Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: Four O'Clocks a Host plant?, 1 by TexasPuddyPrint

TexasPuddyPrint wrote:
Okay...I learned something new...hadn't realized clammy weed is a larval host for Checkered Whites!!! We've got that growing wild back at the ranch too...but I'd not noticed any Checkered Whites there....yet :o) All I've seen on them are nectaring Queens. Arggggggggghhhh!!! So many native plants...not enough brain cells to remember what they are all good for!!!

Love reading that wonderful news on the cats you are raising Becky. WOW!!! That's really fantastic!!! I knew Nasturtiums were a larval host but hadn't paid much attention to them as they don't do well in my clay based soil. I got some in a trade a few years ago...Princess of India or something along that name...can't quite remember...beautiful red blooms. I planted them in the ground and they lost lots of leaves and looked pathetic. I'll have to try growing them in hanging baskets with good fertile instead. That way I can pinch back the long tendrils and get a bushier fuller growth.

Hope you keep posting photos of the growing caterpillars and don't forget to show the chrysalids too!

On another positive note...I hadn't seen a butterfly in my yard in weeks and I was out earlier today and saw a dozen or so sulphurs, a Dusky Blue Groundstreak, gobs of little skippers, one Gulf Frit (rut roh...I don't want to look at my passifloras!) and I also saw a Mexican Bluewing!!! I'd just put out a little bit of butterfly bait for a lonesome Snout perched at an old feeding station and within about five minutes this gorgeous Mexican Bluewing comes floating over my fence and flits around the bait bowl for several more minutes before it finally lands!!! See the little Snout to the left of it too.

~ Cat
it's sunny outside but very windy - so am surprised to find a nice selection of butterflies flitting about. Possibly they are nectaring up before the cold rolls in.