Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 15, 0 by debnes_dfw_tx

debnes_dfw_tx wrote:
Lovely pics of the Gfritillary B!
Thea, you sound like me.. I focussed on BSTs for the longest (years) time. Connecting here at DG has given me more access to larval hosts that I wouldn't have found otherwise. Last fall I went hog wild and planted everything I possibly could.. Yes it gets even more confussing, but it's so worth it! lol!

Linda, Your right about the Monarchs hitting their time of year there. I think there will be more than ever this year, so it's a good thing your gearing up for them. I hear you about busy, this week school started. whew!
It's been fun already! Tiring,, YES!!

Nice shots Lucy... Those moths are so huge!

Cat! Yaaay ZLW!! And what do you mean blurry? That's the wings flapping.. It is an excellent picture! A lot of detail on the still parts. I still haven't seen one here at all.

Melsalz~ Last year, about this time I was still getting lots of Black STs. They were laying eggs up to October and I kept the parsley and other herbs out there available for them, (mostly parsley). The last of them morphed the end of Oct., and stayed in diapause (hibernation) until April.
~I had some small parsley planted in my newly created host beds, and all the BSTs had hibernated. The parsley really got a chance to get thick and hardy before frost. I covered them when it got cold, and uncovered them when it was sunny. By spring I had an enormous thick dark green hedge of parsley. I would encourage anyone as far as zone 7 to try this in the fall. The scrauny little parsley plants planted in spring do not last like this monster hedge did. There is nothing like having plenty!~
Monarchs will be busy this next month, so there's a good chance you could find some cats to raise. So, though the season is coming to a close in a couple months, this is probably the heaviest time of thier activity across the whole usa....

:-D

Saw the male Ruby Throat today... not so clear from 30 feet, lol. He was so sweet coming real close to me here on the deck, then he flew right back to his perch in the corner tree!