MissSherry, Hee hee, I had to laugh when you said about sneaking over when nobody was looking and get the pots. :) There is a town about 10 miles from here that has a big trash day and now I remember how someone described how people cruise the streets looking over other people's junk to see what they can use and jump out of their cars and grab what they want. Ha, that sounds like something I could go for. I think they might have already had their trash day this year though but not sure. Yes, I bet that nursery was glad that you took care of their unwanted pots. I'll have to look at Lowe's and see if they have any broken bags of potting soil. Sometimes they do and put it on sale for half price. Yes, I think I probably do have enough milkweed to feed an army of cats and so I'm not worried that I won't have enough this year. :) tdogmom, You make it sound like your hubby likes his Plumeria as much as you like your Monarchs. :) Does he raise them to sell or he just likes to grow them? I bet between his plants and your butterflies, people passing by your place must think that they're in some tropical paradise. That's cute how you both have your nursery friends and nice that they save containers for you. It sounds like cleaning those pots was good therapy for you. Hee hee. It also made hubby happy at the same time. We don't have a Home Depot around here, but we have a Lowe's and sometimes they'll have broken bags for 50% off. I'll have to check that out. I forgot all about that. Susan, You sound very resourceful and I could do that too if I can't find any pots anywhere for free. Yeah, I saved my plastic pots too that I purchased plants in. I don't even know anymore how I ended up with 20 some one-gallon pots. Those already have swamp milkweed growing in them (they're just poking their heads through the soil...just soil that I used from our place). I don't know why I didn't even think of the gallon size jugs...we have some of those that we bought milk in and I could use those. Jill, Yes, I'll definitely have to buy the potting soil. I just hope I can find some for half price. I know the SuperWalmart has real big bags of it for something like $9, I think. I never heard of Freecycle. I just learned something new again. I had been buying the small bags of potting soil for convenience. I have back problems and can't lift a whole lot like those bigger bags of potting soil at Walmart, but surely I could get hubby to do it. MaryAnn, That's a good idea too, using the half gallon milk and oj containers. I imagine that some of the plants that I'm starting later than the others won't get real big and I could put them in those. I wish I could get big bales of potting soil like you describe. I never saw anyone around here have those. They'd last quite awhile! Well, for me, that's a month or so. Ha. That's for sure, at least starting the plants myself is much cheaper than buying all of them. I can just imagine that if I'd go to buy all the plants that I started from seed this year, they'd cost hundreds (maybe even a couple thousand) of dollars. Paul, I wonder if I'd be able to keep milkweed in pots up here year-round without them freezing considering that I live in PA. I'd do that if I knew it would work. It would save some time. If I'd try keeping some over winter and find out that they don't make it, I could at least use the soil over, I guess, rather than keep buying new every year. I wish I knew for sure if I could keep them over winter without them dying. That's a good idea you have about mixing the potting soil, sand, soil, lime, and fertilizer granules. I do that sometimes when I feel adventurous. :) I also built a new cage but didn't get it finished because of all this plant stuff. I hope I can find time to finish it this year yet or else I'll have tons of caterpillars on our back porch this year. THANKS, EVERYONE, for your excellent advice!! :) Cathy

Susan, Yes, I sure agree with you about the Swamp Milkweed having a growth spurge. I had the same experience when I took them out of the smaller pots that they were in and planted them in the big pots. I had done that a few weeks ago and mine are much taller too. I just measure my tallest one and it's about 32" high. The other ones in the bigger pots are catching up to it. I remember when I bought some Swamp Milkweed at the local nursery last year and the year before, they were just in the one-gallon pots and I remember thinking that a person would never be able to keep them in those permanently, that they'd be falling over all the time. The plants get 4 feet high and that's pretty tall to be in a pot that size, but I can imagine that the nursery would have to jack the price up another few dollars if they'd put them in bigger pots. I suppose I spent a few dollars on the potting soil to put in each of those two and three gallon pots. I got a bag of potting soil while I was there yesterday. It cost about $10 and if it wouldn't have been for mixing garden soil in with it, I'm sure I would have only gotten about 4 plants/pots done with that amount. So that would be about $2.50 a plant just in potting soil. I hate to even think what I've spent on plants, seeds, potting soil, and peat moss this year. Oh my! My husband said it's time to stop, that it's breaking the piggy back, and he means it, so any others will just have to get planted over in the weed patch, which is okay. I already have plenty already. Sherry, Yes, I think too that there are some really nice people out there, and that was nice of the nursery manager giving you the Buddleia and other plants. I don't think that too many would do that actually. Haha, yeah I'm sure you would know that feeling with the Monarchs! Hee hee. Wow, I bet too that you'd have had to gather a lot of leaves for all those cats for just being gone overnight. I've been saying that raising cats is about as much work as taking care of a couple of real babies. I know when I had the Monarchs here last year, I only got 4-5 hours of sleep a night because I'd wake up worrying if they had enough food and lots of times a few would be out of leaves even though I thought I had given them plenty before I hit the sack. I guess I should have stuffed the jars full. lol I'm going to forget the jars this year except for maybe a few. That just takes too much time keeping each caterpillar in a quart jar and dumping the frass out each time I feed it...taking the caterpillar and stick out, dumping, putting the cat and stick back in with fresh leaves. Geez, I thought there HAS to be an easier way of doing this! I sure hope I get that cage done or I might end up doing it the hard way again, and I was exhausted. I'm glad things aren't so hectic for you right now, but just think of all those butterflies you're putting out into the world! :-) Cathy

Hi, I am just getting into natives after gardening for most off my life, so right now, all I have are seed packets of different plants, which I am not ven sure if they are native or not. I am looking for a couple of milkweed and dwarf joe pye weed. I have some packets of statice, giant imperial larkspur, cardinal climbing vine, crystal palace lobelia, bachelor buttons, a half packet of calendula pink surprise, a half packet of regalis lupine, and nepoletano basil if you are interested. James

I know it's a long shot. She was just too lazy to do it right! We are coming out of winter but hopefully some freeze/thaw cycles will push them into the soil. Greatest likelihood is the melting snow washing them away from where they were sown. The common milkweed was harvested from some pods I found in a field and the swamp milk were seeds from "Ice Ballet". Would be really interesting to see what type of specimen the "Ice Ballet" crosses make!