Ju, you sent me some seed and a DG friend potted up some for me at the RU in March. She has lots but she has given it to me twice now and Ive killed it both times. I planted some of the seed you sent very early in the spring but nothing came up. I will keep trying. Does it go dormant when the weather gets hot?
DAILY PICTURES #107
No , it grows all the time . There could be the possibility your watering it too much , it does not take well to attention , a very wild nature of a plant ,it took me three years of starting mine until it established , Now I am ripping roots like rope out of my other plants when it begins to run ..
I do know it does not like being moved either , and it was a very difficult plant to start ,,
When it grows in fields on it's own , poof , it's everywhere in two weeks time
..
I am trying to get Bohemera Cylindrica going now , hoping it is easier to control . Besides if it is the same as urtica dioca I can harvest a few cats to watch with much greater ease .
Steady...I grew Boehmeria cylindrica (false nettle...no sting) here for a couple of years and it attracted some Admirals. I stopped growing it only because of some new acquisitions and some plants had to go due to limited space. You can grow false nettle where you live. I think it would do nicely and it is always a thrill to see those Admirals.
Will be looking forward to some caterpillar photos Juhur.
Steady...in your zone, you might try growing it in a shady spot with some filtered sun. These are the conditions that enabled me to grow mine successfully.
I have something called Lamium "dead nettle". Will they utilize that?
Lamium is a member of the mint family , not used by admiral BF's
The plants the Admirals use are here , although pellitory of the wall is another
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/search.php?q=urtica+dioca&Search=Search+PlantFiles
Look at the size of this moth we found yesterday! My daughter is 13 and has fairly large hands..this was a big specimen.
Best guess...
Rustic sphinx
Manduca rustica
Butterflies are still scarce around the yard, but I have been seeing a few here and there. I have 4 BST in my butterfly cage waiting for them to eclose and just released 2 Monarchs. I still have hope that things will pick up. We had a good rain Friday and the plants are beginning to respond. Keep those pictures coming!
Russell
Yak, that is a jaw dropper! How did your daughter see it? If I had that fly up to the porch light, I would fall over!!! I gotta put that moth on my wish list of things I want to see in person before I die. I got my Luna moth wish last year. And the crazy Horned Devil caterpillar that I saw in my yard last summer was definitely a memorable creature. I called a friend over to see it and he said he had been waiting to see one since childhood when he saw it in a book.
I wish the photos were better, but this guy (gal?) was fast! Also, I forgot to put a reference for size in the pics. It was about 4 or 5 inches long and about as big around as my thumb. This caterpillar was constantly on the move, and not in the mood for posing. They are burrowers rather than regular cocoon on a stick type and i decided to let him go in the mulch pile rather than bring him inside. I was afraid the heating indoors would mess up his timing and he would emerge too soon. Or that the container wouldn't be deep enough for him to dig down far enough. So i let Mother Nature take care of him.
Scarletbean - she was taking out the trash and this critter was just resting on the trashcan...of course, being my offspring she immediately brought it in the house for me to see and take pictures. She found another big one a couple of days ago resting on a potted succulent. I tried to take pictures of that one, but it flew off before I could snap the picture. You never know what will show up next.
Cool pictures!
Russell
I believe this to be a rolled up Red Admiral Larvae Pupae ;
Look, he made his cocoon too short and his feet are hanging out. chuckl.
LOL !!! Steady it does look that way , !!! ^_^
They usually roll that dry brown -gray pupae inside a green leaf rolled up ;
here's a few hidden as they are
That is so cool!!! How many days to eclose?
Steady I am guessing at 10 -15 days , not sure ..
I saw that new, there yesterday , so from May 10 count begins ..
yakmon Cool moth ,, !!! ^_^ Late I know ..
Scarletbean , Really good pic of the larvae .. that is difficult .. Really Nice !!!
Oh, I love the red admirals. I had Pellitory and put it out to be identified and someone said it was a terrible weed pull it now. I did, later found out it was a host plant.:-(
I have done that with a few of the so called ,crab grasses ,, river oats I believe comes to mind ?
Several anyway ,, little Bluestem another .. It aggravates my memory when I do that ..
It happens many times though as most of the host plants aren't favorite thru considered being obnoxious weeds .
