I've got them all over the place. Didn't winter sow any of them however. Purchased one (the reg. violet purple) and got two seedlings from a friend who had them show up in her yard about 5 years ago (one more pinkish magenta, the other the reg. violet purple). These three are in the back yard, two full sun, one part sun and all do fine. In cleaning up this spring I am finding babies all over the place. At least 4 that must have been under a foot tall seedlings last year and I missed them in my jungle and are now ready to dig up, pot up and give away. All the volunteers have showed up in full sun if that helps. For the front, I had purchsed a small yellow/orange center (Honeysuckle? I forget the name) BB. It was godzilla in the full sun center bed - 8' tall and wide in a season or two. I hacked it down to a manageable size and moved it to an afternoon sun only bed, it stays more managable there. So just from my experience, they do OK without full tilt full sun. If you want to keep it a smaller size (under 6') you might want to go for that right from the beginning.

Hi Everyone, and thanks so much Sherry for posting the pictures of us and our wild habitat. I actually feel very awkward going outside to weed or deadhead as I did yesterday and today. I keep waiting for someone to tell me what I already know which is that I am OUT OF CONTROL. But I can't stop. And my older daughter has joined me and is doing the same thing down in southern CA where she and her family live. Everynight we email each other pictures of our new plants and butterfly sightings. And my granddaughter comes up to collect cats to raise in her school class periodically which is also fun. You're right, Mike, I do spend entirely too much time at that window looking for visiting butterflies and then I run through the house to see if anyone is visiting out back. It is truly crazy because I even go out several times at night to see if there are any moths around. The funny thing is that my neighbors next door just have dead weeds and my neighbor in back has literally cemented her entire yard back, side and front. Caleb and I stand out like sore thumbs. My youngest daughter says her husband would take a sickle to it all. Oh well, what can I say? I really didn't plan it at all. It just developed over time after I returned from a trip my sister took me on to see the monarch migration in Sants Cruz about 12 or so years ago. The other day a neighbor said his friend who was visiting and said it was the most concentrated example of biomass or biodiversity she ever saw. And it is like that all around my house except for one roadside strip along side the house and I am itching to descend on it but I fear the neighbors may begin to stone me. At least I know they respect Caleb who occasionally hurries people along if they tarry too long. Murray

I could probably have a lot more success in butterfly gardening if I devoted my whole yard to it. I have so many diverse interests, it's extremely difficult for me to choose between them, lol! Herbs are great because they do double or triple duty--butterfly food, pretty flowers, edible or drinkable products from them. I'm always looking for plants that have multiple good qualities. Originally I wanted to do edible landscaping, but I have found that the squirrels are quite a formidable obstacle. Not only do they tear up my tomatoes, etc, but they drag them around the neighborhood and leave the remains on my neighbors porches and lawns. My edibles are relegated to a few closely guarded pots by the back door. Just yesterday I caught a squirrel eyeing my cherry toms! Anyway, initially due to my experience at other sites, I thought the buddleia would be an easy thing to draw in the butterflies, but you can't draw in something that just isn't there. I had a large butterfly garden at one arboretum where I worked, we had all kinds of supposed butterfly plants in the garden and inevitably they would be ignored in favor of the buddleia. But that place was loaded with wildflower meadows, woods, etc. That's what originally gave me the idea of planting buddleia in my yard, I thought it would be an easy way to watch butterflies and only necessitate one plant's worth of space devoted to it. Other than the butterfly qualities it has, I am not a fan of the plant, up here it is invasive as my neighbor is proving. Although the fact that her above ground pool is a weedy mess in this urban situation I doubt is threatening critical habitat. We had all kinds of natives in the butterfly garden I mentioned above, and we were dilligent about removing the buddleia flowers before they set seed. But like I said, inevitably the natives would be ignored. It could be in that situation the buddleia was like candy, the cats had plenty of other sources of nectar, and most importantly, they were there in the first place because of all the larval habitat. Yesterday I was out on the front porch and I saw a monarch flying along the street. Perhaps I shall plant some milkweed. I like the plant, it does look kind of cool and smells heavanly. They have a good selection of varieties at the native plant nursery I frequent. I'm not that crazy about the orange variety, but I like swamp milkweed's flowers. On a serious note, if one was to design a butterfly garden for an urban site, it would probably be best to figure out what butterflies one could even remotely expect to foster in an urban situation, and then plant larval foods for those species. Frankly I could care less what those cabbage butterflies like, they seem to be quite able to fend for themselves without my help, :) Swallowtails might be easier to please, I like the plants in the umbelliferea family (dill and the like) I already have two plants in that family in my yard, dill and bishop's weed (although I hate the bishop's weed). I love fennel so that would be easy enough to stick in a pot. I've already mentioned monarchs. Not sure what else. There is a lot of grass and common weeds around there but I don't seem to see meadow or woods loving species. A meadow-type garden is not feasible for me due to the space competition. No room for willows, (love the corkscrew variety but I love my other shrubs and trees more) but I have wanted to try lupines. Even if they don't draw in the butterflies. Hard to grow in this zone though.

Kay - I was a little disappointed with Indigo Bunting. The older Lambertsons I have are much better. Jean - I'm sorry you lost your purple butterfly bush. I lost a Pink Delight butterfly bush during our drought. But I have three others. Julie - You are right. Beautiful blooms and bugs are a plus! Rita - I wonder what's wrong with your Shores of Time? Maybe you need to move it, like you did with those others that weren't performing. I hate that you didn't get blooms on that one. It's such a delight here. Debra