"About passionvine...do you know if it spreads so easily like that up north?" Most varieties of passionvine do go crazy, but the cats make quick work of it once the gulf frits find it! Last year, I had dozens of cats at any one time, and most of the summer, they'd eaten every tiny speck green from the vine (they'd sort of crawl around pathetically looking for food... I gave a couple hundred cats over a period of a few months to a friend who grows a ton of passionvine so she could feed them). My vine has recovered and is growing wonderfully right now, nice and lush, but I've seen frits in my yard already, so it's just a matter of time before they devour it again. So, in short, if you're growing passionvine for butterfly gardening, you can never have enough, and I consider it a plus that it grows so well. The first butterflies I ever raised (I'm in Houston, too) were swallowtails--I went to harvest some parsley one day, and discovered cats on it (that's how I got into butterfly gardening, actually--it was a happy accident). Now I grow a bunch of fennel for them, which they prefer over the parsley (they won't touch the parsley until the fennel is gone), and the fennel grows really well in our area and is very easy to find at all the garden centers, so try that, too. I'm also growing frog fruit and blue pea vines this year, and both of those host plants are growing very nicely right now, but no cats yet on either. And, of course, milkweed, but no matter how much I have it's never enough. Good luck!

Tom, I got my seeds last week...thanks a million!!! ;o) I was calling some of our local nurseries before I received the seeds to see if anyone had a Wafer Ash & I found a tree locally. When I called, the nurseryman said he thought he had one but it wasn't in very good shape & I could have it for free. I said, "YES, I'd LOVE it!" Not realizing that he was referring to a 25 gallon tree! It is almost 8ft tall & looks like "Charlie Brown's Christmas Tree"!!! IT's HUGE!!! It is alive & he said that it has been in the pot way too long. It had a year on the pot of 2006. It also had a price of $225 marked out to $50...I can't believe he gave it to me!!! What a blessing! I took it home last Thusday thinking I could get it in the ground this weekend & it has now been raining for 4 days straight! Maybe this week some time, I can play "hooky" from my work & I can get it planted...it's supposed to rain next weekend, too! I have a BIG hole to dig...LOL!!!! I've included a link to the picture of it...it only has about a dozen leaves on it...the GST cats must have eaten the rest at the nursery! ;o) Here is a link that might be useful:

Hi Gardenwebers, I am looking for seeds of your best nectar and host plants in your gardens. You see, i am trying to attract butterflies found not in my area of the LRGV (Lower Rio Grande Valley) of Texas but are found right outside it. I was wondering what everyone's opoinion was about their best nectar and host plants. If anyone can share some seeds with me for an SASE or SASBE and I can grow them maybe I can attract the butterflies. The butterflies are: Eastern Tiger Sallowtail Two Tailed Swallowtail Red Spotted Purple Viceroy Mourning Cloak Ruby Spotted Swallowtail Zebra Swallowtail Harvester ( I know they feed of aphids but what plant would do good for getting them) Garcia Tiger Swallowtail Spicebush Swallowtail Palamedes Swallowtail Polydamas Swallowtail AND MORE. I am looking for the best nectar and host plants for them(all butterflies). Here is the link to a page with all the host plants. Note- It does NOT list all nectar plants. Plus I am looking for nectar plants of all over Texas and the U.S. Same goes for hosts. Thank-you, Danny

Oh, thank you so much for this information. You saved me money and heartache. Red passion flower is now a no no for my garden. Mary