This does not look good so far this year though , another slow year for BF's here
seeing four or five real common here besides the Red Admiral .. Saw one Sulpher I believe a clouded , Pearl Crescent and Cabbage White . Their all slowly appearing , not many though .
A weed is only in the eye of the beholder. If you use a flora for food. beautification, conservation, host, etc. it is a plant. Some wild plants can grow profusely in captivity and look unsightly to others but they are often mother nature's masterpiece to me.
CA, i couldn't agree more, in fact i have banished the weed word from my vocabulary.
Here are a couple of Skippers that have been zooming around of late. I haven't been successful in identifying them. The first one may possibly be a White-tipped Longtail (Urbanus chales).
Speaking of weeds...I spotted my first Red Admiral the day before yesterday on a dandelion. But I don't really have anything else blooming yet other than daffodils.
Lovely photo nuts, lovely dandelion. Did you know that dandelions were first brought to the US in the 1800s to be used as a medicine by a Greek doctor? The roots are filled with vitamin Bs, are used to treat disorders of the liver, and are best harvested in the fall. The roots lightly roasted make a wonderful tea/coffee like drink...verrrry tasty. I am sure your Admiral is enjoying it.
Thanks vitrsna!
You're right, Dandelions are healthful, tasty and useful in all sorts of ways. I first learned about all the uses from a book I had on wild edible plants back in the 70's...(boy does that date me). The leaves are also high in vitamin C and are very tender if picked young. After that they become bitter.
Unfortunately, they take over the lawn and my garden beds if we don't stay on top of it, but sometimes I do feel like we're wasting all the dandelions by not using them. The birds, bees and butterflies like them, too.
I like the heavy part of the leaf stem on my Sandwiches . hamburgers , covered by catchup and mustard adds a green salad crunch .
Had some today ,as the matter goes ,, there's a dandelion in my lettuce bed , I use that one ,,
nuts and juhur...happy to hear you both appreciate the finer things in life. in what seems like a hundred years ago (i guess that must have been the 70s), i grew a patch of dandelions in my garden, especially for eating/drinking so i could remove the ones that grew in inconvenient places, but this was far north in washington state. i don't think they would happily (or even unhappily) grow here in zone 11. people who saw my dandelion patch could not believe i was growing them and were forever amused by it.
I do things like that , cinnamon with burdock in other drinks , stinging nettle tea , not right now on the last though , too many rolled up leaves ,and don' want to hurt the BF larvae , way too easy to do that ,
Every so often I would reach down and eat a weed like lambs quarters , people would frown or stare , you know the little girl ,OH Gross look!!! lol LOL
I keep a few lambs quarters also , only they remove poison from the soil ,(a soil repair plant)
So you have to be careful of that , and they have poison look-a -likes ,,
Unless I can pay attention to what I am doing ,, their usually mulch ..
This conversation reminds me of all the articles Sharon Brown (Sharran) wrote for Dave's Garden. Worth perusing. Here's her member page. Scroll down for articles.
http://davesgarden.com/members/Sharran/
Wow! Quite the body of work. Thanks for that info, Marna. There's so much knowledge and talent here at DG.
Vitrsna and juhur, I guess most of us get pretty lazy about using the plants growing wild out there because we live in a society of great abundance. I still keep a couple of books around, though, since I've always been fascinated by all the free food and remedies available if you know what you're looking at.
This message was edited May 13, 2014 8:08 AM
Mornin'! I can relate... My neighbors find it endlessly funny that I not only PUT milkweed in my garden, but that I actually PAID money for one of the types(incarnata).
I was a child in the 70's, but my mom was very hippy-skippy and I was that poor child who had weird dandelion green salads, herb tea in a thermos and a tofu sandwich for lunch. ("my kingdom for a twinkie!"). I am grown now, Mom is gone, and I find I am following her ways. I am grateful for all the walks we took when she always pointed out the names of trees,weeds,etc and their uses as food, medicine,or other properties. We took A LOT of walks.....She didn't believe in television, so we didnt own one until I was around 12 years old.
Thanks Mom!
Scarlet, methinks you are very lucky to have had a Mom like that!
