Bobbi,
We just saw our first swallowtail caterpillars on some dill this weekend, so be patient! Since we have been a little cooler this spring, perhaps the butterflies are a little behind time.
Fennel has a tendency to get bigger than gardeners plan on, but the butterflies are our reward. Fennel comes easily from seed--plant some early next spring, probably in February where you are, and you'll have lots of fennel for your husband to complain about!

Dill, fennel and passiflora have all been planted and are growing well but no signs they are dinner. However, this weekend we saw swallowtails and at least 10 other types of butterflies and moths. The dreaded webworms are starting to emerge so cats should be next. The butterfly weed of course has been munched to the ground faster than it can grow or we can plant it. We're just south of you.

Tally HO!

The cats are thick on the fennel down here in Rockport. Tell your DH just to hold on. The wait will be worth it. And I have lots of cats on my passionvines.

BTW, you can cook with fennel. The taste is great with fish and chicken. Just use the leaves and leave the bulb and you can run out and pick it as you need it.

Just found the first 3 this morning when surveying the storm damage:2 still with their "saddles" and one a bit older. None on the bronze yet, but then again, I'd heard they like the green better.

Linda, I haven't cooked much with fennel before. I do like fennel seeds in sausage, but I don't have those! Do they eventually go to seed here, or is that a different kind of fennel? I found a "Barefoot Contessa" recipe for a tomato/fennel salad that my bunco babes raved about. (Of course I didn't have any of my own "heirloom" tomatoes and I wasn't going to Central Market for any, so I made mine with the Campari tomatoes.)

Here's a link if anyone's curious:

Here is a link that might be useful: Barefoot Contessa's Tomato/Fennel Salad

I just went out and counted 43 cats on my fennel. I let all of my fennel go to seed last fall, and I have lots of little fennel plants with cats all over.

Fennel is a great underused culinary herb. All parts of the plant can be used, i.e. leaves, stems, seeds and bulb. It has a mild anise flavor that is good in lots of recipes. It can be substituted in recipes that call for French tarragon. It is good in beef, pork, chicken, and seafood. You can add some to a salad for a nice surprise flavor. The bulb can be thinly sliced and sautéed in a little olive oil with a little balsamic vinegar poured on top.
A while back I wrote the following about fennel.

There are only three basic fennels and all are said to be self seeders.

Foeniculum vulgare is often referred to as common fennel, sweet fennel or wild fennel, zones 4-10. It is a tall (H 6' S 18") biennial or perennial plant with yellow flowers (umbels) which are produced during summer and then the flowers are followed by grey-brown seeds (fennel seeds used in cooking and for planting). It is not reliably hardy in climates that have cold, damp winters.

Foeniculum vulgare var. azoricum often referred to as Florence fennel, bulb fennel, sweet fennel or finocchio, zones 5-9, is a smaller fennel (H 2' S 18") and is considered the bulb fennel because it is said to have the best flavor used for cooking. It is generally grown as a "half-hardy annual".

Foeniculum vulgare 'Purpureum' or Foeniculum vulgare 'Rubrum', depending on which book you are using, zones 4-9, is a biennial or perennial plant known as bronze fennel (H 4'-5' S 18") and is known to "come true from seed".

All three like well-drained soil and full sun with partial sun during the afternoons in hot climates. All fennels self seed freely in most soils. Just let the plant go to seed, i.e. small, dull yellow flowers followed by grey-brown seeds, and when the temperature is right, you should start to see new baby plants coming up all around the mother plant. All parts of the plants can be used in cooking.

NOTE: Dill and fennel will cross pollinate. According to the Encyclopedia of Herbs and Their Uses by Deni Bown, page 386, she states the following:

. . .when some herbs, including Marjorams and Lavenders, are grown near each other, the chances of hybridization are high. Closely related genera may also interbreed if they are grown together and flower at the same time; dill and fennel are known to cross, resulting in plants that are indeterminate in flavor.

We found this to be true in our Master Gardener demonstration gardens here in Rockport.

Also all of the fennels are host plants for striped green, black and yellow swallowtail caterpillars which become swallowtail butterflies.

The cats have totally eaten my fennel. There are only sticks there now. But I have another stand of fennel on the other side of the yard, so I've been taking cats over there so they have something to eat. I've never seen so many cats as I have this year. Down at our MG demo gardens, we have lots there too. So be sure you plant enough. I need to go out and buy some baby fennel plants today.

No cats yet but the swallowtails are at the garden. The fennel looks great and smells even better. I may be eating this myself. It looks very yummy. The bronze fennel is not as big as the green but it is very pretty. The butterfly weed is nothing but sticks so we're going to find more this week.
Tally HO!

Yes...I have Cats!

Last winter I removed som old boxwoods to paint. Planted 9 parsley plants to have something green that would go through winter and welcome the swallowtails. Yesterday I counted (was able to see) 9 today there are more, I have no doubt there will be more tomorrow and by then, they will be in major munch mode!

Have seen a few Monarchs obviously dropping eggs on the butterfly weed, but only saw one cat.

Haven't seen any others.

Never heard of cats [of course I never saw too many butterflies there either] eating fennel. When I raised it in Colorado it grew to over 6' tall with a lot of seeds. Here I understand if you want bulbs you grow the florence fennel in the fall though the winter.

I've had about a dozen fat black swallowtail babies munching down on my fennel in the past 2-3 weeks. I've even got a new batch out there of about 5 tiny, centimeter-long guys.

Of course, most of them are appearing on my Florence fennel (which I grow for the bulb and plan to eat) instead of on the bronze fennel that I planted to distract them. Oh well, it's not like they damage the bulbs. Is it true cats like green fennel better? Wish I'd known!

mine left my green fennel alone and are all over the curly leaf parsley. My fennel foliage isn't very tall and the parsley is very thick and lush. I planted it in a big window box with mushroom compost. I've never seen it so happy. Maybe that's the secret.

Whooo! I've had troubles with this website and hadn't been able to post. The first, post-flood batch of caterpillars disappeared (I assume birds, or do wasps get them?).

My kindergardener is studying life cycles and wanted to take one in on Friday for show and tell. So I loaded up the bug cage with fennel and the only one caterpillar left, who looked quite mature. Her teacher called me about 3:15 Friday and wanted to know if they could keep it in the classroom. I said sure, that my only concern was that it would have enough to eat. So she put the fennel in some water and I promised her more fennel on Monday.

Well, low and behold, I went to my daughter's class yesterday and guess who'd pooped his little heart out all weekend, and was hooked up in a "j" shape with a silk string attaching himself to the fennel stalk? Hope he hatches for them!

Still no more cats on my fennel, but we'll wait. If they came once, they'll come again....