I'd pick one and go with it...then find someplace else for the other one. With them being placed so close to each other and having similar growth habits (in terms of size), you won't really be able to fully enjoy either one...they'll compete visually. What you've got are 2 specimen-type plants that should be treated as such...each standing on its own to be highlighted/showcased for their nice attributes. I understand you're willing to prune the spicebush to keep it low, but why? You're just creating work for yourself and disfiguring the natural form of the plant. Personally, I'd go with the sweetbay and use some smaller shrubs (or even evergreen groundcovers) under it (liriope, ivy, a "dwarf" abelia, indian hawthorn, carissa holly, dwarf/prostrate gardenia, etc, etc). Sweetbays have (1) a nice sculptural form; (2) architectural branching pattern when limbed up a few feet; (3) handsome bark; (4) nice blooms that can be easily lost in foliage due to size and how they're held; (4) great silvery undersides of leaves that are simply beautiful when fluttering in a breeze...why not show off those great attributes? And even though they can grow relatively large in natural situations, they (and most plants) typically don't grow as large in landscape situations...even down south where they are very prolific and perform very well. I've seen many in Ga and the Carolinas in both situations...very rarely do the planned/planted specimens attain the size of "natural" ones (on occasion they do, but a blind squirrel can find a nut every now and then too). Just my opinion...I think you'll be MUCH happier with the outcome if you go with just one.

markinspringborooh: It was planted in the middle of my front yard, full sun. Maybe that is part of the problem, not sure. Maybe I just don't have good soil for it, or perhaps I did not do such a hot job of planting it. It does attract birds, but only for a week or so. They pick it clean of berries in a big frenzy as soon as they discover it. The flowers are also short lived. It isn't a bad tree, but I discovered Serviceberries aren't as densely leaved as I was really wanting, plus this one seems to be in trouble anyway. Mine is an Amelanchier Grandiflora 'Autumn Brilliance'

Sherry, Is raising the Spicebush Swallowtail basically the same as raising say, the Red Admirals? I know that you had told me that the false nettle should be kept in containers or otherwise kept in water, as the leaves wilt quickly. So far I've only raised Monarchs, Black Swallowtails, Giant Swallowtails, a few American Ladies, and a Wild Indigo Duskywing (it basically raised itself...I discovered it after I brought a potted B. australis in on our back porch and saw that it had been on it awhile eating the leaves). I wish I knew which species are somewhat on the difficult side to raise so I could be prepared how to raise them. For instance, I know that you had said American Ladies are that way (I think you had said that anyway) and so instead of just bringing some leaves in off of the plants, I sat some potted Pearly Everlasting out by the pussytoes that the AL's where on. They crawled onto the potted plants and I brought them in on our back porch and raised them. Although I would love to raise every cat and egg I see outside, I don't see how that's possible. I had a difficult enough time a couple years ago raising over 500 Monarchs. I've planted lots of kinds of host plants to get probably at least two dozen species of butterflies. If I gets lots of each kind, I think I'd just have to begin dabbling in each one instead of going gung ho on the Monarchs. If I'd attempt to rescue every cat and egg out there, not only would time be an issue, but I'd imagine that I'd have to have tons of potted plants to sit in a protected area, which I just can't do. You'd almost need a whole greenhouse just for that. You don't raise every single cat you find outside, do you? I'd like to protect them all, but I just don't see how I can. What I want to understand is what makes raising American Ladies more difficult than raising Monarchs or Black Swallowtails. Is it because cats that are in nests aren't as adaptable to a new location, i.e. being moved from their nest to a potted plant? Or did you mean that the plants that they're on (mine were on pussytoes at the time) aren't easy to keep from wilting? I just wondering if the AL's are better off left outside on the plants? Perhaps a person could build a screened container that's open at one end and turn it upside down in a particular area of the bed of pussytoes and put the cats in that area. Then when they've pretty much ravished that area, the container could be moved to another part of the bed. Hopefully all of those cats will have gotten their fill of the plants and be ready to pupate by that time. In the meantime, I'm sure the plants in the other part of the bed acquired eggs/cats. I always worry about having enough food for the cats here, no matter what kind of cat it is. I bought a few Lindera benzoin in 2007 online. They were only half a foot or so tall back then, but now they're 3-4 feet tall. I keep looking forward to someday finding cats on them. I think SBST are just the cutest cats with those eyespots! Being that you've raised pretty many kinds of butterflies, are there are that you find especially difficult to raise for one reason or another? Cathy

I've never written down dates, but I'd guess they stay caterpillars for about 2-3 weeks? You're right, Shawn, they don't seem to eat as much as other cats. Mel, I'm raising a few now. Once I find a cat, I cut off the leaf it's on, put it in a water pick, then add another single leaf in with it, so that the cat has two leaves. When it comes outside its leaf roll, it'll usually eat the other leaf, leaving the roll alone. I've had cats that used the new leaf to make a leaf roll only when they got too big to get back inside the old leaf! Sometimes I put a new leaf in another water pick and put the two water picks right together in the cage with the leaves touching, so that the cat can easily reach the new leaf. I always use mid-mature sassafras leaves, but then I'm lucky that I've got plenty to choose from. If you put real new, small, tender leaves in the water picks, they'll droop, and the cats don't really like totally mature/dark green leaves, although they will eat them when they're in the later instars if that's all they've got. I only put sassafras leaves in one leaf at the time, because for some unknown reason, when you put a whole branch in, all the leaves on the branch will droop, except maybe a few big ones on the bottom of the branch - you'll just be wasting a lot of leaves. I planted a spicebush/lindera benzoin last fall and found 2 cats on it this spring - spicebush reacts the same way in water picks that sassafras does, except I think I remember cutting a small branch, and the little branch held up well in water. If something happens that they eat all the "eating" leaf plus most of the "home roll" leaf, then I add two more leaves. They pupate in a variety of places, but in the cages where I raise them, they usually pupate on the frame. Like all swallowtails, they empty their bowels before pupating, and like palamedes swallowtails, they turn yellow or orange at that time. They usually don't overwinter at this time of year in my area, they usually emerge in about ?3 weeks? Occasionally they'll overwinter this early. In Ohio, they may all overwinter in late July, I don't know. I've got 2 cage frame chrysalids now, one mid-instar cat and one cat that's pupating on the plastic leftovers container that's in the middle of the cage to weigh it down and put host plant leaves in for some cats. Good luck! They're darling little cats and beautiful butterflies! MissSherry