MauveGirl8 -- I plan to stay here for a few years. I haven't even yet applied to school, and the program I'm intending to complete is 5-6 years. My next move will be way south -- Florida. As such, there are a lot of things I have that won't work there, so I wouldn't take them with me. And in any case, I'm not going to dig anything out. If I want to "bring any with me" it will be via rooted cuttings. And before I go, I intend to share some other rooted cuttings with friends -- and my landlord. He and his wife will be building a new home on empty land in the near future, and I said I'd be happy to share anything he'd like for his new yard. Certainly I'll be bringing along my "pot pet collection", and cuttings of anything appropriate for Florida that I got from Vintage Gardens that isn't available elsewhere. And by that time, I'll also make an announcement here for anyone interested in "hard to find" things I nabbed for this garden. For example, the Hybrid China 'Nouveau Monde' from VG doesn't seem to be available anywhere else. I'm using it as a climber against a raised back deck railing. The few flowers it had when it arrived were very fragrant. I posted two pics of it on HelpMeFind from when I first repotted it. Since then, it has grown quite vigorously -- one cane trained horizontally against the railing is easily 10' long from the ground. :-) ~Christopher

My garden did great, I found lots of monarch catepillars on my butterfly weed plants, I have several all over. I had a wonderful display of irises but will need to start digging them up and dividing them next year. I have a huge iris bed and I realize they won't bloom if I start in the spring dividing them but because it is so huge, there is no way I can get it all done next spring, will be an oncoming process every year from now on I think, just getting out of hand. I have planted alot of stuff for the butterflies, salvia, sdeum, coneflowers, lilies, blackeyed susans, etc... I also plant lots of zinnias.

Oh my gosh, Lisa, you have a Pipevine swallowtail!!!! One that "I" feel is one of the most coveted butterflies to attract. Aren't they one of the most absolute gorgeous bfs???? And, their caterpillars have got to be some of the most cuuute. They are black with red spines, but are not sharp, just very soft. Their host plants are the Pipevine vines in the Aristolochia family. It took me 3 years for my vines to get established enough to support a colony, and I have had them all summer this year. It's been so wonderful. You need to get you some Pipevines, Girlfriend. Susan had caterpillars on her vines this year, also. Unfortunately, the vines are not readily available at the local nurseries. Suan and I have been trying, but they say that there is not enough demand? Most butterfly books say that their range would increase if more people planted pipevines. Aristolochia tomentosa seems to do well in central Okla., morning sun, filtered shade. Ocassionally, Marilyn has some- http://www.wildthingsnursery.com/ Missouri Wildflowers has small vines- http://www.mowildflowers.net/ Mary Ann at Pine Ridge Garden may have larger plants. http://www.pineridgegardens.com/2003Tree.htm All are reputable. It's no wonder that one didn't happen upon your gorgeous flowers. I just hate it that I hadden't gotten around to see your yard. I am so excited for you!!! Hopefully, you'll think about putting in some pipevines in the future, so that you will have them all summer, and not just an occasional migrant. Do you have some passionvine for the Gulf frits? I don't know why the Monarchs didn't find your patch of milkweed this summer. Next summer, remind me, and I'll share some of my caterpillars. Seems like once you have them, they seem to return. Dawn, thanks so much for your Monarch report. I believe that the weather has been the major factor in the routes that the Monarchs have taken this year. The largest waves have been thru Ponca, Kingfisher, Canton Lake, and on into Midland, and San Angelo. There are have spotty reports along I-35 to Dallas. Chip Taylor from Monarch Watch says that the ones being seen now are the late emergers, and that their changes of making it to Mexico by Nov. 1st is very slim. The 1st ones that I saw the end of Sept. were hundreds filling the sky. The wind was just right, and they weren't stopping to nectar. They were high in the sky on a mission. This 20-30 mph southerly wind has really slowed some of them down. Hope that you get some rain, Dawn, and some cooler temps. We had been pretty hot, and dry, with strong southerly winds until we got some rain on Monday, and then we just got 2 1/2 inches,today. Did you get any of the rain, today? The wind is supposed to blow strong from the north tomorrow, and then turn around and blow strong from the south Sat., and Sun. Be hard for any Monarchs to make much distance now. Randy said that he saw about 200 in Norman yesterday. Perhaps, some of them will come to visit you, Dawn. My flowers are kinda fizzling out. My trop. mw is going to seed, but still has some flowers and is a great attractor. I don't have near the stand of Golden crownbead that I normally have to do all of the extra rain drowning some out. Most of my zinnias look bad. I should have deadheaded them more. But, my butterfly bushes, Gregg's blue mistflower, Aster oblongifloius, and Mexican flamevine are really attracting the bfs. Do you have Mexican flamevine Dawn and Lisa? It really shines this time of year. Dawn, there is a Master Gardener from SE Okla. that has posted on the Butterfly Forum wanting to know of some good butterfly attracting plants for the SE for designing a butterfly garden presentation. Perhaps you may be able to help? http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/butterfly/msg1014095914317.html?7 Gee, I didn't mean to be so winded. Thanks again for your great reports. I really should check out the Okla. Gardening forum more often. I still have so much to learn. :) Here is a link that might be useful: Pipevine swallowtails

