Plant It and They Will Come #7 Eggs and Cats Oh My

Thanks for giving it a name, CatMint! There were about 5 of them on about as many small Mistflower plants by the creek. I haven't noticed them on Mistflower in my yard, though.

They are pretty butterflies but are surprisingly aggressive, especially for their small size. Eg, if they feel another butterfly is encroaching on their chosen flower, they can really go after it. Once I came outside to find a big black swallowtail being chased out of the yard by the little Pearl Crescent. It was both amusing and regrettable, since I have not seen many BSTs in my garden this year... :-/

I've seen a couple dark form tiger swallowtails in my yard recently. Managed to get a few photos of one the other evening.

Those are some great photos Cat, and your little flutterby is so pretty Muddy, love the colour combo on your Mist Flower!

OK, ask and you shall receive! First, a picture of what she looked like when I first found her, and then a shot of how she was looking about 20 minutes ago. =) Just a ONE WEEK difference, I can't believe how much she's grown! I feel really bad about the shape that plant is in, but I don't DARE do anything to it while she's there.. and the weird thing is, all the rest of the plants look fine. < =/

thanks, Speedie. Wow, your cat sure has gotten big!! Looks like she/he's happy! :-)

I need help!

What are some annuals that I can buy now to feed the butterflies and hummingbirds that are still visiting my garden? Something that'll last until frost?

I don't have a lot of nectar plants blooming right now -- just some phlox and Hydrangea paniculata. The couple of annuals I had didn't get watered while I was on vacation, and the asters won't bloom for another month at least.

Any ideas?

hi, SSG. The popular nectar plants in my garden right now are zinnias and verbena bonariensis. I have plenty to spare of both if you'd like to come over and dig some up!

Thanks for sharing, speedie!

SS--How about Butterfly Bushes? If you keep them pruned (of dead blooms)
They will bloom into late fall.

I know I started late--young Tropical Milkweed plants from Coleup--but one
of the 4 is just now starting to have buds on it.

2013 was the year I got acquainted with caterpillars. I have SO many!
They ate all my parsley and dill--AND-later on, sorry I do not have a picture--
I counted 12 cats on my Parsley in my Raised bed. It was crazy!

Last year and this year--NONE!

here's from 2013.

My New England Asters are blooming now, ssg...do you have any of those? If not, I can give you some.

A trip to the Depot or the Big L oughta yield something in bloom- zinnias, early forced asters ...

Whole family is watching the chrysalisses, I alerted them we should have them all go sometime this week. I think I see a bit of darkening, wing markings, on the first three?

I will take the mesh cage with seven chrys. in to the library this week. They are due mid-late week. I'll have to be prepared to bring them home if they come out. The library is devoid of blooming plants.

Thanks, Catmint! I have zinnias, too, but I haven't seen any hummers or butterflies on them. I think hummers prefer the ball-bloom zinnias, vs the flat-topped ones.

Do you think the flowers would continue to bloom even through transplant shock? Maybe it'd be better to buy containerized plants at the nursery?

Beautiful fat caterpillar, Speedie! I still haven't seen any cats on my fennel or parsley.

No Autumn Joy etc Sedum? Seem popular. I think Jeff said his border zinnias were good for butterflies.

Oops, I took too long to write and missed all of the other responses.

Gita, that's a really good idea. I had a butterfly bush that got too big so I gave it to coleup. I've been looking for a miniature BB for awhile now. I'll keep looking.

Muddy, my NE asters take forever to bloom! I'll pick one up from you at the swap if you have any extras!

Sally, that's what I was thinking, too. And they're all on sale this time of the year. :)

Sally, my sedums aren't too popular with the butterflies. They seem to stick to the phlox (and coneflowers and agastache when they were in bloom) almost exclusively.

I have seen skippers and ?buckeyes? on my Sedum. Maybe just little ones like it, or I had good luck that year. Oh well, just a thought. I have barely seen one swallowtail here this summer- but I had a lot less time to look.
A miniature butterfly bush would be great, do they exist?.

