"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!

I have found that the flowers of all the plants in the carrot family attract large numbers of insects including many types of wasps and hover flies, tiny beetles, etc. If you let the parsley and carrots flower in their second year they will be insect magnets too. In my yard the fennel, parsley, and goldenrod flowers attract the greatest number and variety of insects by far. It is fascinating to watch the swarm surrounding them when they are at their peak. If the swarm bothers you, but you still want the foliage for the caterpillars just cut off the flower stalks. The rue flowers are not as busy and it seems to be a last choice as far as black swallowtail eggs at least here. It is an attractive plant though and may get giant swallowtails to lay on it as well. Be careful when working with it though because it may cause some light sensitive skin blistering in people. I would make sure that the peat moss never dries out until the seedlings get a good start because once it dries out it is pretty hard to re-wet.

Karyn, I was trying to look at your trade list, but saw you hadn't posted anything on it. I have buttonbush seeds I got in a trade here...the germination rate was low but I got the two plants I was hoping for and they have both grown 3-4 feet tall in year 1. I would be happy to trade. Please let me know exactly what you have that attracts butterflies. Thanks, Tony

WELL, I am planning an entire GARDEN! Does that count? Since I have moved back to teaching middle school math, I figured I need to get a butterfly garden going. There IS a garden club and the teacher who is the advisor has quite a few Milkweed plants, courtesy of moi, but he doesn't really have a 'butterly garden,' per se. I am teaching a butterly science course in a few months and I think it is sort of important that I have an actual garden up. SO, I went ahead and planted a bunch of pots of A. curassavica this week AND bought a Monarda ('Coyote Mint') and dug up and transplanted bunches of pots of Cheeseweed (Malva parviflora) and I have a humongous potted Buddleia that's been waiting to go in the ground and...you get the drift. DH said, "You may want to think about WHERE you want the garden" but I already have an idea where...right out the front of my classroom door (I only have ONE door). After all, it would make sense, right? So, I think I shall get my booty in gear this week and start digging around the area. :) I do have a number of kids who are in my informal 'butterfly club' and they've been bugging me about when our next meeting is (we've had a few before the holiday). I figure this is perfect! Junior high kids are good for labourers...hehehe! Gotta love it!