Christina, I have sown wildflower blends on part of our acreage and in most years, between the wildflowers and the cultivated flowers in the garden and on the vines, there's plenty for the monarchs and all the other butterflies and moths to feed on during their fall migration. I use wildflower seed mixes from Wildseed Farms, which I've linked below. Read the details on each mix carefully, as some of them perform better from an autumn or early winter sowing and others need to be sown in February and March. I have had the best results when I actually take the time to follow Wildseed Farm's planting recommendations. This fall, these are the wildflowers that the monarchs and other butterflies and moths have been feeding upon here on our land: blazing star (liatris), goldenrod, asters (the native ones with small white or very, very pale blue flowers), frogfruit, coreopsis, helenium, native sunflowers, blue sage (Salvia azurea), verbena bonariensis, Gregg's mist and crownbeard daisy. There may be others, but those are the main ones I've seen in bloom here, where we had almost no rain from mid-July through last week. In the cultivated garden, these flowers have been in bloom and feeding the butterflies and moths for months: trumpet creeper vines, morning glories, cypress vine, four o'clocks, hardy hibiscus, zinnias (many varieties in various heights, types of flowers and colors), marigolds, salvia farinacea, autumn sage, red hot poker, moss rose, Laura Bush petunias (one of the toughest and most resilient plants I grow), and tall verbena (verbena bonariensis). The tall verbena probably is more attractive to butterflies than any other single plant I grow, though zinnias attract almost as many. You might have noticed verbena bonariensis is on both lists, and that's because I have it growing both within the culivated garden and out in the pastures. It reseeds readily, but I consider that a blessing because it survives in dry pastures when little else does, making it a very reliable source of food for butterflies. For the butterflies that try to overwinter, I always leave henbit wherever it springs up because sometimes it is in bloom as early as December and then blooms on and off through at least April. It is a butterfly magnet during a time when there is very little for them otherwise. Within my veggie garden (which you know is a mix of veggies, flowers, herbs and fruit), I try to always have some dianthus, pansies and snapdragons in there all winter long as well. In early spring, those winter bloomers and the henbit generally keep the butterflies and moths alive until the early spring bloomers, which include larkspur and poppies (both from fall/early winter sowings of seeds) and the pink evening primrose burst into bloom. I have nothing good to say about pink evening primrose and hate it in the garden, but love it in the fields. It is incredibly aggressive and invasive, but it is tough and blooms like mad, so I yank it out of the proper cultivated garden when it pops up there and let it roam through the fields otherwise. Sometimes it surprises me to see butterflies and/or moths out in the wintertime, but the overwintering ones do come out on sunny winter days, even if it has snowed just a day or two below. I feed them in various ways during those times, especially if the snow and the accompanying cold tempertures have bitten back and damaged the few winter flowers that are in bloom. I have a butterfly feeder and sometimes I put out nectar in that, or in hummingbird feeders with the bee guards removed (the bee need help to get through the winter too). Sometimes I cut fruit in half and put it out on logs or stumps for them, or fruit jelly in a dish. I always keep a flat, shallow pan filled with pebbles and just a little water (so they can sip, but not drown) or make mud puddles in the gravel driveway for them. When I make my rounds in the mornings, feeding the chickens, etc., I just make sure there's either flowers in bloom or some sort of substitute from us out there for the butterflies and hummingbirds. Oh, and one more thing....congrats on spotting the roosting butterflies! We had them here by the thousands one year, simply covering a 40' tall, dead elm tree, and I watched them that night until it was too dark to see them, and then got outside early the next morning to watch them slowly wake up and fly away. It was simply the most magical moment we've ever had since moving here. A special moment like that doesn't come along often so, when it happens, I stop whatever I am doing and savor every single second of it. Dawn