The only one I've seen this year! I have to get some milkweed!!
My first Monarch!
Another...
Just one more - I feel like a proud mama!
Congrats! They are so beautiful. Sort of "majestic" feeling. I always wondered why other butterfly gardeners were so enamored with them until they started coming to my yard.
You should definitely grow some milkweed but the one you have there looks like a male so no need to rush. I don't have software to edit the pic so I'll try and describe it to you. The males have a scent gland that is a small black spot on their hindwings. Look at your first pic. From the body, look one black line to the left. On that line, towards the bottom, is the spot.
Your pv is beautiful! Just curious, do you ever have Gulf Frit cats on it? I've been told the red is poisonous to them. I'm not sure if yours is the red that I've heard about tho. I love how the petals fold down.
Yes, I do get the GF cats and butterflies. Lady Margaret is a host plant to the GF's. I have them now and they are still laying eggs. I have a couple of pics I'll post for you...
Here's a cat pic taken today
Here are some GF...also taken today.
This message was edited Oct 20, 2006 5:14 PM
Lady M. is beautiful! Do you see the cats go all the way thru to eclosing butterflies? I see in the PlantFiles that she is a hybrid. If your cats make it all the way thru their cycle, then I might beg for a cutting. :)
I don't think I've ever seen the Monarchs on my passionvine. Hmmm...maybe that's because they are always on the milkweed! I wonder if the red produces more nectar than the purple ones?
Yes, my DH and I watched one of the cats go thru the chrysalis (sp?) process. It was really neat - took about a week. I'll be happy to send a cutting, just not sure how to do it. Please let me know if you do, a friend of mine also wants a cutting! My LM doesn't have much of a scent (to me), some people have said theirs smell really good. The monarch happily hung around for about an hour checking out the flowers and the mandevilla (which surprised me).
I'm in the house and can't get the whole vine in the frame! She's moving to the other side of the arbor.
That's great to know! I think it is actually the tropical red pv's that are toxic to them. I can't leave my cats outside or the ants take the eggs or the spiders and assassin bugs eat the cats. I just had about 20 make their chrysalis, have about 4 cats left and brought in about 6 eggs today.
Even if the ants take the eggs there are sooo many more! You would not believe the number of eggs/cats I have on LM. This is all I do - no tricks, not hiding anything - I water 1-2x per week depending on the heat and I use Naturize fertilizer. That's it. If you can tell me how to get a cutting I will gladly send some to you. LM is sooo pretty!
Sharon
Sharon,
As you know, I have purple passion vines. I can't imagine that one would be much different than the other, other than the flowers they produce. (Listen to me sounding like I know what I'm talking about!) When I take cuttings, I just cut about a foot of vine from the new growth. Then I stick that cut end into the dirt. If there are leaves close to the cut end, I remove those. Otherwise, into the dirt it goes. I've been plugging cuttings into my cat house and they still look good. I haven't checked for roots, but it's been over a week since some of them went into the cage and everything is still alive. A bit "leaf chewed", but alive. I'd love to trade you some of my unknown at this moment purple for some of your gorgeous Lady Margarets. As for shipping them, you might want to start with a smaller cutting, say 8-10 inches, and put a little soil around them, wrap them in saran wrap and gently tape it closed.
I'd be willing to try and send you some to see if they survive the trip. Dmail me your address if you're interested.
Janet
This message was edited Oct 21, 2006 12:06 AM
This is a very good website link for problems you may encounter raising Monarch cats and butterflies:
http://www.livemonarch.com/advanced.htm
The entire website is just full of helpful information!
Also:
Native Indian legends say: If you have a secret wish, find a butterfly and whisper your wish to it. When you release the butterfly, it will carry your wish to the Great Spirit. By setting the butterfly free, you are helping to restore the balance of nature, and your wish will surely be granted.
Aww Becky freedom!!
The most important thing to any living creature....:)
Hey Sharona!
Well, we went to the Flutterby thing in grapevine TX today..it was pretty cool. There were lots of activities, and they handed out Monarchs in Envelopes for people to release on thier countdown from 5.
There were a few hundred at 12 noon released and they said 600 Monarchs at 1pm...
When they released them the crosswind caught them and you couldn't see them much at all. They had about 100 or so in a netted cage there to relase at 1:00 too along with another 500. My son was so tired we needed to go..go figure. They were selling some BFs in little cases all preserved, Ben liked the Buckeye, and Jackie got a BST. (I hate to see them all pinned up in a case like that, they tried to assure me that they died from unpreventable causes or naturally. Though you never can be sure.)