Truly. Sadly, she died at only 46 yrs old from liver disease. It was undiagnosed and by the time she knew what was wrong, it was end stage and only a transplant might have saved her life. 3 months after diagnosis, she was dead. Almost 14 years later, her influence is evident in so many parts of my life. And in my garden.
Although the butterfies are making themselves seen lately, I have hardly seen a hummingbird in 2 weeks. This happened last year, a few in the early spring, then nothing. Then suddenly they were out in full force. I hope it is the case this year too.
Still cant decide where to plant my new spicebush. I may wait till the trees are fully leafed, so I don't make the mistake of putting it in too shady of a spot.
A beautiful tribute to a loving mom, scarletbean
Sharon's stories of her growing up with her Aunt Bett are priceless. Can't help but smile as you read them and she carries you back to simpler times in the hills.
Scarletbean, your Mom would be very proud.
I'm going to have to read some of Sharon's stories.
Stupid question of the day: Where do butterflies go when it rains and rains for days?
This message was edited May 13, 2014 3:00 PM
nuts, at my house the butterflies hang from the areca palms with wings flat together which offers least resistance to the rain coming down. They will hang until the rain stops which could be an hour or a few days. When the rains stop, they dry out their wings and go about their business. I have mostly seen the Monarchs and Swallowtails do this but i expect the smaller butterflies are doing the same, possibly not with the same success. I don't really know. I have seen them survive rain so strong it looks like sheets of steel for days. I have seen them survive before having taken a first flight. Last year we were hit with two hurricanes in the same day...one from the Atlantic and one from the Pacific. Sometimes i think i will go into the garden next day and find dead butterflies all over the place, but i have never seen one downed by even the most fierce rain. Usually they nectar after the wings are dry enough. Not a stupid question by the way...you'll have to do better than that.
Keep in mind i am talking about tropical rains and the air temperature is usually very warm. Maybe someone else can speak about lots of rain and colder air temps.
This message was edited May 13, 2014 4:04 PM
Thanks for that info, vitrsna! That really is fascinating since they look so delicate...but you're right, your rains are probably much warmer than ours. In fact, one of the interesting things about northern rains is sometimes, even in summer, the raindrops will feel cold.
I also find it fascinating that you can have Areca Palms growing outside in your zone. Many years ago I had a huge Areca Palm as a house plant in northern CA. That was in the days when they weren't very common and more costly, but I fell in love with it.
I remember seeing some of the smaller butterflies holding on to the undersides of larger leaves and not getting wet at all unless there was a good wind going at the same time. Yes, this amazes me too, that butterflies can appear delicate as gossamer and at the same time can be tough as nails. Areca Palms grow like weeds here, along with just about every other kind of palm imaginable. The Arecas can grow taller than a 2 story house. I love them too and have 3 in my garden, mostly to provide filtered sun for the other plants. Only a very few plants can grow in "full sun" here...the others would turn to toast. We have "full sun" 10 hours a day being just 19 degrees above the equater. Of all the palms, imho, the arecas give the most gentle and lovely filtered shade and dance around in the breezes so nicely. Another big big bonus is that the arecas, along with some other decorative palms, are host plants for Opsiphane butterflies. :-)
Boy, Mother Nature sure knows what she's doing. Things stay so nice and balanced when we don't screw it up.
What you said about the Arecas being a host plant for the Opsiphane Butterflies was so interesting that I looked up the Opsiphanes. How cool that a plant that grows so abundantly in Mexico is host to a butterfly species that only lives in Mexico.
Yep...Mother Nature is one smart cookie...it is amazing to me how we always make fools of ourselves trying to out smart her :-)
That's right, you can't fool mother nature!
Aahh, Mother Nature, She is so easy to please, yet she can certainly hold a grudge and her revenge can be truly devastating. I prefer to stay on her good side.
Btw...anybody remember that ad campaign for some kind of margarine waaaaay back in the late 70s or early 80's? The hook line was "You cant fool Mother Nature"
Another BTW, I have been driving around, and driving myself crazy looking for some pipevine to bring to my garden. I know it must be here close by, due to the Pipevine STs I see so often. I guess I could buy some, but I am not sure what type is good for butterflies. Any advice???
Dutchman's Wooly and Fimbriata(sp) pipevines work well for me. The fimbriata has white veining in the leaves and makes a beautiful ground cover.