I raise all my butterflies outside on my front porch, Marco, but there are huge numbers of cats on my pipevines outside, raising themselves. I found a pipevine swallowtail hanging on the inside of a rocker on a rocking chair on the porch the other day - its chrysalid was on the back of the chair! This one crawled as a caterpillar from the vines in my garden to pupate. Pipevine swallowtails eat aristolochia, which apparently makes them as distasteful to predators as the books say, because they're one caterpillar that never gets touched! Pipevine swallowtails are battus philenor - I LOVE them! I don't know the answer about zebra longwings and gulf fritillaries overwintering. Don't you live in an apartment? Three GF caterpillars overwintered here for the first time this year, but it was because they were on p. caerulea, which is real cold hardy, and it kept leaves all winter. They apparently hid in the leaves, because I didn't see them until it was almost spring, and they must have either gone into some sort of suspended state on the vines or eaten just little bits at the time over the winter. We had a mild winter, but we did have a few light freezes, no colder than 30 degrees, as I recall. I had been wanting to overwinter a GF as a chrysalid, thinking that was the way to go, but the chrysalids always turned black and died. I never dreamed they'd overwinter as cats! I've never raised any zebra longwings, but I'm guessing the situation is the same, except that zebras are probably more cold sensitive than GFs. I wish I could raise some! MissSherry

Here is some information based on my personal experiences with growing different types of Pipevine from seed and otherwise: Fimbriata grows well from seed and germinates fairly quickly. If you are in Texas, that would be first choice for ease of germination and growth. I got my seed from someone on one of the forums last year. You could do a search for "Fimbriata seeds" and find out who had them. I am getting little "pipes" on my plants. If they get pollinated, I should have some seed this fall. Since I live in Oklahoma, the Fimbriata is not hardy here and I'll have to give it winter protection, or start again from seed. I also planted Serpentaria seed last fall and it germinated. It takes a long time for the plants to get any size; whereas the Fimbriata grew rather quickly. Rod Angeroth offered the seed on our forum last fall, so watch for his posting. The Serpentaria plants have been the first choice of the Pipevines in my yard. Second choice has been Tomentosa. As soon as I find the caterpillars on the Serpentaria, I move them over to the Tomentosa to conserve the Serpentaria plants for egg laying. I have a seed pod on my Tomentosa but it hasn't matured yet. I'll see what happens when I plant the seeds as to whether it germinates easily. I may have some extra seeds to spare. Since this is my first time to have a pod mature, I don't know what to expect. My Tomentosa plants were either purchased or collected from outside my neighborhood where it grows wild. It is very hard to get the cuttings to root. I've had minimal success doing this. Clematitis takes a long time to germinate. After 6 months, 2 of my dozen seeds germinated. Those 2 plants have taken off. I have purchased 6 more plants from a native plant vendor, and Susan gave me a start. So far the Clematitis has been ignored in my garden. But, I think that it will be discovered as it spreads. I have Macrophylla also, but that has been my slowest grower, and it hasn't had any attention from the Pipevines. I didn't start it from seed, but purchased the plant from a native nursery in our state. Sandy

Tom, the little guys that are popping up are from the parent plant. Pipevine is a sucker plant, like passionvine, and sends out long runners. Not too many flowers get pollinated. The seed capsules are about 2 inches long and about an inch in diameter and barrel shaped. They form at the junction with the vine just above the pipe. I have only seen two seed capsules--one on a wild vine, and one that formed on one of the vines in my yard. They are packed with lots and lots of seeds.

Angie, I saw pictures on the web somewhere of pipevine cats on a calico. I believe the posts were from california. I do know that butterflies prefer the "cultivated" plants that are closest to the ones they use in the wild in their particular area. apparently our pipevines here are cajun. just kidding. I have a report of them using fimbriata. I just bought 2 of them from my nursery and the butterfly specialist had gone to Texas to get them. she has one she just planted this year and has 1st instar cats. I am so impatient to get so many caterpillars. I have not had the luck that so many on this forum are enjoying. I have been in this new house a little over a year and a half and have yet to see half the species of butterfly I had at my other house less than 10 miles from here.I have a virtual butterfly smorgasbord. and I am not new to gardening. I go down the road (less than a quarter mile)to a friends wild property searching for plants and cats. I came across a wandering pipevine caterpillar last year but could not locate the pipevine it must have been using. It was sick anyway- spider or wasp bites.so I know we get them here. have you seen a sign of pipevines where you are?