I've never found any hops growing wild, Elisabeth. I looked at the same? database as you did, with only LA, MS and FL not having any native hops. Actually, I thought humulus lupus/hops vine was native to Asia and had become naturalized in certain northern states - this from info I got five? or more years ago. I also didn't know there were so many variations of it, different plants growing in different parts of the country. So, since QMs shun my elm and sugarberry trees, I assume the natural host for them is false nettles, making false nettles a great plant for me, hosting red admirals as well as QMs. Unless some hop eaters came from Alabama with a banjo on their knee that is! :) All but two of the cats have made their chrysalis, and they're in the "J" right now - fun! Or is the new phrase 'winning'? Sherry

My sister has a button bush, and underneath it she has about a hundred baby button bushes. She gave me two that she'd potted up. I just need to find my sunniest spot and plant them once the hottest weather is over. I need to get some low growing native grass seed to plant this fall, also. The gardening work is never done, is it? Anyway, button bush is pretty easy to grow from those seeds. Martha

Susan, The Hoary Edge has been reported in pretty many counties in PA but not mine. I'll have to keep a lookout for it in the future. BAMONA lists Desmodium, Lespedeza, and Baptisia for LFPs; I have the last two here, so I guess I'm prepared and didn't even know it. Like I mentioned, I also have the Amorpha. I think we're too far north for the Southern Dogface, darn it. I hope that you'll be able to raise Silver-spotted Skippers sometime in the near future. I agree about the skippers being so cute! I've always had lots of them in the garden every year, especially this year, and they really go for the Verbena bonariensis. I didn't raise any cats, though, before this year, thanks to the Amorpha fruticosa. We don't have any locust trees right here, but I know that there are some down along the creek, so I imagine that that's where they lay their eggs every year. Now they can also come here to start their families. I've always liked SSSs; they seem so friendly. Yep, I bet that they lay on your neighbor's wisteria. I used to have several of them here before I got into butterfly gardening. The darn things never bloomed, so we ripped them out...those things are hard to kill! Wow, you're way ahead of me with the seed ordering! I never tried Cosmic Red Cosmos...they sound pretty! I did have some kind of orange cosmos here. They butterflies liked it but it reseeded so much that I didn't plant it again after that and haven't had it now for several years. I just might try the kind that you mentioned. I also planted some heirloom tomatoes this year, Marglobe and Brandywine. I don't know why but the Brandywine tomatoes split so much, so my husband said to cross that one out for next year and not to plant so many of the ones that I do plant. We really had way too many of those and peppers. We gave the extras away, so they didn't go to waste, but it was a lot more work for me than would have had to be. I also like to plant for the hummingbirds! I plant Salvia coccinea 'Lady in Red' (same as you), Scarlet Runner Beans, Four o' Clocks (I plant red ones and white ones), and I have a plant in a hanging basket that I just love (and so do they). It's called Windberry. The flowers are red and look like small petunias. It flowers really nicely! I've tried fuchsias but never had luck with them. Now I wish I had planted the Aster oblongifolius. I always saw mention of the A. laevis and the A. novae-angliae, so that's what went in my garden and I've regretted it ever since they went to seed for the first time in 2008. More seeds than a person could plant in a lifetime! lol Maybe it's just me, but as I get older some things are becoming a bothering and deadheading certain plants is one of them. I'm glad that I'm removing them. If you need any TMW seeds, let me know. I'm sure I'd have enough to share with you. I didn't manage to get seeds from my red porterweed, but I brought it inside so at least will have it for next year again (cross my fingers it doesn't die on me in here). The flowers looked so pretty planted behind my Dusky Millers. I don't notice any places selling it around here. I had gotten mine in the mail from a friend when we were exchanging plants, and I really like it. It sounds like you really saw a good variety of butterflies! You get some that I don't get like Gulf Fritillaries. I wish I could get some of those southern butterflies, but I'm happy with what show up here. I have passionvine here, but don't ask me why. I don't get GFs, and I've only ever found Variegated Fritillary cats on it a couple times (I think that was either in 2007 or 2008). I do think the flowers on the P. incarnata are so pretty though. My tithonia was blooming too until just recently when the frost hit it. After a few frosts and especially when it got down to 24 deg. here the other night, that pretty much nipped everything in the bud. I got lots of seeds from it, though, for next year. I didn't get around to planting it last year and regretted it. Ha, I don't know about your last statement...most days I feel like I can't keep up with it. It would be so nice to have a work crew come and help me! :-D You and I will have to cross our fingers that our Purple Milkweed likes being in the pots. Here are some pictures of two of the Silver-spotted Skipper cats that I had here...

I'm in Zone 7 and have a button bush I kept in a pot for a couple of years until we were permanently settled, then planted it in what will be a flower bed right in front of the house, in an inside corner where water sometimes collects if we get a lot of rain (although we do have a drain a few feet away). It's grown well and filled out but after almost 2 years in the ground it's never bloomed, so I've wondered if it gets enough sun as the house faces roughly west by northwest and the garden doesn't get direct light until early to mid-afternoon (other species I've planted are shade-tolerant). From what I've seen species that do get full sun (like my sweetbay magnolia) take a beating here as we can have weeks of temperatures in the 90s with little to no rain. It's actually become a bit scraggly so I may prune it this fall and see if it puts more energy into flower production next year. It sits in front of our home office with picture windows, so I had envisioned this area to be a gathering place for pollinators and birds (I have a bird bath and bird feeder there as well, which the birds don't visit). I have a Rose Mallow in the opposite corner that I planted last fall (another story in itself), and it gets almost no direct sun but it bloomed a few days ago.