I finally found a cat, I saw the female black swallowtail flying through the garden recently and was waiting. They are always on the green or bronze fennel.
This message was edited Jun 5, 2006 10:06 PM
1st cat of the season
Woohoo! What a cute little guy. Wish I had some of those :( I had a lot of Gulf Fritillary cats just a week or so ago. Went camping for the weekend, came home...and they were GONE! I suspect because my bird feeder had gone empty with me not being here, that they looked around for another type of meal :( I did find just one cat this week, and put it in my Cat House, and now it is already starting to form its chrysalis. But I want more!! I am going to find out if fennel will grow here where I live, and if it is too late to get some going.
Piggypoo,
Bronze fennel grows in zones 4-10 and is drought tolerant. It has a very long tap root when older. Deadhead so it doesn't spread too much. You're in a different zone but I find new plants all summer (always miss some seeds). Start from seeds or small plants- I would just get seed if I were you. What do the Gulf Fritillary cats look like? The birds don't seem to bother the swallowtail cats. I just can never find where they go to pupate. I know they are successful because there are always more butterflys.
i couldn't find my picture of my cat from last season, but i had this in my favorites
http://www.sasionline.org/fritillary/fritillary.html
You could get plants and enjoy them this year. It being a hot summer, starting seeds now might be a bit tricky.
that's what i was thinking, lindatx8. i have a covered porch where i could put a pot of fennel. that is, if i can find it at the nurseries. i went looking for dill the other day (not knowing what i was doing) and it isn't even for sale.
lol i'll figure this out someday
In hot climates Dill tends to die out when it gets hot each year. At least it did when I tried to grow it. So I only grow fennel and parsley. Some plants may bloom and go to seed, but they're not likely to die just because it's very hot.
The swallowtails will lay eggs on rue also. I have the parsley (now flowering) and rue and they both have swallowtail cats on them. That might be another possibility.