Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: DAILY Butterflies Page 25, 1 by mellielong

mellielong wrote:
The blues all look the same to me. I assume most of them are Cassius because of the plumbagos, but this one looked a little different. Dad (the mailman) was remarking today how he sees them all the time, "And they're just so darn cute". Mom and I stopped by a local nursery today and saw several Monarchs (we were identifying their gender since we learned how at a lecture). I also spotted a tiny caterpillar on the milkweed. There were also tons of White Peacocks flying around, and we saw another one of the blue guys. Mom was all, "What's this little one!?" She's like a kid.

Cat, that swallowtail is one of my Zebras. I've still got a few more in chrysalis waiting to be butterflies. No more caterpillars for now. : (

So true about the butterlies liking the natives and the "not perfectly manicured" yards. Across the street my neighbor's yard is mostly weeds (the house had poor owners before he moved in there), but he has tons of frogfruit and Spanish Needles so the butterflies are always around. The neighbor behind me owns 9.5 acres and most of it is just open land with a scattering of oak and pine trees. Nearly everyday I see sulphurs flying through his yard, as well as a lot of Gulf Frits. And now I know that the Zebra Longwings live at the other end of the street! I got into native plants first and that's how I was drawn into butterfly gardening. Really, planting a native garden or a butterfly garden are about the same thing!

Here's a pic of where I left my zebra swallowtail before he flew away. I had to go rinse off my hand where he squirted me anyway.

Love that Heliconian!!