3 Snouts were just hanging around my Brasil Tree, probably just trying to warm up when the sun came out. Couldn't get a good pic because they were too high up, but here's one.
DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 55
Lots of neat pictures everyone! My pentas are about the only thing left blooming. Well, I did buy those pansies for Mom, but I haven't seen the butterflies on them. I still have a couple of salvia blooming (pink and white) and a couple of my Tampa Verbena are hanging on. I do have a gerbera daisy coming up; they seem to like this time of year.
Azaleas are about the first thing to bloom in mass quantities in my neighborhood and that usually happens around February. Florida has a lot of native flowers that bloom in November; the parks dept even had a story in the paper last month about how it was a good time to visit the preserves to see the flowers. Really it's only December and January where there's a scarcity of nectar. Then again, there are still lots of weeds blooming. I shouldn't just think about cultivated plants - butterflies don't discriminate!
I've never raised anything on a red passiflora; the only one I even know of happens to be growing on the fence between one of my favorite preserves and some person's house. I've never seen a cat on it. I check it just in case someone needs "rescued". I say it's worth a try, but don't be sad if they don't make it. I've never had great luck with the Zebra Longwings, but at the museum they seem to do well.
I personally don't put my passiflora in water, but we do at the museum. I just went out and picked some for the Frits and I just throw it in the cage. They eat it faster than it wilts. It's easier for me to pick it every day, but if I had to travel to get it I would probably put it in water to help it last longer. Oh, I also put leaves in the fridge. I've never tried passiflora, but pawpaw and other leaves stay pretty fresh that way.
Melanie
Snouts are so cute. I've never heard of a Brazil tree. Pretty
My red passion vine is a "Passiflora coccines." The seeds came from Swallowtail Garden Seeds in CA. My GF has been munching away on this red vine its entire life. The cat just pupated today and it's little chrysalis is hanging gaily from a forked stick I placed in its cage. There were more late eggs and small cats on the vine, but I left them there to fend for themselves. I was taking a chance with the Frit I brought in. I fear it will eclose and have to go out into freezing temps with no nectar to be found. I'm in the same dilemma as Mjsponies -- a panicked mom.
Melanie, I put my passi leaves in water. But I like the refrigerator idea. After all, lettuce and other salad leaves keep entraordinaly well.
P.S. Love all the photos. They keep me in springtime!
Martha
This message was edited Dec 19, 2008 4:41 PM
Mrs. Ed, if we get a hard freeze, a lot of things will stop blooming, but not everything. So far, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed as I type this which is darn difficult, so far, my abutilons and shrimp plants have never frozen and they bloom most heavily in the winter. There are also plants that only bloom in the middle of winter. Most of my neighbor's camelias are in full bloom right now. The buds on mine are still closed up tight! Also, annuals like snapdragons, pansies, and geraniums can only be grown here in the winter. Oddly, there is Carolina Jessamine blooming all over the neighborhood. I don't remember it blooming this early before.
The trees have also turned color. In fact, I don't remember when I last saw such pretty leaf colors in Houston. I wonder if it was the freak snow fall the other day that caused it. You know that snow that you sent down here!
Here's a slightly blurry pic of a skipper from this morning.
Looks like my milkweed have stopped blooming for now. Beside White Mistflower, I still have Lion's Ear and a couple of salvias blooming. If the freezes stop for a while (but it's not a mild winter this year), I might continue to have a few blooms. I should get some pansies soon.
I have pansies out and the Mex. marigold is blooming. A few oxalis have come up the last few days, but the temps are dropping to the 20s in a couple days.
Skipper resting on a Firebush.
Early this morning the White Peacock rested on fallen leaves.
Later stopped on the Golden Dewdrop for a while.
Then visited the Pentas.
GP, I think you had two White Peacocks as the first appears to be missing a chunk of wing while in the other photos the wing is whole.
I had another Polydamas come out today. It's a little late here and a little cool, so I hid him in the bougainvillea right in front of Mom's window. I've hid butterflies in there before and it seems like a good place to hide them. I've come out the next morning to find them still there so they must like it, too.
Melanie
sigh,,, it has been very warm here the past 3 days, but cold is coming back tomorrow night. 20's.
Pretty azalea elph,
Love the peacock. and Polydamus. and the cute snout.
mjsponies, I have seeds of the wild purple incarnata. the gulf frits love it. Will be glad to send you some. just d-mail me.
Elaine
GP, your White Peacock pics are lovely. Melanie, nothing is missing from GP's WP' wing. Look closely -- it's just in a shadow.
Melanie, great photo of your Polydamus. You should tuck that pic away to enter in next year's photo contest.
Martha
Martha, now I see it. Most of the time when I see White Peacocks they have chunks missing out of them. I guess those eyespots really work!
Melanie
Yes, it was a shadow falling across its' wing. I was watching this particular one and it is the same in all the pics.
GP has started a new thread here: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/934205/