Oh Linda, I am so sorry about your flooding, I suppose your pond will have to be done over, so much work to have it all spoiled.
It is a blessing your house is nice and high, let us know how it goes.
Josephine.
Too many GF cats in Granbury
Sheila!
Hee,hee!
Adrienne
Linda - {{{Hugs}}} I am so very sorry to hear of the flooding in your backyard and your pond! I hope when the water recedes that your water lilies survived along with many of your other plants. Who would have ever believed that Texas would get this much rain. Unbelievable!!!
Sounds like everything is Bigger in Texas, even the rainstorms. Sorry to hear about your flooding. : ( I know how you feel losing plants, they are like your lil kids.
Thanks for all your good thoughts. The river is still roaring, but the water in the yard had receded a some. I could see about two more feet of my waterfall than I could earlier. I'm hoping that the waterfall pump will work when it dries out but don't know what the chances are. My willow furniture has floated out of the berm that surrounds the pond but I can still see some of it in my yard and a neighbors so I may be able to retrieve it when the water goes down. I think a lot of the plants will probably make it. I'm pretty sure that the four inches of mulch I put down the day before I left for California will be gone. So far all the trees look OK. One on my neighbors has a huge tree that is tilted over at a 45 degree angle. We are fortunate that the house is another 25 feet above the flooding and most of my gardens aren't affected. I noticed today that my very large bronze fennel has been eaten almost to the stems by st cats. Does anyone know where they like to pupate? I can never find them after they leave the fennel. Also, does anyone know what the larval food of queens is and what their cats look like?
Sugar,
Will gladly take some of your water here. We just cannot get any rain. Even when the Central Florida end-of-day thunderstorms occur they seem to skip us.
Consequently, we have very few butterflies this year. Hope that improves too.
ST cats pick some strange places to pupate. I have found them on morning glory vine, kiwi fruit vine, just about anywhere. Sometimes in plain sight.
Can't help with Queens, sorry.
Sugarfoot, Queens like milkweed and milkweed vines too.
http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species?l=1893
Linda, here is a good link for the Queens.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_(butterfly)
As for the ST, I was at Botanic Gardens yesterday and saw a cat on bronze fennel there and a few steps away was a empty chrystallis on a plant tag. They will leave the plant and go up and underneath the edge of something nearby. The BSTs I had in the cage with limbs NOT touching cage sides used limbs. This one was in the process of pupating.
The ones that I had taller limbs touching the sides went higher on the cage and used the top bar of pvc to pupate on. Here they are in the comma position.
Yes they usually like to pupate on something sturdy like a branch of ANY plant, piece of furniture, trellis, etc.
Linda - I just can't image all that water. Though in 2004 after the 2 hurricanes that hit us ..... we had LOTS of flooding. I had never seen it like that ever before. And I've lived in Florida most of my life (40+ years!). I have been watching the news and weather reports for Texas and am just astonished at all the rain and flooding. I can't even imagine. How horrible for everyone affected. I hope for everyone's sake that it stops and dries up SOON!!!
I saw on the news where OK is having severe flooding too. It is taking over people's backyards then their homes fall into the rivers. All that water up there will also eventually come through TX rivers too.
I put on my dh's waders this morning and waded out to retrieve my willow loveseat and rocker from neighbor's yards. The love seat was lodged against a couple of trees just a few feet from the river's main current. Fortunately, the water that is coming up in our yards is barely moving so it seemed safe to wade in and I used a hoe as a walking stick to make sure I didn't step into any holes. I feel better now that I've saved my pond furniture. Now if the pump will work when it dries out. Or course, right now it's still under 3 feet of water so it may take a while. I really hope that my pv can take being under water for a few days and that it will recoup enough to feed a few more gf cats. Thanks for the refs to the queens. I don't have any milkweed right now so I guess they have to find somewhere else to lay their eggs, but they certainly do like to feed on the blue mist flower that I have in abundance.
Here is another one of your babies Sugarfoot. It eclosed this morning and I released it after a pic or two.
That is lovely Sheila, you are so good to do that.
I am definately enjoying the benefits!
Aren't the gf's beautiful. I had never seen one until last fall when one was flitting around my garden. My neighbor and I took pics so we could identify it. The underside is as beautiful as the upper side to me. The next day I found the gf barely alive and brought her in. She died shortly afterward and I still have her to enjoy. It may be her offspring that we're enjoying this spring. I like to think so.