Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 63, 0 by mellielong

mellielong wrote:
Forgot to say my Spicebush baby didn't make it. He stopped eating and was getting weaker and weaker so this morning I put him out of his misery. I still have the bigger Spicebush cat who I expect to start turning yellow any minute now.

In the good news department...when I got home yesterday I had to go pick more milkweed for the Monarch piggies. Mom was pulling in the drive when I noticed my first Zebra Longwing of the year in my yard! I haven't seen very many of them this year - a couple at USF and a few at the museum. This was the first one in my yard and I think it's no coincidence that the firebush is just starting to bloom. It was fluttering around the passion vine but I'm afraid they're may be too many Gulf Frit cats on there already. We watched it for a while but then the thunder started and we got inside before the skies opened up.

In other good news, I was walking around the yard to get some bay leaves and stopped to check out my other plants. I do this pretty much every day - just walk around and check for cats and eggs while I'm out picking food. So I was totally surprised to get to my Hercules' Club and see a nearly full-grown Giant ST cat! Where has he been hiding? I knew I had the butterflies around so I'd been checking pretty regularly. I saw a leaf that had big chunks out of it that weren't there before and I looked down and there he was! Caterpillars can really hide when they want to. I haven't raised any Giants in a long time so I'm happy to have this one.

Melanie