Butterfly Host Plant Seed Exchange? Anyone interested?!

OK Everyone! I set up the HOST PLANT seed exchange thread tonight so everyone can post their HAVES and WANTS.

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/659555/

And I posted first to get it going, but let me know here if I need to make some changes (since I'm ignorant of how these usually go!)

I guess the idea is that everyone learns a little bit more about Gardening for Butterflies and that we encourage others to get involved in BF gardening, and of course, that we have fun.

So the Trading 'expectations' will be a bit loose and generous and, although I didn't say this on the other thread, I hope those of us who have milk weed seed pods up the yazzooo and don't need them all will be willing to share some with newbies or those who are running short! and likewise other seeds!

If/when there are questions, please feel free to add your 2 cents!

Thanks (in advance) everyone! t.

p.s. I am so excited I have 12 monarch cats on my MW today--a first time for me!

Congratulations, T!!!! I wish it was there when I was : 0 (

I hope you keep us all up to date with a time lapse photo montague.

Kelly

Thanks deb, just read your careful description of how to do the cuttings. So will go ahead and gather some for the trading.

Interesting about the Fennel seed. Hadn't thought of that! I have a huge jar in my cupboard. I wonder if it's still viable. It's still delicious in home made bread!

Would the same be true for mustard seed? I read some BFs use mustard for host plants? I have all kinds of exotic mustard seeds!

I think it is worth a try T. You can also try the Fennel in your spice cupboard and see what happens.. The ones I used were straight from Kroger. Let me see if i can find a good pic of what came up.. Yaay I found it!

Now that reminds me i need to thin them out into sepparate little pots first thing tomorrow..

:oD

I was told today that my butterfly weed will die back to root this winter :( it took so long for it to get where it is :( I'll go and mark the HOST PLANT seed exchange I don't have any seeds yet to trade but I would be williing to pay for the postage for any I can get! next year I plan to have all kinds! :)

Deb, that's a great idea about the fennel seeds - never thought of that. I'm going to get some right away.

I took a couple of cuttings of passiflora cerulean (sp?), dusted them with hormone powder and stuck them in vermiculite. Most everything I've done this way survives, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Will also try cuttings in water, which is my fav, since you can see if it's rooting.

Tabasco, congratulations on your 12 Monarch cats! I'm excited for you. Let us know how they do. Thanks for the suggestions about overwintering small plants and cuttings. I'm going to clear a spot in the garage for them and set up lamps for heat. Here in the oh so sunny South we just have to worry about a few freezes, but of course if a freeze gets them, they're just as dead.

I'm going watch my Queen Ann's Lace for seeds. I've been defending that tree/bush for years when others wanted to cut down that weed. Never realized that butterflies might like it just as much as I do. If I can get seeds I can send them out to whoever wants them.

Peggy

Fabulous T!! On the dozen cats
!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh btw i saw this one under a big rock in my yard today..I think it is a Sphinx because of the diagonal lines and dots, but it doesn't look like any Tomato hornworm I have ever seen before. Curious where it came from. No one around here has any Tomatos growing..

I am sorry for sounding so dumb but I looked at your picture tabasco (not sure of ur name) looking for the 12 monarch cats I don't have no idea what I am looking for, trying to figure this out so I can check mine to see if any have came around :( maybe u could some how point them out to me :) also isn't the season for butterflies about over I mean when it gets cold they go somewhere warm ?
Jesse

Tropicalkaren........is your cassia flowering? If it is you should see the tiniest of pods beginning to elongate in the center of the flower, probably green and bean pod-like.

Well Jesse-- you have to look really carefully to see a couple of the cats and they all aren't on that MW, but if you look at the pics on the Trade Thread you can see a nice pic of one of them.

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/659555/

Yes, I am concerned about how late in the season we are, but I suppose Mother Nature knows what she's doing! The peak migration time for our area was late September, so if these do make it to butterfly stage I suppose with some luck they can start their journey south and not be too far behind.

I thought maybe I would bring them inside today (and get in the way of Mother Nature).

Azreno, no flowers or pods because it was only planted about 6 months ago. That is why I am trying rooting in water.

This is it's blooming time and they should flower in their first year shouldn't they? Cassias mature very quickly. I hope you get flowers!

Yes it is definatly a tomato/tobacco hornworm, up there in the picture lol....or sphinx/hawk moth larvae. They hover and go backward like a hummingbird, hence the other common name Hummingbird Moth. They are awesomely beautiful creatures. (They drink at night from Moonflower, Nicotianna, and some others.) The proboscis is almost a foot long..I have't ever been able to take good pictures of them ...yet, lol. Still trying though.

