More Black Swallowtail Butterflies ....

I was out working in the yard (see my dirty fingers) and walked by one of the cages and saw that one of the BST chrysalis eclosed today. So decided to get a few shots before I sent it off into the big wide world! :-)

Enjoy!

Side view.

Resting on the Privet Cassia before it flew away. :-)

Edited to add: It looks by the color pattern on it's wings that it is a female BST.

This message was edited Jan 7, 2007 1:38 PM

oh Becky. My Privet Cassia seeds have sprouted Yea!!!!!

Oh Donna, you are too good, and way ahead of me. How long did it take for them to germinate? I am hoping to get my stuff started this week. Did you soak them, etc?

I planted them on the 28th, so 10 days

Cool! I love quick growers! It's so hard to be patient with seeds. I never know whether to keep waiting or not. I like to use the baggie method because then I can see when they have germinated.

Beautiful Becky!
It will be interresting to see what, if any diferences in the one I mailed you today with the frit..she made her chrysalis sooner, so I expect she will be a midget frit..
I decided to send a BST along too, in order to see the difference in eclosure times with the three I have here..expecting to eclose in April or so..

Paige, you talk about waiting being hard.... this is keeping me in suspense bigtime!
I put some Privet & Alata seeds in flats about 4 days ago.. they are outside stratifying on a table under a tree between the shed and the house. I will start some inside too this week. Trying to find the best way to start them between 2 different methods. Here again waiting...yep I relate!

Awesome Donna, your Privits coming up!!

Donna - Congrats on your Privet seeds sprouting! I'm telling y'all ..... if this plant grows for you like it did for me .... look out! You'll have a nice-sized small tree or shrub the first year! LOL

I love my little Privet tree. It dropped all of it's leaves when we got down into the upper 30's back at the beginning of December. (I think that was when the temps dropped.) And it already has tons of new leaves and new branches! Gotta love that kind of growth from a plant! Now I am curious to see how the sulphers like it as a host plant. Either way, I just love the delicate leaves and the light shade it provides to protect my ground plants from the heat and sun. It only provides sparse shade, not full shade. Nice, nice tree. Pretty blooms. And FAST growing!!! Enjoy growing it Donna, Deb, and Paige! If anyone else would like some seeds, dmail me. I have some left from this past fall.

Deb - I can't believe you sent me one of your Swallowtail chrysalis, too! I am sure with the temps we've had here that it will eclose within 2 weeks after I get it. I just released 2 more BSTs today. I had to cool glue 2 of them to a stick because they fell down in the cage. There is one left on the stick to eclose and my guess is that it will be very soon. It's turning dark. My dh is particularly partial to the BST. He just loves the yellow and blue that stand out again the black on the wings! They are pretty butterflies for sure! Do you know the date it morphed into a chyrsalis? How about the GF's chrysalis date? This will be interesting. :-) I love experimenting!

I need to put my spicebush seeds in the refridgerator. Got to do that! I keep forgeting. Does anyone know how long I should keep them in cold stratification?

Deb - I wanted to show you what my little Hercules Club plant looks like, so here is a photo of it.

The Hercules Club almost reminds me of a rose bush, only the trunk is so much smaller and of course no rose blooms. It is apparently slower growing than the Wild Lime. My 2 Wild Lime plants have doubled in size since I got them back in November. (The same time I got my HC.) Here is a photo of one of my WIld Lime plants. And both of my Pawpaw have dropped all of their leaves. I am sure hoping they haven't died. I am wondering if they are decidious. Do you know? Or perhaps it could be shock from the transplanting to a pot.

I definitely need something bigger than these Rue plants for the GST's. Besides being slow growers, there is just no rhyme or reason to making them happy. I had 2 for over a year (woohoo) and planted 2 others beside them recently. One of the older ones just died one day while all the others are fine. No warning. I've got 2 others in pots but even those will only feed one cat, maybe.

I have successfully rooted cuttings but at their rate I'll have to leave them in my will to someone else. lol

Growing things from seed usually stresses me out. The pots, the dirt, the watering, the over-watering, the hydrogen peroxide, the mold, the legginess, the lack of sun, the cats.... By the end I've usually come out with one plant that made it, not counting easy things like Hyacinth bean vines.

I've got a little indoor shelf/greenhouse with a zipper cover that I've used but it's hard to regulate the temperature in it, thus mold. I'm going to get all my other stuff organized and finished and be mentally prepared to start them.

Deb, have you ever used the baggie method?

Congrats on the BST!!! That sure is a beauty :o)

I raised a bunch of them last year...had so many I had to go out and buy more rue plants. They wouldn't touch the fennel or parsely. Good thing the plant vendors at the flea market always have small pots of rue for sale.

I haven't seen a butterfly in my yard in weeks now. Am sure they are at the park but I just haven't had time to drive out there. So it sure is nice to see your butterfly Becky.

~ Cat

I hear ya Paige! I feel the same way at times. But I figure that most of the seeds I've used to start plants were free from generous folks here on DG. So if it doesn't germinate or dies, I'm not out any money. I get really annoyed when I spent good money on a plant and the darn thing dies! How dare it waste my money like that! LOL

Something else I am noticing. The cuttings and small plants that I have received from others have not made it once I tried to plant them in my yard. I don't know why. I'm wondering if the climate change is too much for them. The seeds on the other hand do well here. I am wondering if .... when they are transplanted as plants that they just can't take the shock of everything. I've had no luck growing small saplings in my garden from any of the plant cuttings I've received. It's really a bummer! But the plants that are a bit larger and have a good rooting system do great! I think the heat and sun in Florida just fries the poor little starter plants. They have to be adult plant cuttings to survive in my zone from the trial and error I am discovering. The little baby plants are just too tender to make it in my yard.

