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Butterfly Garden

Painted Lady Butterflies Kaleidoscope

6 years ago

last modified: 6 years ago

After years of seeing only a few butterflies at one time in my gardens today a kaleidoscope of nine or more Painted Lady butterflies are flitting from phlox, Brazilian verbena, garlic allium, rudbeckia and other blooms. It gives me joy to so many butterflies along with a hummingbird or two, and, of course, lots of bees flying around.

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Comments (3)

Jacob Berg
6 years ago
My garden was full of them aswell!! What part of hennepin county are you in? I live in the county aswell! How was the rest of the butterflies this year in your garden?
mnwsgal
Original Author
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
I live in Maple Grove near the intersection of 494 and 94. Where are you located? Heard on the news that the painted ladies are migrating south. They were here until evening.

We are seeing a few monarchs. I sometimes see a few other butterflies, cabbage whites, surfers, fritillaries, skippers, admirals. Had several swallowtail butterflies earlier. They are fond of tiger lily blooms which I grow just for them. Didn't see any giant black swallowtails this year. How about you?
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Stan, beautiful egg images! Thanks for sharing. I probably don't grow enough of their host plant to get many. The only plant I ever found them on in my garden was Cudweed, which is an annual I believe, that never got to flowering stage because the cats ate the tips of the plant down. I only had one plant that popped up from nowhere, and haven't seen any since. I do have Artemesia stelleriana, but just put out last year. So far, no cats. In my area of central Oklahoma, they are hit and miss butterflies, same good years, some not, same as its cousin, the Painted Lady. Please keep posting your pics as the cats emerge and grow. Susan
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Well now, the Painted Ladies my daughter ordered fed on the green goop in the bottom of their larva cup. :) They did well on it, too -- we were 5 for 5 at release. You probably can't plant green goop, though.
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I agree the best bet would be to grow, grow, and grow milkweed like crazy to be prepared for next year's influx of monarchs. I also have had very poor luck in finding any significant amount in nursery's and it is defiantly late in the season for them to be stocking any. I have heard it takes about 10 plants to attract them into your yard. Although I gave my mom two and she got them the first year I gave them to her. It took me 2 1/2 years of growing them in my yard to get any Monarchs in to my yard. Granted, as I have talked to others near my neighborhood, they had faster luck than I did! It is the right season here in North San Diego county for monarchs. I have many eggs and for the FIRST time I saw mid-air copulation taking place in my garden today! I now commonly have monarch cats as late as Thanksgiving. And actually I was surprised to have them as early as August this year.
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Comments (1)
The butterflies need to be released. They require a food source in the form of nectar from a wide variety of flowering plants. HOPEFULLY, you live in an area where there are plenty of annuals and perennials in full bloom. If not, shame on the organizers of the home show. Butterflies have a very short window of opportunity in which to mate. Any that are raised artificially must be released so that they can accomplish that before they die in a very few short weeks. The butterflies seek out thistles and plants in the Malvaceae family to use as host plants....to lay their eggs for the caterpillars to feed on.
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Jacob Berg
6 years ago
I live on Lake Minnetonka, my garden had almost no action, No Tiger Swallowtails, No Black swallowtails, No American Ladies which is a great dissapointment.

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?what to do with this little guy?

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