The heat lately has been horrible! It was supposed to get up to 100 degrees today - the highest reading on my thermometer was 99 degrees briefly, but it may have reached 100 when I wasn't looking. I watered my garden again, and when I went to wash off the bat poop there wasn't any. I noticed for the past several days that there was less and less poop, so I'm guessing they're "hanging out" in the woods, where it's cooler. I sure hope I get overwhelmed with pipevine eggs, Dan! The beautiful male was in the garden again today, nectaring on my Ellen's Blue butterfly bush. I made a lot of pictures of him again, all of which were blurry, again - they fly so fast! - but I decided to load this one to Photobucket and say it's impressionism. So here's my Monet pipevine swallowtail - Sherry

I, too, am a newbie to this forum & am enoying the warm fellowship here.Want to add my Amen to the 'miracle to behold'; I Thank God above each time I release one of His beautiful creations, saying a prayer for its' safety on its' new life & journey, where ever it leads to. Am 63 yo happily married, retired RN, who has been a homebody since retiring due to health problems in '82, probably before most of you were born, so I feel like an 'ol timer. I feel as though I am going through my second childhood, which has turned out to be more fun, (what I remember of it), than the first. Got started in butterflies quite by accident on a trip out of town for a 'get-away' long w/e & visited a favorite plant buying spot, a State Farmers' Market. While browsing about looking for unusual plants to bring home, I heard one of the vendor's saying "They are Monarch butterfly eggs & caterpillars", which immediatly got my atttention. I went to his space & saw some plants, had no idea what they were, he said it was Milkweed, I bought one, it had a large cat on it & I knew nothing about cats, but figured with the web, I could research & find out what to do. This was 10 + years ago; the mw turned out to be bronze fennel, & the cats turned out to be a BSTs, which I gazed at for hours on end, watching the eggs & seeing my first one eating his first meal was like a 'Spiritual experience', as well as the first emerging BST, I had tears in my eyes. (Did the same thing first time I saw childbirth in nursing school!) Am a Christian, so it was like seeing the Master's hand at work, closeup & personal, if you know what I mean! The trip home was so funny, with that plant behind my hubby's head, in a clear heavy plastic plant sleeve; he was driving, & the fennel stuck up about 6 " above his head. I kept an eye on a large cat that was eating,just inches from his head, kept hearing a 'ping' every now & then, (sounded like something was hitting the plastic plant sleeve). Had no idea what it was, (hubby heard them too), he would say "What's that?" I replied "Dunno!", but found out when I got it home & saw more 'pings' which later I found out was frass! I had large long plant sleeves in my trunk, always prepared for plants, so as not to get a frown on hubby's face with the possibility of getting my car dirty. The cat kept my attention, & I kept looking back, saying 'Dear Lord, please, please, don't let him crawl on hubby's head". We arrived home after the 2 1/2 hr trip with no incidents, during which hubby kept asking me what I was looking at, to which I would mattter-of-factly reply, "My plant in the back." After unpacking the car; first thing was locating the 'mw' in my solarium, placing it in a cachepot & adding a small hand-made butterfly house that I had, making it quite attractive. After all was unpacked, I showed hubby "what I was looking at" on the trip home. The 3rd-4th instar BST was quite large, & he remarked "That was behind my head all the way home!" After having the 2 additions to our home, the solarium & a master suite, with decking running the length of the house with a large area in the center, I started collecting inside & outside birdhouses & an occasional butterfly house. That first year everybody in the family gve me b'fly & birdhouses for Christmas, & the collecting kinda got out of hand, they are everywhere! So began my passion for these lovely creatures. It took me several years to locate mw seeds, which are not native to our area & now my 'garden' or 'forest' has grown to more than 1,000 mw of many varities, fennel, parsley, Dutchman's Pipevine (first year, so I don't expect flowers, from what I have read about it)Moonflowers Angel's trumpets, many varities of nectar plants & a Catawba Worm Tree. (In our area, local word has it that the Catawba Worm Tree is supposed to be the host plant for the Luna Moth.) All of my plants are container-grown on my large deck out back of our home. Each season there tears of joy & sorrow, as some don't make it, & days when I have more than a dozen to release when hubby is in the backyard with our dog, his baby, it is a glorious time for me. I remember last year one Monarch was very hesitant to leave the pavilion, staying at the bottom while the others had lined up almost in a spiral 'take off' pattern, & I reached down & got her, checked to make sure she was okay, & held her on my finger in the sunlight, saying "Look at how beautiful the colors are! They look like somebody put glitter on her!" My poor hubby, who was hot & tired, was saying "Yeah, yeah, let it go, it will fly away". This beautiful lady flew to his cheek, & lit there just a bit! He was so surprised. I told him he just got his first 'Butterfly kiss!" He meekly smiled, called the dog, chuckling, picked her, & went in the house. You ladies know how our men are, you gottta love them, with all of their patience, putting up with our 'whims in life', for the most part supporting us in everything we do. Didn't mean to write a 'journal' here, but wanted to share how I got into this passionate hobby that has become a very important part of my life. Having several painful health problems, Lupus, Fibromyalgia, 3 failed back surgeries, being among them, it has been the greatest therapy, & God has richly blessed my life with the joy of butterflies, in fact locally I am frequently called "Butterfly Joy"..May God continue to bless all of you & thanks for having me as part of this great group.. Joy, from Coastal NC (Saw my first Monarch of this season 8-8, a male; he nectared on mw like he was starving, & gracefully flew away; y'day it was over-cast & t-storms in our area, so didn't see any more. Forecast is favorable for this week, so will be on the lookout for more). God Bless

When I visit my daughter in Tampa, we visit a Florida Natives Nursery out in the country from Sarasota on Myakka Road. I tried to get their plant list from their web site, but when I clicked on it, it kept bringing me back to the home page. You could call them and see how well stocked they are with passionvines. I'm surprised zebra longwings will use the red-flowering types of passionves - I thought they were toxic to ZLs as well as gulf frits. I'm quite sure the plants at this nursery are not sprayed, nor would they likely use systemics. And they could give you some good advice about where to plant them. I'm not familiar with Florida conditions, and I've never had the pleasure of raising zebras, just gulf frits. If this nursery is out of passionvines, you could make a trip to Mail Order Natives in Lee, Florida in the panhandle (toward the eastern part) and get P. incarnata, which I know all longwings thrive on. I'd call Amy first, though, and be sure she's got some for sale. Sherry Here is a link that might be useful: Florida Natives Nursery

Chris, you are welcome to send me the complete reorganization you have in mind. If you are concerned it might give Board members a coronary, then send it to me by email. My email address is available on this site. I promise you I won't have a coronary, even though I am on the Board. As to the three year terms of Board members, elections are expensive and time consuming. Holding them more often than every three years would mean we were spending an inordinate amount of time and effort on elections and less time on the business of the organization. I have to tell you I think such an approach would be counterproductive. However, I do agree the Board is too large and think we should have more effective limits on the number of consecutive years someone can serve on the Board. I am in my second term on the Board and it will be my last. If I can't get things done in six years, it's time for someone else to work on them. I'm not sure which big businesses you have dealt with, but I can tell you Boards of big businesses do not ask stockholders or anyone else for input before conducting the business of the company. I have seen them in action in their business meetings and they are less open than the ARS Board. Anyway, lay your suggestions on me and I will let you know what I think. The ARS is not perfect by any means and any ideas that will help will be welcomed.