Thanks for the name of the plant, Rosemarie. I did a little researching...a South African native, eh? Definitely not hardy in zone 3!! However, I discovered that it can be grown indoors in cold climates, and it does grow from rhizomes, so it possibly could be stored over winter (?). Is it a perennial for you, or do you have to protect it during winter? Cailinriley (who loves the butterflies, but who's always on the look-out for beautiful new plants to try...)

No, you didn't have to pick them up. It was best to find a butterfly that was resting rather than one constanting flying around but all you had to do was to gently place the q-tip by the front legs, wait a second then start very slowly rolling the q-tip toward the butterfly (your hand isn't moving just the q-tip betweeen your fingers). They kinda step onto the q-tip and since they smell with their feet, they get the scent of the Gatorade and their proboscis comes out and they start to drink. One thing I noticed was that they didn't sit straight up, they kinda leaned to the side to drink. Anyway, it worked for us, everyone in the group got the butterflies to drink. I had a ZLW and a Julia get on mine (not at the same time). One thing the woman said and I have heard it and read it in other places is that the proboscis is like like a straw but when the butterfly first emerges it is actually like a straw that is not sealed. The butterfly rubs it with its feet and over time, it seals . That is why the butterflies do not have to feed for the first few hours, actually not until the proboscis is sealed. So if you raise them indoors and the weather isn't nice enough to release them, you don't have to worry so much asbout feeding them.

I wish I lived in NC. Your butterflies are awesome. Great pic! That was a male. Here is a link that might be useful: Diana Fritillary (Speyeria diana)

Sherry, If you go to see the giant redwood/sequoia trees, please realize that there are dozens of places worth seeing them along the coast from the CA/OR border to central California and in the Sierra Nevada Mountains along the CA/NV border that each have their own unique appeal. It would take a week just to explore all of the big tree NP's, SP's, SRA's, SNR's and Monuments in CA alone. When I lived in San Francisco, Russian Gulch, Big Basin SP and Mount Madonna were favorites, but after I moved to Carmel it was all about Polo Colorada Canyon and the many spots around Pfeiffer Big Sur. I'll have to tell you about my very rare and unique coffee table made from a Polo Colorado Cyn giant and Bixby Creek driftwood sometime. Yes, "mesa" is a term loosly applied to any landform in the arid west with a flat top and verticle cliff sides, and they are quite common. They are also referred to as table mountains, buttes, potrero or tuya depending on how they were formed and their characteristics and can vary from small ones like those in the BDW to the Grand Mesa in CO which is the largest in the world at around 500 square miles on top. Sometimes plateau is also used wrongly. They don't always have the verticle sides and are much bigger covering huge areas up to millions of square miles. Yes I could move back to St.George I guess, although in many ways the cost of living is higher there than Vegas. I'm sure some of my old friends are still there and kicking. But since my Dad lives there now I wouldn't even consider it.