SSG, Ace Outback has quarts of bloomong Agastache 'Blue Fortune' and 'Black Adder' both are favorites of skippers and bumble bees. They also have blooming Walkers Low Catmint and assorted cone flowers. Buy 3 get one free. I just stood and watched which plants/varieties were busiest with pollinator activity. Butterfly bushes and all trees and shrubs are 50% off.

Home Depot B Bushes are 25% off I like 'Miss Ruby' a deep red wine color. HD also has containers of coneflower 'Cheynne Spirit' but they are expensive.

Another Garden Center here has Cleome and Zinnia in 4 packs. Not sure what for the hummers. Verbena bonariences should survive 'transplant'...not sure on Zinnias.

Let me know if I can 'facilitae ' anything for you as I am free daytimes now...

Some of the swallowtail activity here

Coleup, I have a ton of 'Cheyenne Spirit' and other coneflowers and agastache, but they're all past blooming now. At least the goldfinches are loving the seed heads! I was looking for something that would be in bloom this time of the year, either perennial or annual.

Bees and skippers seem to like pretty much all blooming plants, but swallowtails are so picky!

Sally, I've seen mini butterfly bushes around 3 feet tall and wide. I'll be checking out the nurseries tomorrow!

Here's a black swallowtail (?) on Jeana phlox.

Nice photos, ssg and coleup!

Sally, it's interesting that you don't see Swallowtails; they're about the only butterflies I see in my yard. I haven't seen a single Monarch this year, though....they're all hanging out in Maryland I guess : - )

The Swallowtails definitely like the butterfly bushes. I have 1-2 'Miss Ruby' bushes and one other dwarf cultivar. They also spend a lot of time on the flowers in my hillside garden, but I'm not sure which ones other than the Button Bush.

I saw these Clethra 'Vanilla Spice' in Home Depot this weekend...it's in a 3 gallon pot that was marked $26.98, which I thought was a good price for a shrub that large. The Proven Winners site is selling it for $34.99! I was really tempted to bring one home, but I'm determined to plant the 2 Viburnum sitting in pots on my patio first! Besides, I think these Clethras have already bloomed.

Muddy, that's a great price!

I wish the butterfly bush 'Miss Ruby' was just a little bit smaller.

I'm lucky you guys post your swallowtail pics! Other years past, I have had loads of swallowtails on my butterfly bush
:(
If I can get a couple forsythia cut out, I may try putting my volunteer butterfly bushes in their place. Back in the corner between my tree and neighbor's garden. I can't imagine he cares what I do there as long as it doesn't creep through the fence. Besides, it would be better for maintenance to have something that should be cut every year, and allow for keeping the area clear of grape vines and bittersweet vines.

Snuck out in the dark for bedtime snacks for little caterpillars- one leaf I brought in had a newborn on it.

Aaaaaaaw Sally how cool!! Did you get a picture of the little newborn? I wanna seeee!!!! Heeheeheee, what a good Mama you are, giving your babies a bedtime snack. :)

speedie, you're so cute, I wish I could show you but I tried many times to get a focus picture of an egg and just couldn't. Well, maybe I can since I have daylight for this one...

I have three darkened chrysali this morning...

coleup---They heard you over here!!!! And--they came!
Holy Moly!!! They must have run to over! There's a crowd of them here...

Most of them look like they have been here a while already--real FAT!
Saw about 3 instars as well. Could not go rustling too much in the parsley
plants--or they might have fallen off...

They were on 4 different parsley plants--all in different locations.
Shed bed--(2)--Raised bed parsley--in a pot---Two pots of parsley on my patio---
On the Swamp MW--you can tell by the reddish leaves. And--3 on the
Tropical MW.
I bet there are more--I bet! I just can't go messing with every branch and leaf.

I am amazed!!!! All of a sudden--there is a congregation....
WHAT DO I DO NOW???? Anyone want to come over and collect them?

Otherwise--I will just let them be and let nature take it's course.

Here they are---

Party continues here:

I am overwhelmed! Don't know when, exactly, they started on all these plants.
I have not really checked that much this past week.

If I could dig deeper in all the leaves and stems--I KNOW there will be more.

