I am offering these to local parents who can come and pick them up.
They are still at the Fielder garden and they are small, but I am about to run out of food for them.
If you would like to raise them please be sure you have plenty of pipevine, they are piggies and eat a tremendous amount, but they sure are beautiful.
Please let me know.
Josephine.
Well, I brought them home today and I have 20 of them.
Maybe if no one wants to raise them I could get some pipe vine from some one.
We are wiling to come and pick up the leaves or deliver the caterpillars, I guess we have been overly blessed.
I guess I need to have more pipe vine planted for next year.
I would love to have them, but I am not in the area. Good luck!
Yes, thank you for responding, I guess most people are out of pipe vine at this time.
We shall see.
Geez Josephine...wish I could help but we have hundreds out at the ranch that are eating the native aristolochia erecta to the ground. I've been slowly transplanting White-Veined Pipevine plants to the ranch house flower beds and they eat that just as fast. I haven't been able to collect any seed pods because they even eat those!
Good luck!
~ Cat
Thank you Cat, I am going to really try to increase my stock of pipevine for next year, in the meantime I will try to get them as far along as I can.
Do y'all need seeds? I started a Facebook page to promote planting host plants for butterflies. A lady on there has alot of extra pipevine seeds. I have milkweed too if anyone is interested.
Heres a link:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=103663369665503
Thank you Jlp222, I do have seeds, I just need to get them going.
Josephine.
What type of pipevine seeds does she have Jlp222? Not all pipevines are created equal. Some are not utilized by Pipevine Swallowtails. If someone has Aristolochia fimbriata seeds I can certainly put them to use.
Dale Clark
Dallas County Lepidopterists' Society
www.dallasbutterflies.com
Both my A. gigantica and A. Trilobata were chewed up pretty quick earlier this spring, but have gotten big enough that they are staying ahead of the cat's this year. Last year they couldn't keep up with them. They haven't been using my White Veined too much this year. Wish I was closer also I'd adopt some !
Thank you Mjsponies, it just seems to be very scarce this year.
Do you think cuttings would keep long enough to feed them? I could send you some.
Oh no, that wouldn't work at all, you are so sweet to offer, thank you for offering.
Well, Peg (Datura12) offered to take the caterpillars. Thank you very much Peg.
I had given 3 to someone else so I had 17.
We agreed to meet at Garden Ridge in North Richland Hills at 11.00 this morning.
So we head over there and got to the area just in time, but couldn't find the place. We drove around the area for one hour while talking to her on the cell phone, finally she told us to stay where we were and she came to meet us at the Office Depot.
The Google map showed the place on the wrong side of the highway and we were going around in circles.
Anyway, after many apologies and taking a break for lunch, we all went home and the caterpillars will be able to eat to their heart's content.
Josephine.
Oh good, glad to hear you found a home for them !
High Five!!!
~ Cat
Thank you Cat, it was very kind of Peg to take them.
Yea....Peg has the hungry ...hungry...caterpillars!! She has plenty of pipevine, it is the Aristolochia fimbriata too. Dale I am certain she will share some seeds with you....dmail her.
mjsponies..... you mentioned the A. gigantea pipevine and I want to caution you I have had cats die from eating it. The pipevine female will lay eggs on it but when the cats eat the plant they die. Polydamas use it without problem. So move any small cats you find on it to the A. fimbriata or another safe vine.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/56130/ see the comments.
This message was edited Jul 25, 2010 11:26 PM
Sheila, I thought the Calico was the culprit ( elegan's) , I had pipevine cat's on both my gigantea and trilobata this spring and they did equally well on both? So far no Polydama's tho. And they have ignored my fimbriata.
No one commented on a danger to the cats under the A. elegans, but I know from experience on the A. gigantea in two cages with same size cats. Glad you aren't seeing them dying on your vines.
Maybe A. gigantea is a lot more common in Florida and the cats in that area have developed resistance to it, that could be why it works differently.