Arenzo it sure is blooming time and like Karen I put mine in the ground about 6 months ago and don't have any signs of blooms. They are 7-8 ft tall now. I am going to try and overwinter them both really well, and see if they will come back in Spring. If they do, they will definatly bloom by Late Summer 07. Remember that I have some seeds I can send out if anyone asks. I listed them on my haves in the Trade Thread. Planting them indoors in Late January is what my SIL always did here in Fort Worth, and they always bloomed every year she had them. It;s alll good! Ya know waiting is the main virtue of a gardener....:o).
Waves @ all~~

And waiting, amen!

I hope they do come back for you. I hear it's amazing what 6" of mulch will help get through the winter!

Hello Everyone.
Ok I am going to offer to trade or for postage some seeds that butterflies like. Candle Tree, Cassia Alata. Maximillian Sun flowers. Dwarf Flamboyant, Can get some seeds from Lantana of varius colors. Or cuttings or plants. Lantana is hard to transplant but if I can find the wild variety that grow in fla. Orange and yellow the butterflies flock to them. I have butterfly weed seeds. I am going on a trip to Miss sat and will get seeds up there that most likely are good butterfly plants. My sister raises a lot of annuals. So if you would would like to get some from me send the usual 63 cents in a bubble envelope. Tape my address on a peel off label or put a label and then tape over your adderss and that will be fine just remember to put 63cents in stamps in the inside of the envelope and state what you want or if you want a few of all I have to offer. Fran

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/659555/

We can discuss all of those Host Plants right here for the next several weeks. This focus is so no one (especially me) doesn't get confussed about Host Foods vs Nectar Foods for Butterflies. I have so much to learn about hosting. Til now I have only truly hosted 3 kinds of Butterflies, Gulf Frit, Black Swallowtail, and Hairstreaks although I saw at least 12 different BFs over this Summer. Many of us are seriously interrested in hosting as many as will come to our areas.

Any and all of your experience will be so valuable to us.

Thanks for being here!

Wow this has been an interesting read. I will have to do some research and talk to some people in my area to see which are the best plants to attract butterfly's to my yard. I know my kids would love to see more of them.

Great Marie! They will love this, mine have. Especially Ben, my 8 year old.

Welcome to this forum, glad to have you here..we will all learn a lot!

:oDeb




Here is a Gulf Fritillary (GF) about to form a chrysalis a couple days ago

And here is the finished Chrysalis the day after that^^

Those are great pictures! I cannot wait to let my kids see these.

Cool photos!

Deb - Awesome photos!

My GF cats are very bright solid orange with black spikes. And the chrysalis is more of a light to medium brown. I wonder if your Texas beauties are different than the Florida GF? Do you have any photos of one as a butterfly? I'd love to see it!

Thx y'all, and of course I do! LOL

This one is on A. Tuberosa, just checking it out... The Passaflora caerulea http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/129335/ is only a few feet from it, suppose she is resting from laying all the eggs?

:oD

This message was edited Oct 11, 2006 5:52 PM

wow and WOW. great pics, Deb!

Deb - Well that's interesting! My GF butterflies look pretty much like your photo.

Here's a photo of a GF cat I took a couple days ago on my young Maypop vine. Quite different than your GF cat!

Here's the Chrysalis of a GF that I took back in July. It's not the best photo because it was on the side of one of my flower pots. But it doesn't look like the photo of yours.

Here's a GF Butterfly on what I believe is a salvia. I was looking at the spots on the wings trying to see what might be different from the Texas species. Can't say that I see much difference. That's really interesting how different the cat and chrysalis seem to look between our 2 southern states species. I just assumed they'd be the same. I assumed wrong!

This message was edited Oct 11, 2006 7:11 PM

Yep Becky,
Mine look like that while they are growing, (All orange with blackish spikes), but right before they are about to find a place to hang they turn a grayish color. The Pupa is blackish and I believe, because they try to get as close as they can to the color of what they hang on. It has lightened up a little since the other day. (I will take a pic in the morning when the light is better.)

It is easy to keep track of them at this time because they were laid and hatched a day or 2 apart. It is even more amazing when you see the plant responding to the babies they host. Passionvine is just one of the most amazing plants. If you hold your finger against one of the outstretched tendrils for a few minutes it will slowly wrap itself. When an egg hatches, this redish liquid emerges from the tips of new growth is some nectar for new babies. So I think PV is more of a (Mother Plant) itself not just any ole Host.
I found a pic from about 2 1/2 wks ago, it is of the one in the J pic and the pupa pics (above) when it was a baby.

