Hi Chuck, I'm not sure I'll be much help but I'll try. I don't really have an "herb garden". My herbs are just planted in amongst everything else. My Lemon Balm got really large and had reseeded everywhere so I pulled it up along with the Spearmint. (now I know why no one wants mint) This happens sometimes to plants that I just get bored with or seem to be taking up my dirt and aren't really butterfly friendly/usable.
I have one green fennel plant that is not very big, about 2 ft, and is already flowering. That means it won't last much longer. I was just thinking last night that I need to ask about this and whether cutting off the blooms would prolong it or if it's too late.
I don't know what kind of dill I have but it's flowered and reseeding now for a new crop. I'm not sure whether it will grow this year tho. ?? As you can tell, I really don't know much. I just go at it blindly.
My dill is getting aphids but that didn't happen until it started flowering. I've got 18 caterpillars in the house now munching on it. I keep cutting it down for them and I keep seeing the Black Swallowtail's out there laying eggs! I am going to have to try and move some of the eggs onto the fennel.
My rue is doing really well and it's usually the thing that's the hardest to grow, for me. The BST's are laying eggs on it too and it's not usually their choice. I guess they somehow knew that dill was not going to last forever. I have used parsley before but don't have any this year. I don't know anything about flowering on it tho.
I think I've heard/read that about the garlic and aphids. I don't know that it has anything to do with no cats tho. Have you seen any butterflies? I have no idea how they know where the host plants are, but some how they find them. Have you looked for eggs? They are tiny little round yellow dots.
There is always the possibility that something is eating your cats too. I finally had to start bringing mine in because I was seeing too many spiders and no cats.
All I really know is "if you plant it, they will come". That's my motto. :) It might take a little time tho. Just make sure you have plent of nectar plants also which brings them to the garden then they might notice your host plants quicker. Do you have some blooming nectar plants? Zinnias are loved by all that visit here!
Good luck, keep me updated!
Paige
Silly Parsley Question
One thing that I learned from a biologist who specializes in butterflies is that it several species of butterflies will only lay eggs on the same species of plants that they grew up on. So there are sequential generations of butterflies that will only lay eggs on a particular species... which is why for certain butterflies its important to have native host plants.
The favorite species of host plants for Monarch butterflies is Aslepias Incanarta. And monarchs will lay eggs on other species of Aslepias... but their preferred plant is incanarta. And if you take a caterpillar that has been feeding from Asclepias incarnarta and put it on a Asclepias tuberosa - it will starve, as it will only eat the plant that it was laid on... I have switched cats from aslepias incanarta to asclepias syriaca and it worked for some but not for others.... I have never gotten a cat from incanarta to feed on tuberosa, and vice versa.
There are many butterflies that do have a specific host plant - so you may have better results if you get a native species of those plants and not a relative or a cultivar... because of the successional generations of butterflies looking for the plants that they instinctively know are food...
That's an interesting point, joepyeweed, that I hadn't thought of before, but it really makes some sense, doesn't it.
Do you have a pretty good representation of butterflies in your garden? Do you use mostly natives?
I have never heard of or experienced a butterfly not using a specific plant because it was not what they were raised on. They all have a host plant(s) that they must use tho. It's what the cat starts eating that it wants to continue eating. If you try to change the cat once it's started eating fennel it most likely will not eat the dill so it will either starve or pupate early if it's old enough.
Monarch's will lay their eggs on any type of milkweed. I have A. curassavica and have raised tons of them. I have also raised them on more common milkweed's growing on the side of the roads and in fields, but never switched them.
Swamp milkweed is not native here and I have not had success growing it. It lived for about 3 seasons but never flowered then finally was overcome by our drought and heat. If it did thrive here it could be the preferred milkweed of choice but they would still use the others too.
My BST's use any of the carrot family that I plant for them and sometimes all of them. Usually it's the green fennel chosen but this year the dill then the rue. They must scout out the host plants early because they knew what was already available and growing.
I'd really like to know how they KNOW where to come lay eggs when they taste with their feet and I don't see them fluttering around the garden for days trying to figure out what is in it. They just know and come. See, if you plant it, they will come!
Its not true for every butterfly species but only for certain species. And had I taken notes when I listened to that speaker I could list what butterflies she mentioned had species specific host plants. Monarch was one and certain swallowtails were others. But its not a rule for every butterfly...
It makes sense that if A. incanarta is not natural to your area then the butterflies there would not have normally hosted on it and the successional generations would not prefer it. (Geography, as always, will play a huge role in what plants make good hosts...)
I have several types of milkweed in my yard and I get caterpillars on all of them... but the incanarta in my yard is preferred about 10 to 1 over the tuberosa and about 5 to 1 over the syriaca.
I see tons of sulfurs, lots of eastern swallowtails, monarchs and admirals... I also have tons of bumble bees too.
I have planted some pipevine and I am hoping in a year or two that plant will be large enough to attract some pipevine swallowtails too.