Thanks, Cat! I'm glad my photos and stories are getting everyone through the winter months!

It's kind of nice that you have a winter, because it gives you that time to plan your Spring gardens. I feel like I never get a break from garden work to find the time to dream and plan my Spring Gardens. I feel like I am always in a rush to do my garden beds because everything continues to grow when we have warm winters like this year. And everything gets big really fast. I am forever pruning and cutting plants back. I'd like to just go out and enjoy them at times instead of always WORKING in them! LOL

The seeds scare me but I plan on starting a whole bunch of them! lol I have some great new things that I wouldn't be able to find in nurseries so I really have to do this right. Part of my problem is never having the right type of system, or one that I like. I don't like the peat pots. I have issues with the starting mix too. Last year I did something where I microwaved the "dirt" then mixed the water in with it and let it sit, then squeezed out excess water when I filled the trays. Surely I'm doing it all wrong. Help! lol

I had much better luck just throwing my seeds outside, so I continue to do that. My little "transition" bed is a square of perfect dirt (compost, dirt, some sand, etc.) that is in the early morning sun then shade. It's perfect for putting seedlings in to get them started or plants that I don't have a place for. But a few of those plants took it over so now it's full. If I moved what's in it I could put some new seeds outside and see how they do on their own. I can't put new babies directly out in our sun either, just a little at at time, which is hard to do since I have little shade!

Do any of you have a big set-up with lights etc? What do you all do?

I thought about using the existing shelving in my garage and install grow lights above some of the shelves. But the weather here has been so warm I haven't needed to. I have to have motivation to do something like that. Unless the climate becomes very cold here, I probably won't attempt any setup like that this year, Paige.

I just use the Jiffy 72 Peat Pellets in the trays. It works for me. I then transplant the sprouted seedlings to bigger pots. And when they are 3 imes larger, they go into the ground outside in my beds. So far this method has worked for me. But I'm in a different zone than most of you and a different region of the USA. So what may work for one gardener may or may not work for another. My zone is so different than most of you. I am probably not a good one to give advice or suggestions.

No, any advice would be appreciated on using those peat pellets. It's not a zone issues, it's my watering. My memories of these are that they were either too wet or got too dry. And I think once they got dry they were very hard to rewet. Do you water from the bottom?

I used to use egg shells to start Morning Glories and Hyacinth bean vines in until one year when I went out and something (field mice!) had eaten all my seedlings and the egg shells!! They worked really good tho and I just kept them in the carton.

It's just one of those things that I try too hard at. My old neighbor didn't know all the "rules" about seeds so she just threw them all in potting soil in big pans and had no problem. Go figure!

Here's some information regarding the Asimina (Pawpaw)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pawpaw

Paige - I bought a "Rapitest Moisture Meter" from HD. I think it was about $10. It works great! I have so many potted plants and can never be sure if I need to water them or not. So I use this handy little meter to tell me whether it has plenty of moisture in the potting soil or is dry. I haven't had a problem over-watering them. Maybe I should use that in my ground gardens too! LOL! Those are the plants I kill by over-watering!

I had to laugh about your neighbor's luck in sowing seeds by just tossing in a pot. I often have an empty pot or two that is just filled with dirt (no plants) sitting in my garden beds. It never fails .... within a month I have plants growing in them. Usually seeds from my flowers fall or blow into these pots and start a whole bunch of seedlings that eventually become flowering plants themselves. Then I just plant those in the garden where I think they would look nice. I just love FREE plants!

terryr - Hmmmm .... your website quote means either I have the Northern Pawpaw and they are in the deciduous stage (which would be good!) or they are the southern Pawpaw and are NOT doing good at all. LOL One thing I am noticing currently is that the little bare stems are not brittle, so I am hoping that they will recover and start growing some new leaves soon.

Which species do you have?

terryr - I believe it is the Southern Pawpaw. There was no name on it other than Pawpaw. And I was told the seeds came from a Florida Pawpaw tree. :-/

Becky, here's another link to the USDA site and the various Pawpaw's that are indigenous to North America

http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=ASIMI

Perhaps by looking at the differences, you can narrow it down. Otherwise, if you want an ID, you might post a photo of it in the ID forum or in Trees and Shrubs. As you can see at the above site, there's more than one Pawpaw that grows in Florida. I don't know if you mean Florida Pawpaw is the common name or the seeds just came from a Pawpaw in Florida?

I have the deciduous Asimina triloba, it has no leaves now. I put it facing south near, (but not too close), to a taller tree. This way I can keep it from the blistering heat and trim the tree to control them amount of sun it gets. Becky I love that HC! I am getting one as soon as Jim gets them in at NNN.

I forgot to mark this thread, 'watch' lol so I missed all these posts above posted yesterday...(duh).

Here is a great site for instructions on winter sowing... This is kinda what I went by>
http://www.wintersown.org/wseo1/How_to_Winter_Sow.html

Deb