John--your pics are a joy to look at! And the variety of BFs is amazing--are they all from around your garden? Thanks for posting. t.
New to me
Yes, tabasco, they are all from my zinnia gardens.
I don't need a whole of encouragement to show off my pics. hehe.
carrjohn - OK must be a magnificant place with all these beauties - I am soooo impressed. Wish some of them would visit us here in southern Fl. Great pics.
JoanMary we will get more butterflies soon as they start migrating down for fall, although I have to say it has been a pretty good year so far for me with the Swallowtails. Getting numbers of Gulf Frits now and have seen 1 Monarch
I was out again today, and it was hard to choose which one to photogragh, I decided to post a couple of small ones that I have failed to give their do. John
One more little guy/gal.
But then, this beauty showed up. I couldnt resist. John
Got to include this one.
You pics are great! Aren't digitals great? No film to develope and have to wait to see if the shot was good.
Here is a link that will help ID some of your beauties. It is LA butterflies, but if they have them, we probably do too.
http://www.pbase.com/ronnie_14187/the_butterflies_of_louisiana&page=1
John,
I just joined this butterfly group-your photos are breathtaking. My husband has a butterfly garden and enjoyes it so much..
I have really enjoyed all the photos and posts.
I am in Dover, DE
Peggy
Welcome Peggy, to you and your DH (dear husband), who obviously likes gardening too.
Thank you, Peggy, I am also new at this, but I love it. John
Great shots John!
I'm going to have to get some zinnias lol
This is my first year to have a nice healthy stand of zinnias!!! It is a bit small but they are really sucking up the water though.
John, I never cease to be amazed at your picture taking skills. Might I ask what type of camera you have? I was really happy with my 3+ year old digital until I started trying to photo butterflies, bugs, and other stuff. DH borrows his boss's 'extra' camera with the fancy zoom and multi-shot capabilities every once in a while so I can post some decent pics.
The array of beauty you have in your yard is just a blessing. Thank you for taking the time to share it with us all.
Regards,
~Sunny
Sunny, it's out of date Sony Powershot S50. It does have a lot of features, but I am just learning how to use some of them. I read the book, but by the time I go out to take pics I forgot what I just read. Got to be an old age thing. LOL John
John.
I've enjoyed your pictures!
Hi to everyone! I am new to DG, well as a subscriber... I have been checking out some other topics of interest when I have come across the butterfly and hummingbird gardening. As a child I grew up catching butterflies,dragonflies and fireflies ( releasing them afterwards, of course). I remember the fun and excitement I had trying to catch these beauties. Now, I hardly see any of them so i thought maybe I'll try making a garden to attract them to my yard. I have yet to learn a lot of things about which particular flowers would be good to attract them. I want my son to experience what I had as a child and enjoy the beauty of these creatures. Today , though was my lucky day! I have finally got the chance to take a picture of a swallow tail (i think) fluttering by my zinnias. It was windy so it was hard to take a steady picture. But I am so happy... my son will definitely be proud i got to take some shots. :-)
eileen, nice job. I just put in a few butterfly garden plants last year and was rewarded with some beauties. So this year I expanded my butterfly plants. I too have memories of the fascination of insects when I was young. But somewhere alone the line I got distracted and forgot how to enjoy them. But when my DH and I married late in life, we started going to gardens and watching birds, etc. It got me back to nature as they say. Now I can't wait until retirement to have every morning in the garden.
BTW, Glad to have you on the subscriber side!!
This message was edited Aug 25, 2006 9:40 PM
Nice shot, Eileen
Welcome Eileen! You have a beautiful Tiger Swallowtail vising your zinnias. Butterflies love zinnias so you should see them around them often.
Nice picture Eileen, and welcome!
~Sunny
Donna, two questions please.
1. Why do they call them Orange Dogs when they look more like bird poo?
2. You said that the butterflies would be migrating for fall. Where do they migrate to? I have recently moved to Central Florida and hope to see more butterflies and perhaps a hummingbird eventually.
John,
Keep the photos coming, they are wonderful!! Karen
I am just learning to use my camera....This tiny bf posed for me for a very long time this morning. Its wing is only about a half inch wide. Can you id it for me?
Here it is once again....on Porterweed....
It's a Hairstreak...looks like a Mallow-scrub Hairstreak.
http://www.dallasbutterflies.com/Butterfly%20Gardening/Host%20Plants%20by%20Butterfly%20Species.htm
Don't you just love the Porterweed!? I had a coral one year before last and it got huge, but didn't reseed. :( Last year I got a purple one like yours and it reseeded great so I have a lot of them. They took forever to start growing but just this month have shot up and finally started blooming. :)
thanks everyone....I am getting so much fun sharing all these excitement and fuss over a butterfly..lol.. a lot of people would think I'm crazy.. but at least now I found a place where I can share all my thoughts and memories and pictures too. thank goodness for digital cameras I dont have to spend a fortune for film developing..lol..now I am having so much respect for zinnias.. I have had hummers visit mine but i was always unprepared to take a picture. my son made sure I have the camera on stand -by where I can grab it in case another hummer hovers by.. he just love to watch them flapp their super fast wings:) I get so excited when they come to visit.. where I come from we dont have those birds...and they're just a sight to see!!!I feel like a little girl once again...though it has been a long while..lol
TY Konkrete! I do love my porterweed I have about 4 in a big clump and that is the first place I look for butterflies when I go into the yard. They always hang out there. It is also easy to grow-- Mine is about 4 ft tall. I just bought a red/dark pink one this year, but it is not near the others and it has not yet been discovered. I put the link site you gave me in my favorites. It will be very useful. TY again.
John Many of the butterflies migrate back down south for winter like the Monarchs. We still don't get them like TX because we are not on the direct migration routes. That is why we usually don;t have many butterflies until fall. They all head north like the birds
I think the Giant Swallowtail cats are called Orange Dogs because the citrus plants are the host plant. I don't know for certain
Very nice shots :)
Eileen, you are definitely in the right place to rave about your new passion. You think you feel like a kid again now, just wait until you finally see something you've been waiting for and you yell, jump up and down and start clapping like a 5 yr old! Just wait, you'll do it! :)
konkreteblond... I think I've done just that so many times ..lol...my first encounter with the hummers was after hurricane Ivan... they were so many of them and just hovering by above my head... at first I didnt know what it was, I had to yell and call my DH to come out to see it and he was like , you're excited about a hummingbird?....after that I know what they are but they were always too quick for me for a pix... and I didnt even know they actually perch on trees just like any other bird..my ignorance..lol...
I didn't know that about them until last year either. What did we think they did? lol It's that I never thought about it at all. I don't have many hummers and I think that's because of our drought. The only few times I've seen them this year was when we actually had some rain or slight sprinkles. I just love watching them play in the rain! Mine one little visitor has a certain branch in the Crepe Myrtle that it likes. My husband gets excited about them now too!
Butterfly shots all great. Zinnias for sure next yr.for me. dixie