Welcome Candice and son!! here are some sites to check out www.butterfliesandmoths.org for what butterflies are in your area and what they eat: www.whatsthatbug.com for what the "cats"(caterpillars) look like: www.monarchwatch.org www.butterfliesetc.com These are chocked full of general information!! Check out local nurseries, ask if you can take their "cats" (buy a couple of what their on!!) buy tomatoe plants-doesn't matter what kind-the cheaper the better- they attract hornworms, I know their not pretty butterflies but my son thinks their the coolest and that's what counts:-) also fennel, dill, and parsley will attract swallowtails, you can buy them at the supermarket already potted (sometimes) If you like I can send some milkweed seed just email me! Brandy

I pop in on Plumeria forum every once in a while, but don't follow it regularly. I do follow Tropicals and FL Gardening though. I have had some of my plumeria for so long they are really trees. I have a couple of 6 and 7 footers, multiple branches. I am going tohave to take cuttings this season just to prune them back. Kauka Wilder, Hilo Beauty, Candy Stripe and Lei Rainbow are ones I have had forever, and some species plants, stenophyllus and pudica. A friend and I got Pudica in So FL at Fairchild Gardens when it was first introduced, gosh must be 6-7 or more years ago now. At one time I had probably 35 different trees, but I gave some away and sold some because they took up way too much space. I have another friend in Louisiana who knows Sondra Stokes at Stokes Tropicals on a personal basis, and when they got the Princess Victoria from Joey Roselli and were selling it for about $300 a cutting, he got some and eventually shared it with me. I have a huge tree now in my greenhouse. Its about to come into bloom. I always get some variegated flowers. I am very interested now in the new Thai imports with variegated leaves, like Sweet Syrup, Maya etc. They are pretty pricey, Asiatica in PA has a few. I may wait and see if the prices fall a bit. I see you have a supplemental light for your plumeria, great going! No wonder your Celadine blooms all winter! Snow on the ground outside and a beautiful blooming plumeria in the living room, what could be better! Is that a mister/vaporizer I see under the table?

I think the fertilizer you got will be fine. A balanced fertilizer is good for all around growth and flowering. A fertilizer with a high first number has more Nitrogen and is used for growth but can inhibit flowering in certain plants and overuse can cause growth that is attractive to insect pests. Fertilizers with a high middle number have high Phosphorus and are often called bloom boosters for their abilities to bring plants into bloom or to increase bloom size or numbers but Phosphorus also helps with root growth. I always mix fertilizer at only half the strength recommended on the bottle unless it was designed for epiphytes like orchids. Mike

First, let me correct my mistake: "my friend & fellow ARTIST Sage Reynolds" Hey Mike, You grow these? Aren't they fascinating & other worldly? I didn't mention Ceropegia linearis, nor do I know of that one, tho' I DO know Hoya linearis. I also grow C. sandersonii, which I've never yet gotten to bloom. I've passed some of this onto Denise (in Omaha), but last I knew she hadn't yet bloomed hers either (tho' she had the added bonus of a greenhouse). Amazing plants, & Sage grew his in inverted tomato cages to contain their climbing, sprawling selves. His Ceropegias bloomed in summer as I recall & he has a house which had a front porch w/ hanging pots of plants including Ceropegias Ampliata (the particularly phallic looking one), Sandersonii, Woodii. He even had & shared a Ceropegia dichotoma (if memory serves...) one of the 'stick like' Ceropegias, which looks like stick, w/ a single leaf at the occassional joint on the segmented stems. (I dont' think he collects these anymore, his plant tastes evolved into other things, including some hybridizing of Abutilons which he's shared w/ a known nursery.) Last month I saw a single bloom of C sandersonii at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Unfortunately, w/ its green bloom on green stems I doubt anybody saw it but me. My camera died right then & a stranger nicely took a shot for me. I'll try to find it to share by post.