They must feel "welcome" in my garden....YES?
I don't think any of these are Monarchs--what do you think?
I have not seen ONE Monarch yet over here.
Would they all be the Black ones(?).. Then they can "do their thing" and move on.
I will not do anything with these plants. Happy munching!
Gita

"They must feel "welcome" in my garden...YES? "

YES YES YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(I knew it, I knew it, I knew it!) Happy dance for you here.

The ones on your Milkweed are definitely Monarch cats...probably one of them is from the egg that disappeared! They are fat and looking good and about ready to pupate.

And so nice to see some Black Swallowtail cats on your yummy parsely.

Of course I would love for you to hand raise some of those fat cats so you can see for yourself what a wonder their transformation is. If you feel moved to do so, we'll walk you through it and like Sally says, 'It's catching' J

Wow, Gita, it certainly looks like a party!

Well--Thank you all---I am honored to be the "chosen one"...it's been 2 years!

Kind of funny--I only have 2 MW's in my garden. Compared to you all's multitudes.
BUT--White Marsh IS a Marsh area. Lots of MW growing along all those
drainage ponds here. MW must be all over the place here. So are Canada geese!

I am not going to raise any of these. Sorry! I wonder if anyone near here would want to?
To me all these cats looked alike....The Monarch ones have more yellow maybe??? Yes???
The BST have more green???? Glad I planted all this parsley. Now they have some food.
And--coleup--your Tropical MW starts are growing so well. One is ready to bloom.

Sally--you are the closest one to me. If you want to drive down (40 min. max)
you are welcome to adopt all/some these. Then--maybe coleup will swing by your place
and abscond with the rest.
OR--you will have a fresh supply for your Library presentations.

Otherwise---Nature will take care of everything..... Gita

I'm sure you all know what this is but I don't. It's the best pic I could get as this little feller was pretty active.

Jeff--that is a VERY beautiful picture of this Butterfly! Love the colors....
g.

Thanks G! I probably looked like an idiot following it around the yard waiting for it to land on something. Butterflies are hard to follow. I can never tell a pattern to their flight.

Gita, I'm very happy for you. But no I won't be driving up there. Enjoy.

I went out to get fresh leaves for seven caterps, and brought in another newborn..now 8 from newborn to several days old. Three big boy BFs were released this morning. Seven cats to go at library, one more on my kitchen counter should emerge tomorrow...the tropical milkweed is proving to be popular with them. Or me, because it is easiest to gather from in the dark.

I got some more of the small black mesh cages, coleup I will exchange you a brand new one and return the white one. And can let one or two go at Swap. I am starting to see why people want the big cage to fit a whole potted plant.

Seq, looks like a male eastern black swallowtail.

Cograts on the cats, Gita!

SSG, good luck finding the perfect nectaring plants.

How come some of the pics online have some blue in them for the black swallowtail? It makes id'ing difficult.

that is a good question ssg, making sure you can keep the flowers coming all fall.. none of my asters or goldenrod are in bloom.

Interesting Sally, we've still got Goldenrod in bloom at work.. hmmm

Gita, you've got one Monarch cat FOR SURE, and a couple Swallowtails on your parsley (like Judy said) FOR SURE. The way to tell the difference is: Monarchs are black/yellow/white -with NO GREEN in them; Swallowtails are predominately green with.. black and white stripes as well.. no yellow. Also, Swallowtails will be eating your parsley, Monarchs will be eating your Milkweed. WOW, you've sure got a party going on there, YAY YOU!! =)

I got home and checked my plant to see how my baby is doing... only to find that SHE ATE IT ALL! I kid you not, there is nothing but stem left. I checked a few nearby MW plants and did not see her.. I have no idea where she went. Think she went away to snuggle away into a cocoon now? I have no Paw Paws nearby, what shrubs or trees should I check?

I checked the Tropical MW this AM--and the big cat was gone too...
Maybe some bird got it?

Do you think it is likely that they would build their chrysalis somewhere on my fence?
They are both wood--my raised bed fence--and my neighbor's 6' fence.
it would be nice to see this stage--and see them emerge....

Otherwise--they are on their own. Que Srerra---Serra!

Grandma Gita

Oh I see. That is very interesting that the females are prettier than the males, odd for the animal kingdom. Unless you're talking humans of course, where females are always prettier than males ;-0