Butterfly Gardening Blog

Here are a couple pictures of the pond area in the daytime – the plants are just starting to really grow now!

Last year I started an herb garden. What’s growing so far in it this year is sage, terragon, fennel, lavender, rosemary, thyme, lemon balm, pepperment, spearament, borage, savory, oregano and chives. I still have several basils, some chamomile, anise and a few others to put out still.

Quick post – saw a Spicebush Swallowtail and a duskywing today, both puddling on some new topsoil we bought.

I just updated the Pipevine page, I plan to go through the site page by page and update everything this summer.

OT – Anyone reading this using this version of WP? It’s driving me nuts – I can’t get it to leave a space between the paragraphs no matter what I do!

I found the first set of Monarch eggs in my garden this year today. They had to be laid sometime later this afternoon, because earlier I checked and didn’t see any yet.

I’ve now had three species of butterflies lay eggs this year already. Some Black Swallowtails a while back, duskywings on Sunday and now today, Monarchs.

The eggs are on a few different species of milkweed – swamp, common, purple, whorled and one other one that I need to look up which milkweed it is again. I forgot to check the butterfly weed (A. tuberosa) – just realized that, I’ll check later.

And I haven’t forgotten to get some pictures on here, but just haven’t had time yet!

– Update – I checked – yes, eggs were laid on the Butterfly Weed (A. tuberosa) also! And later I saw a Tiger Swallowtail flying around the garden, first I’ve seen in our yard this year.

Ok, not the type of eggs you are probably thinking of for Easter!

I found more butterfly eggs on Easter morning – some duskywing eggs on my baptisia plant. Ok, technically, duskwings are skippers, not butterflies, but they’re close enough!

I saw her actually laying the eggs when we were getting ready to leave for my Mom’s on Easter. I saw others on the plant had turned orange already, so likely some eggs had been there for a while already. This is either the first or second year that I’ve had duskywings eggs before. For some reason my mind is blank about if I had them lay eggs here before. I have raised some before though, that I got from someplace else.

It’s pretty hot here already, and the garden is starting to grow – and I’ve already seen a few butterflies.

Of course for those of you who live further south, I imagine you’ve been seeing butterflies for quite a while now. But I just saw my first one last Wednesday. Three actually – a swallowtail that I couldn’t identify at Lowe’s, a Monarch flying across the road on the way home, and a Swallowtail later at home! That’s a lot for this area this time of year!

I’ve even had some Black Swallowtail eggs already! I found them last week, and three have hatched already. I think this is the earliest I’ve ever had them, but I didn’t keep track that well before.

I’ve had two that overwintered here come out of their chrysalis too! A Black Swallowtail (a male) yesterday and a Spicebush Swallowtail today!

This year I actually have a digital camera too! Unfortunately it doesn’t work with either of my computers though (linux and NT), so I still won’t be able to post pictures in a reasonable amount of time. The only computer we have that works with it, is one of my husbands and it doesn’t work real well, CD’s made from it won’t run on this computer, etc. to get pictures on here to post I have to burn them on a CD on one computer, then make a copy on another computer, then use the CD on this computer. Takes 1-2 hours each time, and two blank CD’s. So I still won’t be able to post a lot of pictures until I can afford to buy a new computer. Also, the zoom and macro ability isn’t too good on it either. I still can’t get really good close ups of butterfly eggs or small caterpillars, or a butterfly from a distance.

So if anyone is reading this and feeling rather charitable, you could buy some of my cafepress items, or a plant through an affiliate link so I could make some more money! 😉

I will try to post some pictures as I can though!

This Spicebush Swallowtail emerged from its chrysalis – but I only had a chance to get one quick picture of it before it flew away!

This first picture is of Pussy Toes (Antennaria sp.) – don’t laugh at the name! They have small, white flowers which I haven’t seen any butterflies be interested in because of its nectar, but – it is of course a host plant for the American Lady (Vanessa virginiensis). I’ve had them lay eggs in it too!

The next pictures are of Senecio obovatus flowers. It is a host plant for the Northern Metalmark. I’ve since heard that reports of this butterfly in Missouri were probably really the Swamp Metalmark. I still grow the plant anyway though – the little yellow flowers are so pretty in the spring!

In this picture you can see little bugs, dark ones and light ones, on the middle part of the flowers. I don’t know what they were, but they didn’t seem to be hurting the plant:

Here is the patch of Senecio I have from a little distance, taken a few days later.

This is a picture of the pond/rock garden of my husbands at night: