Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 74, 1 by mellielong

mellielong wrote:
I made a new friend while crawling around the neighbor's yard. This is a rare, endangered Florida Gopher Tortoise. This is their mating season so they've been moving around a lot more than normal. Unfortunately, I've seen more hit by cars this year than I have in the past. I'm always really careful driving through their known habitats and I've scooped more than one out of the road over the years. This guy was munching away and I think he's sticking his tongue out at me, LOL!

I did get some nice nectar plants at the sale (and the cleome doubles as food for the Checkered White), but my main goal is always to hit the Bromeliad Guild's booth. The guy gave me a flyer and asked if I knew about the upcoming show. I said, "Oh, you mean this weekend at Selby (Gardens in Sarasota)?" He said no, they were actually competing with Selby. I felt bad, but looked at the flyer and realized the Selby show is Fri-Sun and the Tampa show is Sat-Sun. I had planned on going to Selby on Friday anyway, so I told him I'd come to the Tampa show on Saturday and that way I'd see both! Dad decided he wanted to come to Selby with me and you can expect I'll have more butterfly pictures from there to share with everyone. Sarasota is a good hour south of me (and I'm on the north side of Tampa anyway) so maybe I'll get to see some butterflies I don't normally get in this area. Let's hope anyway!

Melanie (who is money-poor and plant-rich at the moment)