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.

If you brought it in for cold weather, it will probably come back. Those twisted ones and probably the shrub one are tropical. You must always protect in winter, probably when it goes below 45 degrees or so. I used to live below N.O. and it always took a while for hibiscus to come back. They root easily and you can take cuttings during the year, and grow in smaller pots if you have room, and they will take off when it's warm. Of course you can't do that with the twisted one. Remmeber, these are TROPICAL, think Miami or Hawaii, and they like warm and humid weather. I predict they will come back.

Mine are going crazy with blooms right now, and we've been harvesting for a little over a week. So far the harvest hasn't been huge, but it has been steady. They seemed to stall on those days our high temps were in the 93-98 degree range, but now that it is a little cooler here, they are a little happier and putting out new growth and tons of blooms. I think the rain we got, which only was a half-inch, pleased them greatly. I'm hoping this week's cold front makes them even more happy. At least our sugar snap peas aren't being hailed upon, flooded or being hit by tornadoes. As long as they are still alive and rain is falling, I think they'll keep producing for a while. The wind today did beat the crap out of them. Kim, I always freeze some, but only about 1 year out of 3 do I put tons and tons of them in the freezer. Tim was out of town on business most of last week, so I didn't even pick them and take them into the house. I just picked them and munched on them while working in the garden---instant, garden-fresh fast food. In the fall, you'll probably need row cover to keep them happy long enough to produce. While they tolerate very cold temperatures, if the cold temps hit while they are blooming or about to bloom, those cold temperatures can knock the blooms right off the plants. I don't cover them up at night unless we're expecting temperatures below the mid-20s. Sometimes we get a night or two like that in late Sept or early Oct, but it is more common to get them in November. If you want to grow a variety that doesn't need to be trellised, I grew Cascadia two years ago and Sugar Lace last year, and both of them produced tons and tons of peas----more than my Super Sugar Snaps or Sugar Snaps growing on trellises were able to produce. Because we've already had high temps here hit 98 degrees a couple of times and 93-95 more often than I can believe for May, I am worrying that the green beans won't begin blooming early enough to avoid heat-related blossom drop. Instead of succession sowing some more green beans, I'm going to plant an enormous number of southern peas instead because the heat can't stop them from producing. My mind has moved beyond the warm-season crops to the hot-season crops because it seems like we have gone from the cool season to the hot season in a very brief period of time. My short day onions are bulbing up. It always happens at this time of the year, and it always catches me by surprise. I have to count backwards from now to the time I planted them, realize it is time for them to start bulbing up and say "okay, this is normal". All the cool-season plants I planted are doing better than the sugar snap peas, but that is not unusual. They are the most finicky when it comes to having 32 degree temperatures one morning and then 98 degree temperatures a day or two later. They don't like those crazy temperature swings. I get the best sugar snap pea harvest when we consistently stay cool and moist. This year cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, be described as cool and moist---hence the sugar snap pea behavior.

April...I have just read your plea for help with an imposible situation. As you know, I lost a daughter who was bipolar. Her life for many years was a hell that I know I still don't fully realize. We lived more than 100 miles away so weren't involved in her life on a daily basis. Fortunately she never had an addiction to battle along with the disease, but I know that for her husband of more that 20 years, everyday was an "unknown". What I want to tell you is that Terry's father and I gave our son-in-law our blessing the day he came to us and asked us to become more involved with her because he just couldn't take it any more and had to "get out". He assured us that he had no intention of leaving her abruptly. That he wanted to try to make sure that she had a network of family and friends that would be looking out for her before he did anything. He said divorce was not in his plans, because that would leave her without medical insurance. He spent several hours with us that day telling us many things about her that we needed to know if he wasn't in the picture to help in a crisis. That was 2 years before we lost her. They were in marriage counseling for most of that time...not counseling to save the marriage, but to help ready her for his leaving. He was still with her trying to pave the way for her to be on her own the day she died. And we were still supporting him in his decision to leave at some point. Some might think that we were wrong to show compassion for him, but there are times that this "for better or worse, in sickness and in health" stuff cannot and should not be honored. The bottom line April is that you have endured more than enough and your son is the one you must have the most concern for now. You cannot "fix" your husband. He can't fix himself. It is the nature of the illness. Go to counseling and a lawyer. Find out the way to best get out...not only for yourself, but for your husband. He is a danger to you, your son, and himself. Don't sacrifice yourself or your son for something that cannot be fixed.