See you soon!!!!!

Susan

I'm glad you're getting to go home, Susan!
One plant that I omitted was sweet almond verbena, can't remember the scientific name - aloysia something or other. I got mine late in the season, so I just potted it up to a bigger pot, and now I've got it on baker's racks in my kitchen. I'm not sure how much cold it can take, so I wanted to wait and plant it next spring, so it'll have all year to build up roots that it might need to weather our little freezes. The butterflies used it while it was in its pot, and it's making my kitchen smell wonderful with the blooms it continues to make! I love the smell of the flowers on this plant, so this is one for the butterflies to nectar on and the poeple to smell!
MissSherry

Yay, Susan!

The one plant that I had great success in propagating this summer was the Mexican Flamevine (Senecio confusus). I couldn't believe how easy it was to start this fab nectar plant. I now have a LARGE pot of it in the corner of my butterfly sanctuary and the vines have grown, oh, around 5' and I just planted it recently. I have some smaller pots of it around and have given some pots away.

In my school garden (the one along the parking lot) the Buddleia just took off. This poor garden is quite neglected; I just don't have a lot of time to work in it. If you were to see it, though, it doesn't look bad at all (just don't look at the weeds that need weeding right now!). I've had numerous Monarchs visit and oviposit. Throughout the year, Hummingbirds, Skippers, Painted and West Coast Ladies have been by. I didn't think the transplanted Calotropis gigantea (Crownflower) was going to make it but the two did and I found a Monarch cat on one. The other must have had one as well since it is now just a stick.

Here's a weird one (maybe not?) but the Fennel I planted at school turned into this amazing Ladybug Haven. The plant itself looked awful all year long but if you would look carefully among the sort-of greenery (our custodian doesn't turn the water on regularly, which is the bummer) you'd find all these Ladybug eggs! I would go out, gather a little sprig of eggs, and put it amongst the Milkweed where the nasty !#$% Oleander Aphids were hanging out.

hello
this was my 1st year raising cats, and I think we did well.
my nector plants the Bflies liked were
cosmos
sedum
verbina on a stick
butterfly bushes (of course)
and the buckeyes loved the good ol merigolds

I was limited on the host plants this year, but thanks to the gernerosity of many of you I will have much more next year.
japanse cherry and apple trees - Tiger swallow tails

honey vine and wild milkweed - monarchs

parsley, fennel, dill, and unknown early blooming weed with flat clumps of tiney white flowers (found many on this) -Black swallow tails

willows - viceroy

wild elms - question marks

orange trumpet vine - trumpet vine sphinx

I think thats all we had this year, but next year we will have more.
have a great new years
michelle

Susan, my most unexpected success this year was my profusion zinnias.

I'd grown them before and never saw much activity around them.

This year I got a color new to me, like deep pink or apricot or something. I wish I'd remember to save tags.

I put them in the flower garden then decided they clashed. So I moved them to the veggie garden just outside the little hoop/greenhouse I have figuring it was better than just throwing them out.

Well the Sachem skippers found them and they were alive with activity through the fall. Until the last few years Sachems were a rarety up here!

American ladies were also attracted. And once the other nectar plants fizzled, even monarchs and a few BST came 'round.

Maryann in CT

There is harly a nectar plant better, easier, and more persistent than lilliput zinnias or cut and come again zinnias. I maintain a small butterfly garden in a neighborhood wilderness park (south side for the sun, of course), and in Houston's heat and humidity the zinnias did very well indeed. Although the plants eventually succumb to fungal diseases and get pretty rank, nevertheless, I bring on successive generations on a monthly basis. Our growing season is around 8.5 months, and butterflies are around for all of that. I also notice a number of butterfly species' using the Asclepias curassavica for nectar. At the risk of going off-topic, I also advocate native plants for both butterflies and native bees. The native bees tend to be more targeted on particular plants as preferred nectar sources as opposed to the promiscuous selections of their European-honeybee cousins. I get leafcutter bees visiting my Gaillardia pulchras (my plants start out as native seed and are cultivated by me). Gaillardia is a long-season bloomer that will push out flowers even if not dead-headed. Gaillardia is perennial here, too. I also like the short but spectacular bloom of Centaurea americana, or Basketflower, which is a native annual that reseeds itself in my garden without intervention. The are butterflies and native bees all over it in the spring. I once observed my crop in full bloom only to find native bees were staging a bacchanal on the abundant and large blooms, something that I observed for the first time in 2005. It occurred to me that solitaries, which comprise most native bee species, need a place to rendezvous, and my Basketflower crop is one place where they do so. The clicking of chitin-on-chitin has delighted me when I have encountered small and large species pairing off for quickies. Since native bees need to get this done on an expedited basis, their reporoductive burst ends quickly, so regular observation is necessary for me to see this phenomenon in May here in the Heights section of Houston.

Up here, I found Boneset, a native eupatorium, to be one of the best nectar plants. They have a long blooming season and just about anything with wings love them. One day a Milbert's Tortoiseshell was on one for hours. Stoke's Aster was another favorite. Rudebeckias were also a nectar backbone; milkweeds also did heavy duty. Goldenrod in my "wild" area was always filled with butterflies. Ironweed and bee balm was also very popular. As with biospirite, gaillardia also important: the first and last blooming plant. Chives, as an early flowerer, important for some of those early butterflies. And, of course, Mexican Sunflower a huge success. New England asters are critical for the Monarchs in October.

Nobody really paid attention the phlox and zinnias this year.

As for host plants, I am just beginning to learn about what I've got in the area and who is out there. Learned about the American Ladies in the Pearly Everlasting and can now ID when there's a cat from several feet. Learned about willows and viceroys and how there is some predatory wasy or fly that gets them. Lots of Monarch cats on asclepias and black swallowtails on dill, parsley, and fennel. Mostly on the parsley, though. I had a ton of Pearly Crescentspots, so they must have been on the New England Asters, although I never got to see cat or chrysalis. Lots of native violets around and lots of fritilaries but same story as crescentspots. Also I learned that I had a Canadian Swallowtail on Quaking Aspen. So, it was summer rich in learning about cats and their food sources; can't wait for next year.

I plan on getting some nettles out in my garden as well as adding Passionflower vine and Aristolachia (sp?) to see if anything bites.