Butterflutter, no, I'm talking about actual wild blueberries/vaccinum elliotii. Huckleberries/v. arboreum also grow on my property, but they never bloom this early - v. elliotii frequently does, always when we have cold weather early, followed by a long warm spell, like we've been having lately. Last year the weather pattern was different, the wild blueberries didn't bloom until February, and there were plenty of ripe blueberries in May for the birds and people, if you have the patience to pick the little things! Different people have different common names for the same plant, but I think we're both talking about v. arborea when we talk about huckleberries. I don't see swallowtails in January naturally - the only ones I see are the few that emerge out of season each year in my unheated bedroom, usually a black swallowtail. I don't think we're having global warming, this is just a typical warm spell in January - the temps were way below normal only a few weeks ago. Sherry

I saw my first Monarch yesterday and collected 12 eggs. I now have 8 BTS cats and about 30 BST eggs. I know how excited you are as it is fnally BF season in my backyard as well. Kathy

That's great! I had so many Black Swallowtails last year, that I left them on their own last year. They stripped all of my Fennel, Zizia, and Rue twice. But, of course, that's what I grow it for. Tiger Swallowtails are known to use Tulip Tree (Liriodendron tulipifera), Mexican Plum (Prunus mexicana), and Black Cherry (Prunus serotina) in Oklahoma. Re: Parsley plants. Just make sure there have been no chemicals sprayed or systemics used on them, or, if you're not sure, you can segregate for at least 30 days before allowing the egg-laying mamas access to the plants. It is unlikely that an herb plant would be sprayed, by I always err on the side of caution. Otherwise, the caterpillars will likely die from ingesting the toxins. That happened to Lisa last year, and it is so devastating. My fennel and Rue are ready for eggs, as is the False Nettle for the Red Admirals, milkweed for the Monarchs, Elm and Hops vine for the Question Marks, Hackberry for the Hackberry and Tawny Emperors, Baptisia australis 'minor' for the Wild Indigo Duskywings, a bit of pipevine for the Pipevine Swallowtails, Honeysuckle for the Snowberry Clearwing moths, Plaintain for the Buckeyes, Rue for the Giant Swallowails, as well as the Black. I hope I get some butterflies now. I rescued 4 baby Hackberry Emperor caterpillars and put them in a container to raise, and they are doing fine. These guys overwinter as caterpillars by making little nests in the foliage in the fall, the leaves drop to the base of the trees, and in spring, the little guys climb up to the newly emerging foliage to continue eating. Fascinating. Good luck with your chrysalises! Susan

Hey everyone, here's my report from Washington County. I'm just worn out. Spent most of the evening covering things, I have little flower transplants set out and a couple of currant bushes I moved and on and on. Not to mention the last of my tomato plants have been planted, and Lo and Behold, one of my Black Krims that had been reduced to just a bare stem actually had started making new leaves at the bottom. New grapevines just beginning to leaf out...iris in full bloom....tiny peaches, apples and plums on my trees...even some flowers on my blueberry bushes. Dang it! I'm so sick of these cold nights!!!! I have pepper plants with their "feet" hanging out of their newspaper pots, so I have to keep everything well watered so as not to dry out those roots. They've started to bloom and two even have a tiny pepper set on. They need planting BADLY. Every weekend I say, after Monday, I'm getting them in their permanent homes... and then Monday's weather forecast includes low night temps 4 or 5 days away.... GRRRRRR I can't do the happy dance about my fruit trees because I'm afraid if I do, old Mother Nature's going to blast the fruit off the trees just to keep me humble!!! I didn't sleep well last night because of that, and, well, it was prom night for DGS. Oh, gosh, he looked so handsome in his tux. He is such a good-looking boy. It's hard to believe my sweet first grandson is just about all grown up. We had all kinds of trouble with his tux, it was rented (oh, gosh, how expensive. I think we would've been as well off to just buy one). We got there to pick it up and just the jacket was there. So the shop owner had to improvise. It turned out the jacket had been discontinued and she had had to buy it, so she just gave us the jacket because of all the mix-up. But still it was nerve-wracking because I had to wait till Saturday for her to round up everything and the prom was that night... But anyhow, he got home at 3a.m. (after prom party) and all was well. I went out and checked the thermometer at 2am and it was 40. This morning at 6am it was still 40. So once again we dodged the bullet here. But I am so tired today I can hardly do anything. My yard is so overgrown and out of shape from so many years of doing the bare minimum. DH mows and DS comes over and weed-eats. He is flat-out an expert with that weed-eater. He edges with it and even cleans out the stuff that grows between the bricks in the walk with it. But I'm the only one who digs and pulls. They till the raised beds for me every spring. Last year I had the nicest raised beds I'd ever had cause I mulched with grass clippings. Working full time and taking care of a yard the way it should be done has been more than I have been able to manage in the past. So anyway I've been working at it daily for this whole month. I just about have the flower/herb garden cleaned out. There are so few flowers/herbs left. The Bermuda got in it and choked out a lot of things so I've been planting things I wintersowed as I get part of the bed prepared. Oh, what a job! Today I had to go around and uncover everything, and planted Munstead Dwarf Lavender along the herb garden walk, put a layer of manure into the compost bin (it's too full of weed seeds to put directly in the garden), and put in some stakes to keep the hose out of things, then made sure everything was watered well enough. I have a lot of things still in newspaper pots and they dry out really fast. And I have to protect things from the dog, he likes to tear across my herb garden to bark at the neighbor's dogs when they are turned out into their yard. For this moment everything's fine here. We have another cold night scheduled for tonight, though it's not supposed to get as cold as last night -- but who knows? I just don't know if I have the steam left to do the dance again tonight, (not the happy dance, the covering-up dance) so I'm trying to relax the rest of this day. Maybe I will get my "second wind".