Michelle, I have to stop and think when I started because I'm getting my years mixed up sometimes when I talk. Let's see...late in the summer of 2005 I planted three swamp milkweed plants that I bought at a local nursery but it was so late in the year that I guess the Monarchs were already done laying for the year. I didn't have any other host plants for any kind of butterflies planted at that time. Then in 2006 I bought a packet of butterfly weed seeds at Lowe's and started them inside and them bloomed the first year and I got Monarch cats on those and my 3 swamp milkweed plants. I got seeds off of my swamp milkweed plants that year, so I started some in pots and left them sit outside, so I guess I winter sowed without really thinking about it except I didn't have them covered with plastic. They did great and I had enough plants come up last spring to make a 100-plant swamp milkweed patch. I also put some in 3-gallon pots last year and used them in my butterfly cage to feed Monarch cats. Right now I have 56 of those pots of swamp milkweed sitting outside in the pots, and I last fall before we got a frost I dragged in 20 tropical milkweed plants in the house that I had planted in one-gallon containers. I will also plant a tropical milkweed flower bed like I did last year with almost 30 plants. A lot of my butterfly weed plants didn't come back last year and I had to plant about 18 out of the 24 that I have in the garden. I'm not going to replace them this year if any die because I haven't started any and probably won't. I just have too many other plants to worry about. lol So I say that 2006 was my first year with my butterfly garden because I don't count a few plants that I had out the year before. The swamp milkweed and butterfly weed were the only host plants that I offered in 2006. Then last year CalSherry sent me some tropical milkweed seeds. I bet I found about as many eggs on my 28 TM plants as I did my 100 swamp milkweed plants and not many at all on my butterfly weed. Since I started coming here on the forum in 2006, I've learned lots about host plants for other types of butterflies and am trying to provide for lots of other butterflies. I'll list them here so others might consider planting them for the butterflies, although there are other host plants that a person can plant. Between the ones I planted last year and the ones I'll be planting this year, I'll be providing the following food for the cats and I'll list the cat that each type of plant feeds: Garden Plants: Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia)-Silvery Checkerspot Celosia-Common Sootywing Ironweed (Vernonia)-host plant for American Lady?? Plantainleaf pussytoes (Antennaria plantaginifolia)-American Lady Penstemon hirsutus-Baltimore Checkerspot Turtlehead (Chelone glabra & Chelone lyonii)-Baltimore Checkerspot Dill, parsley, fennel-Black Swallowtail Rue (Ruta graveolens)-Black Swallowtail & Giant Swallowtail Gas Plant (Dictamnus albus)-Giant Swallowtail Spider flower (Cleome)-Cabbage White Verbena hastata-Common Buckeye Snapdragon-Common Buckeye Passionvine (Passiflora incarnata)-Gulf Fritillary (it's a long shot for me but hey...) Tropical Milkweed, Swamp Milkweed, & Butterfly Weed-Monarch Mallow (Malva sylvestris) & Hollyhock-Painted Lady, Common Checkered Skipper Rock Cress (Arabis arendsii 'Compinkie')-Falcate Orangetip Bushes: New Jersey Tea-Spring Azure, Summer Azure Spicebush (Lindera benzoin)-Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Spicebush Swallowtail Trees: Black Willow (Salix nigra)-Eastern Comma, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Mourning Cloak, Red-spotted Purple Hackberry tree-American Snout, Hackberry Emperor, Mourning Cloak, Tawny Emperor Sassafras (Sassafras albidum)-Spicebush Swallowtail Paw Paw (Asimina triloba)-Zebra Swallowtail Tulip Poplar (Liriodenron tulipifera)-Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Mourning Cloak, Red-spotted Purple, Spicebush Swallowtail, Viceroy Wild Black Cherry (Prunus serotina)-Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Red-spotted Purple Wafer Ash (Ptelea trifoliata)-Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Giant Swallowtail Plants that were already growing here before my getting into butterfly gardening: English Plantain-Baltimore Checkerspot, Common Buckeye, Painted Lady Viola sororia-Meadow Fritillary, Great Spangled Fritillary, Variegated Fritillary False Nettle (Boehmeria cylindrica)-Red Admiral Sorry for the long list, but I thought it might help others. Yes, I remember reading that the cats in one area might like a certain type of plant but not in another. That's why I'm trying to have a few bases covered by trying to plant at least two kinds of plants for each species I want to attract here, what I already have or kinds that are supposedly in the area. I sure hope that I can get some BC's here so I can report back what kind of plant(s) they like here. Like you, I don't have a lot of experience either since I haven't been planting for the butterflies/cats. I also feel like I'm probably going a bit overboard with the host plants but this is addicting! lol

