First butterflies of the season

I've been seeing sulphurs for a while now, but today saw the first giant swallowtail and the first red spotted purple of the season. Now I know spring is here! I've stocked up on parsley and dill plants for the black swallowtails, hope to see them soon.

I saw my first butterflies today! I can't wait for more.

Hi Thea,
I have seen yellow sulphurs, an ETS, and a mourning cloak.. and it is cold here.. Planted lots of dill and parsley and it is growing for those black swallowtails.

Elaine

Sheesh! Finally caught my first butterfly sightings yesterday morning. 2 cabbage whites and a generic yellow, maybe sulphur...Been waiting all winter. So, spring is finally here! yay!

I am glad I put some extra dill and parsley seeds to be started last month. Also my milkweed has sprouted. I am ready! Oh, I almost forgot, i collected passionflower seeds from a vine my neighbor gave me. I read that they might not sprout or flower for a long time, but my seeds came up in less than 2 weeks, so i am hoping for flowers too! Glad I did put in the seeds, the vine died over the winter. So, as I said, I am ready....come on butterflies!

saw my first Mourning cloak today ...

Hmmmm. I really like mourning cloaks. I have been seeing at least 1 tigerstripe swallowtail for the last 4 days. Today i plan to get my dill, parsley and some catnip out of the little grow pots and into the ground. They are ready to take off, and i want to get the attention of any passing BF's looking for egg laying territory. My purple homestead verbena is flowering, and i bought dallas red lantana( this color seemed to be the preferred choice of hums, bfs and bees last year, passing the lavender and yellow lantana over. I happen to really like the flaming red orang yellow colors.) so i gotta get those in too. I think lantana is a great plant, I wish it was not an annual here. I tried heavy mulch, but it just cant take the cold.
This pic is from last year, but i was thinking how i cant wait for these guys to show up....

Scarlet, we have some of that Dallas Red lantana at the museum and it's definitely a favorite. I've caught more than one butterfly as they stopped to nectar at it!

Melanie

Scarletbean, I had a lantana species in zone 7b that came back each year. Yet this year I will be searching for a replacement. I had about 20 plants along the front sidewalk which would overgrow the area during the summer. So this Spring I dug up all my plants to move them to a better spot in the backyard. A few days later I started to transplant, only to find a bag of leaves and trash. OOps!! I threw out my plants the day before in the trash.
I'll be looking for the same lantana but hope that I get some from reseeding of the lost lantana.

Glad to hear about the Dallas Red Lantana. I just planted some out at the Butterfly Garden.

Ha ha shorthog! That is a blunder i thought only I was capable of!! Throwing out the keepers and keeping the trash!hahahaha LOL! Any idea what species your perennial lantana was?
I would like to try it since I am just a smidge away from your same zone. Was it the one you have pictured? I collected seed from last years lantana, but have not tried it yet. Anybody ever tried it from seed? i know cuttings are the way to go, but just out of curiosity, seeds would be fun/interesting. I read that lantana is an invasive weed in florida. Funny, we pay for it up here.
Today is to be sunny, so i hope for some BF action. I got my camera working again. I dropped in a cup of coffee.(milk,no sugar) and it stopped working for a while. now it is back on, but with a few spots on the view window. It takes clear photos, so i guess alls well that ends well.
EFGeorgia1-got any pictures of your bf garden? I am always on the lookout for BF/hummingbird gardens. I need some inspiration. That goes for everyone here, post some garden pics....I wanna see!

scarletbean, the lost lantana is found. Three plants have emerged that I missed so I will let them grow in place. Also. it has reseeded each year so new plants should be popping up soon. I don't know the species / cultivar but it is the one pictured and butterfles love it. I would like to provide you a start of this plant so DG mail where to send it.
I started the butterfly / hummingbird venture last summer so my plantings are limited but I do have several in bloom currently that are attracting butterfles and hummers. A patch of wild verbena is an absolute magnet for butterflies early in the season and a basket of mixed Calibrachoa works for both.

