Thanks for the great show Susan! Lovely butterflies.

That was just wonderful, thanks so much for posting. :o)

What a pleasant thing to view after my waking up from my nap :)

good job!

Thank you, Nova.

What a nice thing to do.....sharing it with us!

Thank you all for the compliments! I have only been Butterfly Gardening for about a year after being inspired by my boss, Dr Bright. She, in turn, was inspired by her mother, who is now battling cancer. I am going to e mail the slide show to Dr Bright's Mom as encouragement that while she can't take care of the butterflies herself right now, her example has inspired a whole new generation of Butterfly Gardeners!

nova

Susan, that is absolutely beautiful! You've done a fabulous job putting that together, and the music makes a perfect soundtrack for your slides! (Vivaldi?)

I especially love the sequences of caterpillars to butterflies and the good shots of the chrysalises of each. Fascinating how different each species is, isn't it? And you are so lucky to have zebra swallowtails! Oh, how I envy you those!

Congratulations on creating a yard so butterfly-friendly in the first place, and on being able to capture your winged flowers to perfection on camera!

Marcia

I LOVE it ...thank you SO much for sharing! the music was awesome, too....a perfect compliment!

Nova--This is my first time seeing your pictures. That slide show was such a treat! Thank you so much.

Perhaps you could give some pointers sometime to help the rest of us be better butterfly gardeners. I have only seen the zebra swallowtail in my yard once. I think that it is one of the most beautiful.

Christine

Susan,very well documented and beautiful presentation.
So good of you to share it with us.
By the way,my wife, Sylvia, was asking me if I had heard from you.
Say hi to David.
Felix

You must have a beautiful yard with bf's flitting everywhere. Thanks for the show.
I loved your labelling of each bf. A lot of the books only show one side of the bf which makes id'ing hard at times, your photos are great!

Marcia - Yes, the music is Vivaldi. My favorite classical composer.

Christine - I am lucky to have lots of Paw Paws, larval food of the Zebra Swallowtail, in the area so I always have Zebras nectaring in the garden in the spring.

Felix - Hello to you and Sylvia too! And David says Hi, too!

naplesgardener - I had the same problem with IDing Butterflies too. So when taking pictures I try to get upper and lower shots. Another problem I had was IDing cats which is why I put the cats together with their adults.

As far as pointers to successful Butterfly gardening all I can say is plant lots of nectar sources [the most popular ones in my yard are lantana, salvia, cuphea, and, the best, Joe Pye Weed] And be willing to sacrifice your larval food plants to the cats. I have 5 passionflower vines and 4 cassias that are all looking down right ragged now and my dill and fennel are history. For those with water features in their yard, I found that Black Swallowtail cats will happily munch Water Celery if your dill and fennel runs out!

I am glad you enjoyed the "show", I love sharing with you all!

Thank you Nova really enjoyed it.I'm new to FL gardening what is the pink flower behind the black swallow tail? I really like it.. Thanks Rainy

Susan,

I soooo enjoyed your show! Thank-you for sharing with us. It was much better than any of my butterfly books. Truly. I especially loved seeing the cats as I have a terrible time identifying all but a couple. I am sure you'll keep taking photos and gardening for the butterflies. Please share with us again when you have more.

I just wanted to say how nice it is of you to share your show with Dr. Bright's mom. So frequently, cancer patients are shunned and ignored for fear of saying the wrong thing or just because of cancerphobia. Your show is sure to bring her joy and gratitude.

Anna

Nova,
Your pictures are gorgeous! I just finished a scrapebook of my garden with all the stages of the butterflies I raise and I know how hard it is to get those beauties to stay still!

I was wondering though - the beauty you have labelled as a Black Swallowtail - the one after the chrysalis - on the purple flower. I am wondering if it is not a Palamedes Swallowtail. It looks exactly like the one on pg63(middle picture) of Florida fabulous Butterflies. The reason I am asking is that is one that I have never had in my yard even though I have the host plants and I would LOVE to see one. The yellow above the blue and the ornage dots below the blue makes me think it is a female Palamedes.

Anyway, they are beautiful and you have done a wonderful job of documenting their life cycles.

Absolutely beautiful.. Overwhelmingly heart touching...The photography, the music, your talent. If that lady loves butterflies, this should be a beautiful gift for her. Thanks for sharing it with us all.
Linda

Nova- Be sure to post this on the butterly forum too.
Great job!!

Beverly

Rainy - The pink flower is a Joe Pye Weed. An absolute MUST, in my opinion, for the butterfly garden.

Anna - My husband is a cancer survivor so I know how important it is to know that others are thinking of you and how much "simple joys" mean at such times.

mboston - I agree with you in your identification!. After studying several pictures of the Palamedes, I realize now that the Black Swallowtail has yellow dots behind the head while the Palamedes has yellow stripes behind the head. I appreciate the correction and will edit the show later on as if I do it now I will break the direct link. Your information is exactly why I posted it here first, I knew if I had made mistakes, one of our resident experts would help me out!

nova

I still get some female Swallowtails confused, esp. Spicebush and Eastern Blacks. And Sulphurs too, they drive me crazy trying to ID them, esp from the cats.

I would love to get those Palamedes! Those and Zebra Swallowtails are elusive to me. Someone just sent me some PawPaw seeds but I'm not sure if this variety will grow here. Guess I will plant them and see.

Once again, the pictures are lovely.

Thank you nova. I really like the Joe Pye weed. Did you grow it from seed? Can't wait to find it !!!