Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: Woohoo...Variegated Frits - guess there'll be cats soon enou, 1 by TexasPuddyPrint

TexasPuddyPrint wrote:
Yeah, I think I've got the market on photographing butterfly sex. It's either that or butterflies in the clutches of spiders, praying mantis or other predators.


I raised VFs last year and fell in love with their chrysalids. Love all that iridescent and metallic coloring on them! I made up my mind to grow their larval host plants.

So now, I have a big tub of native green violet (hybanthus verticillatus) that is doing quite well at my house. I get a few VFs during the fall season but since there are so many at the ranch am thinking I should take it to the ranch and leave it out in the yard there so the VFs will lay eggs on it.

Had originally transplanted three tiny plants earlier this year into a large tub. Have been fertilizing and watering them and they are doing extremely well!!! It has multiplied and filled up the tub.

The stuff grows wild out at the ranch but because it is such a tiny non-descript plant it is sooooo hard to find. I got lucky and found the plant by watching a VF lay eggs on it last year. So scoured the yard looking for plants with no eggs or cats on them and transplanted those.

~ Cat