It was VERY easy to root, fairfield! I just took a pail of water with me when I made the cutting so I could put it right into water, took a nice "heel piece" cutting about ?9" long, took off the bottom leaves only leaving a few at the top, nicked the places on the stems where the bottom leaves had grown to "wound" it a little, so it would make roots there, too, stuck it in wet soil, put it in a shady place, kept it wet, and it rooted SO quickly! I keep hoping to find a caterpillar on mine, but so far, no luck. I had though I might find a rustic sphinx moth on it, since it's in the same family as gardenias (madder family) and rustic sphinxes use gardenias. Oh well, when it's in bloom, it's a GREAT nectar plant - the only down side of it is it only has one big bloom in early summer - it makes sparse blooms off and on after that, but not enough to really draw the butterflies. Sherry

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

When Sandy referred to C. occidentalis as a larval host plant, it was for the silk moth, Hyalophora cecropia, aka as just plain Cecropia moth, not a butterfly. If it hosts a butterfly species, I am not aware of it. Button Bush is a very good nectar plant for butterflies and moths alike. I have also found sources reporting that it is a larval host for the sphinx moths, Titan and Hydrangea, but cannot verify that. Maybe someone else here can. Birds also like the fruit of Button Bush. So it is a pretty good all-around wildlife plant and native to most of the US. Sorry we confused you there! The OP asked for ID of a butterfly, which was a male Spicebush because she found it nectaring on C. occidentalis. Several people posted info on various larval host plants for the Spicebush Swallowtail, none of which included C. occidentalis. Also some discussion involved other butterfly species in general. The only referral to C. occidentalis was to "Cecropia", for which this is a larval host plant for that gorgeous silk moth. Moths have a very wide range of larval host plants, unlike butterflies, which are much more specific, excepting a few. Hope this helps clarify things a bit. Susan

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.