A.elegans is also toxic to Pipevine Swallowtails (but not to Polydamas Swallowtails). A. gigantea -- Florida or anywhere else -- is toxic to Pipevine Swallowtails, but again, not to Polydamas. What probably happened is that the plant was mislabeled. Happens all the time at nurseries.
Dale Clark
Dallas County Lepidopterists' Society
www.dallasbutterflies.com
Thank you for the explanation Dale, that helps a lot to clear things up.
I saw on your website where you suggested Green Mamas Nursery and another.....have you convinced them not to carry the A. Gigantea, but to carry the fimbiata instead?
I visited with Green Mama's the day I adopted the Pipevine's from Josephine. They told me they cannot get fimbriata from vendors and gave me a gigantea to take home. I told them that gigantea will kill the Pipevines, she was sincerely concerned. She asked if I would grow some fimbriata for her and she will buy as much as I can grow. So I will do that along with some other host plants she cannot get from vendors. Guess I am back in the plant business again. LOL
Dale, let me know what you need in seeds and I will get you some.
Peg
Great idea Peg, I hope you will do really well, and thank you for being so kind and patient.
Josephine.
Now watch the pipevines go to town laying eggs in your garden and eating up your profits! LOL!
I hope not, but those guys can really eat.
Well she has plenty now but then the only PVs she had were your orphans. Now watch her get her own going since she is potting up the extra vines.
I have a whole bunch of little plants that came up from seed and I have plenty of seed. Remember, I have a greenhouse to start some in the spring. So I will be in good shape.
Oh that's right. Btw, did you sell plants in the past?
Thank you all for the info on A. gigantea. I am in the process of choosing plants for my girl scout troop's butterfly garden service project and it would have been a real shame to put in the wrong kind of pipevine.
worthy project....let us know if you need seeds of some plants.
Do any of you know if the pipevine swallowtails have a strong preference for fimbriata vs tomentosa? Our local nursery has the wooly dutchman's pipe for sale now (tomentosa) but not the fimbriata. I have never grown either before. In my yard, full sun isn't an option - it is filtered sun, part sun, part shade or full shade (my lot is heavily wooded, and the most any place gets is 3-4 hours in the afternoon and that is a very small area). Will these vines do okay in part shade? (I've read different things in different places, and would love to hear some personal experiences). I'm in zone 7b, Chapel Hill, very clay soil.
I have not gotten eggs (yet) on my PV...but when I took cats to raise, they ate them pretty much equally. However the wooly pv seems to grow faster to me. But that said, it has a lot of stem, where the fimbriata is more compact.
Now.....my luck may be turning a bit. I photographed three PVSTs for over 45 min yesterday just before the rain moved in. They were nectaring on the native Phlox that is looking pretty bad right now. But anything is an oasis in this heat I suppose. The males took off then the female, so no mating pics.....darn. But I be they will be looking for one another today.
Turttle:
A. tomentosa will do fine in dappled light and shade. I've found it in the wild in full shade before, although it does better where it gets a little bit of sunlight.
Sheila:
Hard to beat that Phlox paniculata as a summer nectar source for swallowtails, isn't it?
Dale Clark
Dallas County Lepidopterists' Society
www.dallasbutterflies.com
I have both the Tomentosa and Fimbriata in part shade and they both do well.
Frostweed gave me my start of the phlox and many many other great plants in my garden. I do love it because it continues to bloom so long, even like these in full TX sun.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/2081/
Sheila, I did sell some other types of plants that I used to propagate. Never any fimbriata.
Aparently I need to get some Phlox paniculata, I will have to watch for the trades in Arlington.
Turttle, I can only speak on fimbriata, I grow it in different locations intentionally just to see how it does. So far I have it in part sun up to 4 hrs. a day of full sun. It seems to do well wherever I plant it.
Datura,
I tried fimbriata in morning sun here and it was not happy, I have it in shade and hi dappled sun/shade and it does great. I'm wondering if your being in a bit cooler zone makes the difference.