Maryann, I suppose I went overboard with my planting things. If you'd see all of the plants I have in containers, you might laugh yourself silly seeing how many I have. I had them inside on all of our windowsills and as I kept starting more and started moving the ones inside outside, our back porch became too full with them, so I started moving some outside and just have them sitting outside on our cement out back. That didn't stop me, and I kept planting more milkweed, worried that I might get a deluge of Monarchs this year and I wanted to make sure that they wouldn't starve, so now my plants are spilling out onto the lawn. Gosh, I hope they don't creep all the way over to the driveway because that would be about another 50 feet of potted plants. My husband just shakes his head and thinks I've lost my mind. :-D He knows how much I like planting things for the butterflies, though, so he doesn't really say too much about my getting overly enthusiastic. I have the energy because I'm not working, not that we don't need the money but for personal reasons. Anyway, if I were working, I'd be too tired to do all of this. So as it is, I wonder somedays how I keep going. I'm usually outside around 9 AM, take periodic breaks (especially today when it was so gosh dang hot and humid...96), come in long enough to make supper (dinner to city folk) and eat and go back out until dark, which is about 8:30 or 8:45. I just feel like I'm running out of time to get my plants in the ground and so have been putting in a lot of hours outside. Heck, I'm still working at digging sod, but I'm putting that on hold until I get some of these plants planted where I already have the sod dug and peat moss mixed in. I have too much sod to dig yet for my comfort, so I think I'll just dig a hole for each of my tomato plants and annuals and put them in the ground and hope for the best. I have to soon finish this planting so I can work on my butterfly cage that started falling apart. I didn't expect that at all and am very disappointed. I might end up with the cats on the back porch like I had them last year if I don't have time to do everything. Oh, and I still have to plant at least 50 Swamp Milkweed plants in the bed where I planted seeds last year and they didn't come up. I was disappointed with that too. I'm glad you realize that I am doing my best. I really push myself to do a lot of this, yet I still feel like I don't have enough time with having to mow the grass, do meals, do laundry, etc. Hubby does help me though, just not outside. He doesn't mind helping with the laundry. Now you know my life's story. Haha. Hee hee, that's funny about those pumpkins plants that you gave away. I know what you mean about it being a bother to sell things. I've gone through that, but I thought since I could use the money, I'll try to sell them. Of course, with all this outside work, my back is usually killing me and today my feet are joining in on that. Oh well, I guess it won't last forever. :) Cathy

I wonder how common BC's are in my state (PA). I would really love to get some started around here. I bought a Chelone lyonii 'Hot Lips' at a local nursery and found out that I can start new plants from it by breaking off side shoots and stick them in water until they get roots. I want to plant about 20 of them, 20 of the Chelone glabra if I can ever get hold of some, and I'm also in the process of starting some Penstemon hirsutus. I might be doing all of it for nothing, though, if BC's only like a marshy environment. I wouldn't call our backyard marshy at all. I'm a little concerned about what I've read here in this thread. I get the idea that turtlehead and penstemon are kind of invasive. Is that right? Can I assume that that is because of the seeds dropping and if you deadhead it, that won't happen? I'm planting all of these things at the end of my milkweed patch (100 plants in it). Since Monarchs hold a special place in my heart and I like to raise them, I'd hate to see some other plant trying to take over the swamp milkweed patch. Btw, MaryAnn, it's good to hear that the BC's will also eat the C. lyonii. I hope that will be the case here too if I can somehow manage to get BC's here. I love reading thread about the BC. I don't know how I missed all the replies after I posted my reply. I'm glad this got bumped up! :) Cathy

Looks like Turtlehead or Chelone sp. It has just about finished flowering. Not a shrub at all but an herbaceous perennial. Around here we seek out the White flowered species or Chelone glabra because it is the host for our beautiful Baltimore Checkerspot butterfly.