man, paul, i sympathise. been there, done that, though not with that quantity of cats. that's why i don't bring in all the cats i find (but i do with monarchs b/c so far we have so few). i guess nature thins them to the point they can succeed outside. anyhow, the times i flat ran out of food, if they were close in size, they will just go on and pupate a bit small after a day or 2 sans food. that must be what happens outside if they run out. if they're really little, there isn't much to be done. you probably know this, but they'll eat the pods, too. just thinking aloud here- there are a couple of monarch web sites- i wonder if you could order stems of milkweed & have them shipped? i believe they sell the eggs to hatch & watch, so logically, they must also sell a food source. or, is there a zoo or butterfly garden close who may be able to help or point you in the right direction? i wish i could help. with this in mind plant more now for next yr (need tuberosum seeds? i got lots). or, try to plant one of the larger leaved kinds, like syrica, that last a lot longer. that's what i'm trying to get established. nandina, i have to think that you were seeing black swallowtail cats on the parsley and monarchs on the asclepias. monarchs can't eat anything else but asclepias members- they can't digest other things. now, strangely, black swallowtails can eat most parsley family members and also rue of all things- odd. they do look similar, especially to someone just glancing or not into butterflies.

Nate, I grew in Wilmington NC, located near the mouth of the Cape Fear, about 60 mi from Myrtle Beach. Wilmington is steeped in Civil War history. The downtown area has some fabulous old colonial mansions. Greenfield Gardens is a 150 acre lake with old cypress trees hanging heavy with spanish moss. It's particularly beautiful in April when the azaleas are blooming. Wilmington is known as the 'city of azaleas' and they are breathtaking when they all bloom in early April. Greenfield gardens has a 5 mile hiking/biking path that's very nice. Airlie Gardens, near Wrightsville Beach, is known for it's ancient oaks and natural beauty. Located on the sound, it has lots of waterbirds. Old Brunswick Town, near Southport, is a wonderful old colonial port town. The region has lots of excavated ruins dating back to the early 1700's. Also the Fort Fisher area is very nice. There should be lots of hiking trails in the region. I don't think you'd encounter too many tourists this time of year. In fact, many of those little towns roll up the sidewalks early. I love the local food. Great seafood, hushpuppies, brunswick stew and pork barbecue...the best! We used to go to Myrtle Beach when I was a kid but it wasn't anything like it is now...so I can't tell you anything about that area anymore. You could however go over to the Carolina gardening forum. There are people there that could give you some info. Have fun!

Janet, I think the possumhaws would grow easily from transplanted suckers. They do sucker a lot but I've never tried to dig a sucker and move it. If the sucker is coming up some distance from the mother plant, I just dig the sucker, sever it from the root of the mother plant, and toss it on the compost pile. Don't get me wrong because I do love the possumhaws and appreciate their use as a food for wildlife, but I don't want more of them than we already have. Or, if the sucker is coming up right on the main trunk, I prune it off while it is small. Some of mine sucker a lot, and others don't. Mine produce berries just fine no matter what their sun exposure happens to be but the amount varies with the sun exposure. One of the clumps of possumhaws that produces the largest loads of berries grows to the east of a very large pecan tree so it only gets full sun early in the morning and is in dappled shade the rest of the day. Even those growing in the woods produce decent amounts of berries though. Most produce very red berries that eventually fade to a more orangeish-red in the winter but a couple produce berries that are an orangey-red from the start. The birds generally don't eat the berries until late winter as their flavor is very astringent and they are not 'preferred' food, but the birds do eat them after they've eaten up everything they like more. None of the plants you listed are growing on our property but some of them may grow elsewhere in southern OK where the soil is sandy and drains better than our clay. We do have various native solanums that closely resemble purple groundcherry, but I don't think I have seen purple ground cherry here. We do have Carolina Horsenettle (aka Virginia Ground Cherry) and two that I believe are Torry's Nightshade and Silverleaf Nightshade. They usually bloom in midsummer and then form the fruit that look sort of like small, immature tomatoes that never get very large or sort of like the seedpods that form on potato plants. The horsenettle and nightshades are very, very drought-tolerant. This summer, when we were out at wildfires all over the county, often the nightshades were just about the only plants still green in July and August whether they were growing in the sandier soils in western and southern portions of the county, or clay in other areas, or rocky ridges in more northernmost parts of the county. They seem able to adapt to just about any soil type. I believe southern Oklahoma shares many native plants that also are found in Texas, but it varies a lot just as our soil types vary a lot. Having mostly dense, red clay, I generally see native plants that are clay-tolerant and are typical of what you'd find in the blackland prairies in north central Texas. This summer we were out time and again at fires in very sandy soil in parts of the county that have a lot of sand and I saw plants there that I'd never seen here before. Some of them were so new to me that I didn't know what I was seeing, while I recognized others even though I didn't know that they grew here. Love County is right in the middle of southern OK with I-35 cutting it right in half, and the further west you go in our county, the more you see native plants that resemble what you see in western north Texas or even west Texas. Conversely, the further east you go, the more you see the types of plants more typical of northeastern Texas. It is a fascinating study in the difference that soil and rainfall make even in a fairly small area. Our rainfall in our county varies a lot, with the more western portions of the county often getting 4 to 6" less rainfall per year than the more eastern portions, and the plants that do best in that drier sand are often different from those that do best in more eastern parts of the county.

Good grief. I find that an extremely narrow view, alex. Shelben, I hadn't replied to this post earlier because I am one of those who want to tell you that mulch is the best thing to use under your tree, especially if you value it. If you consider the damage you might do to the root system when planting, perhaps you'll reconsider. That 'beautiful' crabapple might react very negatively to digging, extra watering, competition from other roots sytems, etc.