I've got all kinds of wierd babies appearing. Today I saw what must be the by-product of the black bubble eyed moor with one of the regular goldfish. Pure black, lovely fan tail and a long pointed face - ughhh! Even the tropical mollies are coming up in all shapes and sizes. No matter, love them all and their so happy not to be stuck in the aquarium any more.

hidesert_windy - FWIW, the V.cardui "blew" through southern Nevada a month ago. And there was not very many of them down here, in fact so light that they were almost missed. Normal years the move north is usually at least heavy enough that even a person not interested in leps will notice them. Not this year. With all the crazy cold/hot/cold and very windy weather we've had this year I'd bet a lot of the early leps have their schedules out of whack. So I don't know if that was the migration or not. If so many individuals were probably killed by the freak cold fronts and storms. What you saw could have blown into your area, could have been over wintered pupa that emerged someplace near your area or even over wintered adults right from your area. Of interest maybe... the migrations appear to be cyclic and heavier than normal every few years. But since I started seriously studying leps in 1964, the heaviest spring migration of V. cardui I have ever seen was in about 1989-90-91 while living in northern Utah. Can't remember for sure which year and my logs are all packed in storage. But it was so heavy that the cardui literally covered any surface they could hang onto wing tip to wing tip, with more hovering and trying to find a place to land. The ground, all plants, buildings... everything moved with them. It wasn't localized either. I drove out onto the west desert all the way to the Nevada border on back roads to photograph them that weekend, and never found a place they were not just as thick. You couldn't even get out of your vehicle without stepping on them. The following week I left Utah on a business trip that took me to Boise, then Twin Falls, Sun Valley and Idaho Falls before making a loop through western Montana from Butte to Missoula, Kalispell, Great Falls and back down to Bozeman, then to Jackson Wyoming before returning home. They were just as thick everywhere I went along that trip and were actually a driving hazard. The roads everywhere were littered with uncountable numbers of them that had been killed by vehicles. No doubt I was kind of following the migration north much of that trip, even if it was scheduled by my secretary, but it was still quite a sight. LOL L.

Sherry, I'm probably learning more than you're learning because you already know lots more than I do. :) Good grief, you have PVS that overwintered for 14 months?! I'd have probably thought that they croaked if I'd have had them. I never knew that any could go that long. I guess I'm just used to Monarchs and then think they're about all that way. I guess I was lucky that the Monarchs showed up here right away after I had some milkweed plants here. They ought to show up in droves this year because I have tons of it ready for them, especially Tropical Milkweed. ;-) I have buds on a few of mine that will open soon. Those plants grow faster than Butterfly Weed and Swamp Milkweed. That has been my experience here anyway. My Swamp Milkweeds in pots are finally deciding to start growing more; hopefully I'll be able to use those to feed the Monarch cats but if not there's always all of the Tropical Milkweed plants. Last year, my first year, I didn't start finding Monarch cats here until the beginning of August. I wonder if that's a usual year for my area? Wow, you collect more eggs in one day that I get in a whole season...165...wow! Do you know about how many you raise every year or don't you keep track of the numbers? It was very interesting reading of your butterfly experiences, and I bet you have lots of stories you could tell since you've raised so many and different kinds. What you said about the Aristolochia almost makes me wonder if I should keep it covered this year, as I just can't picture it growing enough to feed a bunch of PVS, probably not even one. I'd have to have eggs on it and then not be able to feed them. I guess I'd have to adopt them out somehow and hope that someone would take them. I wonder if most people cover their plants the first year. So you overfeed yours, huh? ;-) I have mallow growing in containers that I want to put outside soon. I just dug a flower bed for some of them today but didn't get them put out yet. I didn't get Painted Ladies last year on the hollyhocks that I have here (didn't see any butterflies) and was hoping that maybe the mallow would make them magically appear. :-D I have more host foods for butterflies this year than I did last year, and I suppose next year I will have more than I do this year because there are still a few things that I would like to get, mainly a few host plants for various types of butterflies, the Paw Paw tree being one of the plants. I hope some of the butterflies will hang around here. I don't care if some fly off because that might make some other person happy to see them at their place, but I wish I could have a few stay here. It kind of reminds me of Charlotte's Web at the end of the story where Charlotte dies but has an egg sack that hatches out lots of spiders. Wilbur watches in horror as they all start taking off for parts unknown, but to his delight, I think 3 stay behind with Wilbur.

Well, I live in a townhouse with my garden facing north. It gets the minimum amount of sun required for a garden. My best success was super snap peas. Totally awesome straight off the vine. Tomatoes grow, but get tomato diseases. I plant them anyway and enjoy what I get. Onions grow fine. Basil and oregano and dill grow great. Dill is doubly interesting because I can eat it and black swallowtail butterfly caterpillars can eat it. Most years I keep a few to hatch into butterflys on the screened in porch. Highly recommended!