Deb - Very interesting! I had no idea about the Passionvine relationship with the GF! That's amazing!! Thanks for that bit of information. Are those red droplets in the photo nectar for the baby cat? I guess that explains why the ants love the Passionvine as well. :-D

Hello All of You ,
I have lots of butterflies this time of the yr. I would be happy to have an seed exchange with anyone that wants some of my seeds. I posted in the other forum that had seed for butterfly gardens and I said I will be happy to share what ever I have with any of you that wnt some of what I have. This Sat I am going to Miss to visit and I can get lots of seed from the university of miss and I will share them with any of you. I may not know what they are but I know they are annuals.
Fran

Great pictures Becky!
I loved your pic with the different sizes BST's too. I took one today of my 3..

Hi there Fran!
Take pictures of what you get seeds from in MS for the ID forum, then you will know what you have:o) for sure ! Thanks for sharing!
Waves~~ and ty to gram~~~

Becky i think so too, but thank God I haven't had much of an ant problem on the PV from them being in big pots, maybe. When I plant them out back tha could change, YIKES!

I still have no cats. (sigh) but.... today, Connie and i went back to Lowe's and bought about 10 more BF plants (lantanas, buddleia (sp.), blue mist, and something else that's escaping me right now) each one for $1. or less. They were distressed plants TODAY, but with a little TLC (and some watering), they will be GREAT plants come this spring! I plan on having a whole island of butterfly plants. Every place I can save some money is a good thing!

Love all of the photos. Can't wait to take some of my own!

Janet

Right on Janet!
Hitting those sales wtg.. I went to Lowe's the other day after you had mentioned that and everything was still marked high...bummage. I have too much now on my plate with a similar project in my back yard. If I go and get anything it will be more dirt, and stuff.
I saw more Monarchs today in a sort of spread out flock, very far apart. Various ones would land on the Buddelia to drink and I was snapping away, and then........my Camera Batteries died. When I went to the store they were flying across the road in front of me about every 30feet.

Totally cool Monarch, Deb. Never seen one with those browns and red before.

Thank you Peggy,
I think its from the way the sunlight came through from the other side..and with such perfect conditions, and batteries die...man!! I have a few pics of some other Monarchs with that red color coming through that I took last week. Y'all keep your cameras ready they are flocking south like crazy now. When I was out yesterday and noticing them from my car, and everywhere, I looked around and no one else was noticing them....so many people rushing around and oblivious to these, I felt as if I was in some strange consciousness of another world.



This one is from last week:

I'm glad that I'm not the only one that feels this way. Lately, I've told everyone I know about my new "addiction/passion" for butterflies. They smile and get that look like, I wonder what this gal's been smokin'!" HAHAHAHA I know whan that look comes along that they have no clue what I'm telling them. They are just too busy to appreciate God's artwork in their own "backyard".

I've been thinking about the plants that I got. I have a half a dozen small trashcans that were NEW from Goodwill. I'd planned on drilling some holes in them and planting my herbs. I think instead, that I will plant all of these butterfly plants so that they will "store" easier for the winter and then by the time spring rolls around, the roots will be well developed and they'll be ready to plant in the ground. They had 3 waybigo stacks of those garbage cans the other day. I think I'll go back and ask them if they will give me a quantity discount. They were only 99 cents a piece, but if I was to buy 25-30 of them, I might get them cheaper. I need to figure out a way to decorate them though because they are pretty plain jane. But they would work well to serve my purpose. Sorry folks, just pondering out loud here. HAHAHA

Janet

Janet, I feel like other people are missing out on so much. There is so much else going on out there than they realize. There is nothing that compares to the peace I feel when I go outside and watch the whole other world going on outside of mine. The sun, wind, leaves blowing, butterflies flying, bees buzzing, spiders lurking, hummers squeaking etc. etc!

It made me realize, not for the first time but really understand, that everything is not about me (or one person). I see how everything has a plan and everything has a reason and that comforts me in knowing that just like when that one little sparrow falls to the ground, God sees me.

I try to share it with whoever will listen and it never fails that no matter how long I talk to them that their eyes light up and they suddenly "see" something new. I guarantee they will never just look past a butterfly without noticing it. I tell my son's friends and classmates about them and they always ask me about them. I just joined the school's "beautifation committee" too!

For me it seems that when I don't take the time to "Stop and smell the roses", my soul is not at peace. I think a lot of folks realize that because gardening is the #1 past time here in the U.S. (and probably the world). I think God's creative handiwork is simply amazing! I also think that most young people are too busy being busy. As we get older - "we've been there, done that" and find that it doesn't fill us up but often drains us. I used to be one of those people who were busy all the time. I've learned to say a firm "No." Can't say that I miss that lifestyle! And sometimes I can't avoid it even now, but I love to head home to my garden to see what God has waiting for me. Amazing what you can see if you just slow down and look around.

Have a peaceful day in your gardens everyone! :-)