Oooh, so pretty! I like your 2nd photo, Is it a triangle shape of garden? It looks like a nice slice of pretty pie! The vine in the 4th pic looks like a much classier version of a vine growing wild here commonly called devil's trumpets (campsis radicans). Hummers love it, I love it, yet despite my best efforts at trying to grow it where I want it, it just withers and dies, or seeds refuse to germinate. I guess it just wants to grow free! What is the dif between calibrochoa and petunias,other than size? Do Butterflies and/or hums prefer one over the other? Verbena in all its forms seem to be favorites for both. I have a deep purple homestead verbena. and a bit of red in a basket with trailing blue lobelia.
oh, and I went to a great nursery here, Sunlight gardens for some black and blue salvia,and also got gateway Joe Pye weed. (a shorter version) anyone grown Joe pye?

Will take some pics tomorrow... Here is a pic of my Northwoods Garden Club pic. for Garden Week in Georgia.
My club won 1st place for Butterfly Conservation award in the State Federated Garden Clubs as well as Deep South (6 states) Hoping to win national too!

Congrats!!! Nature and its creatures have a future with caring folks like you.

Still no black swallowtails yet, and my parsley has all gone to seed! Very few butterflies at all, in fact. And now with this storm coming along, will they get blown off course if they WERE heading my way? Always something to worry about......

I just saw my first Black ST a few days ago but I think it was a boy. My dill and fennel are still hanging on. My rue is still very small. We just had a break in the rains from Andrea so I went out to pick some milkweed and found some baby Monarchs. Mom went to get the mail and saw a Gulf Fritillary flying around. I guess they were just waiting for a break so they could get out and get some nectar.

Melanie

I saw one varigated frit cat on my passion vine, but the mama must have made a quick fly-thru because I never saw any frits around. Still haven't seen any BST's and nothing much else. This is depressing.

The Swallowtails seem to be out and about now. I've been seeing the Giant ST and Spicebush ST on a regular basis. Today I had a Pipevine ST (yea!), and a Black ST must have come through because I have eggs on my rue (which I brought in). Also, saw my first Hairstreak in a while. Monarchs have stayed consistent throughout the year.

I'll try to talk to the caterpillars and tell them to fly north!

Melanie

Not many here either . mourning cloak every 10 days or so , cabbage white and gray hairstreak
Saw a Red Admiral fly (A large dark summer colorated) by the window this morning ! Been a while since I have seen any of those either , slow year for BF's here

I'm desperate Melanie! My milkweed is going by, and not one single monarch have I seen. Same with my parslley, dill, fennel, and rue. I've always had plenty of cats and chrysalides by this time.

Yeah, my dill never got used but I replaced it with rue. We had kind of a late winter here so I expected it to take a while for things to take off. Sometimes we just have "off" years; maybe this is one of them. But one thing I've noticed is seeing species in the yard I've never had before like the Great Southern White. The other day I saw either an Orange Sulphur or a Southern Dogface and I haven't seen either of those in years! Kind of wacky down here in Florida.


Melanie

Same here. Not nearly as many so far.

Usually I am seeing lots of admirals and gulf fritillaries by now, but not this year. I guess the cold wet weather did not agree with them. However, it has warmed up considerably and although we ar still getting rain pretty often, there are quite a few sunny days. I may have mentioned my swampy patch in the front yard due to a leak in a pipe that diverts bath and sink water to a separate area from the sewerage.(this is our neighbors septic that goes thru our front yard) This has made a perfect butterfly puddling station. I see several Eastern tiger striped swallowtails just about every sunny day.

I've only seen one gulf ftit this season but numerous red admirals, hackberry emperors, American ladies and question marks have been noted. Several of these have invited themselves to a pan of rotting fruit in the back yard.
I even saw a little wood satyr at the edge of the yard and a wood nymph at a local nature center woods.a

Hiya!
I got Snouts! I love their funny long.....Snouts!

I finally saw my first swallowtail in the yard yesterday between showers hanging around my butterfly bed out back. I hope to see many more....