How thick is the path of the Monarch Migration as it goes through Florida, I wonder? The path here has been really wide. especially this year!!
You asked me to bring ya pictures Sharona! o/~
Really beautiful Lady Margaret PV..Maybe LM is a red one that GF CAN eat? I want to know more about that one! I will trade you some Blue Crown if it is safe to use as a host plant.
See ya all!
That is so awesome, Deb! What a great way to re-populate the Monarch Butterflies.
I've collected about 15 cats, well actually 1 is a chrysalis and 2 are up getting ready to hang in the J. I have been outside most of the day working in the yard. I have had this one female monarch who has been hanging around for a week and laying eggs on all my milkweed. Well, today another female showed up. She is much younger and faster and they have been battling it out all day to see who gets terroritory of my yard. The thing is .... there is plenty for both of them between my front garden and the two side gardens in the backyard. I have milkweed in all my garden beds and they are in bush form. For some reason they both want the backyard corner near my screened porch. Go figure! Neither butterfly is giving it up. Should be interesting to see who wins. Maybe they will be civil and share. One thing I know, there will be lots of eggs .... AND cats if I can get them before the dang wasps do!
I never see swarms of Monarchs in Florida on the east coast. The only swarms I see are in the Spring and the Cabbage White Butterflies are EVERYWHERE! I hate driving when this happens because they wind up all over the front of my van and everyone elses vehicles. They are rather large white butterflies and it is quite beautiful to see! Sad to see so many wind up as road kill on our vehicles. :-(
I saw something that had my husband and I holding our breath today. I saw this huge butterfly shadow. So I kind of waited and then walked around my yard. We spotted this beautiful Giant Swallowtail feasting on my lantana in the front yard. These butterflies are just huge and stunning! I rarely see one in my yard. But lately I have been seeing a few of them. I have no host plant in my yard. Though I hope to before the end of November. I hope to pick up a Wild Lime bush/tree at the Native Nursery locally. These butterflies are called "Yellow Dogs" by the Citrus growers in Florida. Citrus trees are their host plant and they do damage to the trees by chewing up so many leaves on each tree. But they are honestly some of the largest and to me the most beautiful butterflies in all of Florida.
Here is a link to what they look like:
http://davesgarden.com/bf/go/639/
Do any of you in Texas see these butterflies?
Anyway, it's been a beautiful, hot day. It is cooling down at night here now. Finally! It has been so hot. It is funny, but I am usually running my A/C at Christmas time. It doesn't get cold here until January. And then it starts warming up in March. We have very short winters here. But it does get down to freezing temps and will kill back many of my plants. Though most return in Spring. I think that is why everything grows so big here. Never gets cold enough, long enough to slow the growth of most plants.
My husband was on the porch looking at the backyard gardens and said, "It looks like a jungle out here!" Many of my starter plants are getting big and filling in the garden areas. So that statement was music to my ears! LOL!
Wonderful day there..awesome Beckaroo!
yes FL is teaming with much of the same BFs we get, and many we don't get at all. Yes we do get GSTs here in Texas. I love it when they float through my yard. My son Kirby wants a Lemon Tree, but I need to find just the right one..
o/~
I see your State insect is the Zebra Longwing, those are so pretty. Monarchs are year round there? Do some leave and go to Canada in Springtime? Guess Florida IS a Butterfly factory, lol... Lucky y'all!
Deb - I think that some Monarchs do stay year round. But I think some migrate north in the summer as well. It seems like we will get Monarchs in Spring, then Queens in summer, and then the Monarchs come back in the Fall. And then disappear by the middle/end of December until about the end of February or early March. Being on the east coast of Florida, I honestly think that they go south to Miami (not South America or Mexico). But that is just a guess, I don't really know.
The zone I am in here in Florida - is what I call the "mystery zone". We have the same questions about the hummingbirds. Some folks in this zone have them year round and some hummers come in and out like the Monarchs. I don't think any tagging and research on Monarchs or hummers have been done on the ones here in Florida, so no one really knows. I truly wish the Monarch Watch group would check it out. I think they would find it interesting. And the same goes for the Hummers. Operation Ruby Throat should come to Florida and do some research!