That's great, Dianne!
I hope you're talking about ruta graveolens, which is used by BOTH giant swallowtails and black swallowtails. I planted my 2 new plants yesterday - 10 plants is a lot! Rue makes a small bush that doesn't live long - I don't think any of mine have lived more than 3 years, so I plan on taking cuttings as soon as these two plants get some size on them and saving their seeds.
Here's a picture of two cats I found on my rue a few years ago - the BST is on the left, the GST is on the right.
{{gwi:452407}}
MissSherry

MissSherry - they don't usually live long, but I still have one that's hung around for about 7 years now. The other one died when it was about 5 years ago. Seems like 3 years is awfully short, but maybe it is because of your warmer zone that they die out quicker. They are hardy to about zone 4 or 5 I think.

I now have 6 Rue plants. One of my seedlings I grew made it last year, but it was a bad summer for everything. I think had I grown them from seed this year, I would have had better luck.

My little silybum mariana seedlings are doing GREAT! The first true leaves showed the white veining, which is so cool because a lot of plants don't show their adult coloration until they are bigger. I need to transplant a couple to another site because they are going to need the room to grow.

My St. Benedict's thistle is growing fast, too. It has some red cast to the leaves so is very pretty, too.

The milkweed seedlings are still pretty small. I need to prick them out and put them in pots. I have done that with 3 species so far, but I have several more to go. The ones in pots are now growing much faster.

My zizia seedlings need to be potted up, too, as well as my enceloides seedlings.

I still can't figure out the gnaphalium seedlings which are very purple - don't know if that's the color they should be, or if they are lacking some mineral or something.

I picked up more fennel, including a bronze, at the plant swap, along with a coreopsis, and several ground cover sedums.

I saw an orange sulphur for the first time. Do they use the white clover as a host, or which sulphur is it that does? I've been protecting my patches of clover in case their are cats, and many of the leaves look eaten, but darned if I can find any cats on it.

I am finding spring moth cats on the crabapple, but keep checking to see if RSPs might use it. Do Eastern Tigers use it, too?

I'm gonna have to move the eastern mayhaw (crataegus) because it is getting rust spots on it. I should have known better than to plant it close to the cedar and the crabapple. Will rust prevent the butterflies from using these?

I cannot believe I have blooms on my Aristolochia clematitis. They are so tiny, but I saw a fly hovering by them the other day, so I hope they are pollinated now and I can use the seed. I need to research this.

My hamelia patens is finally starting to show growth! Hurrah! I thought I might have lost it in the cold weather we had.

Picked up another lantana at HD - 'Irene', which has the tri-color blooms on it. Has anyone planted this one and had successful nectaring on it?

It's going to be rainy for 3 days here again! Shish! I am ready for sunny skies and butterflies. Hey, that rhymes! We are to get about 2 1/2". This is the most rain I have ever seen in Oklahoma in spring. The ground is so saturated, that it makes it difficult to plant anything in the ground right now.

I have some beautiful photos to show, but my Sandisk makes my computer go whacky every time I plug it in. I am going to have to figure out another way to upload images to the net. I have a USB for my Sony, but don't you need the program to do it? Gotta check out the Sony site again.

Susan

The sad thing is rue is the only herb I cant find down here no stores sell it I have to get it from shady oak farms.Beautiful pic.

Susan, my book says that orange sulphurs use clover. I've never seen one, or if I have, I thought it was a sleepy orange. I've never found a tiger cat on my crabapples, but they certainly might use it - they're reported to sometimes use malus. I've only found RSPs on mine. Speaking of rust, this is the first year I've NOT found rust on my crabapples, so I'm thinking the RSPS (and maybe the tiger swallowtails) are more likely to lay eggs on the perfect leaves they've got this year. I've never tried 'Irene' lantana - my 'Sonset' gets so huge, I've never had a reason to buy any more. I'm glad you're getting all the rain! It's got to help the creeks and rivers, also the underground water sources - I bet it'll be hot and dry enough this summer!
I had to order my rue from Shady Oak Butterfly Farms, too, Angie - I can't find it locally.
MissSherry

Miss Sherry it is graveolens. A friend gave me some rue plants last year but they just are not doing too good. This is the first time I have seen any plants ever for sale. I planted seeds earlier but they did not come up. I planted some more Saturday. Who knows if they will come up. I don't have too much luck with seeds.

The friend giving me my plants last year has them seed like crazy. Maybe that will be the case with the ones I bought. If not and these die on me I will just mark rue off as one of those plants that just does not like my soil and not worry about it.

Diane, one important thing to remember about Rue is that it does not like Full Sun. It likes morning sun, or filtered sun, and likes very good drainage. I usually have better luck planting mine in pots under my mulberry tree, and only watering when they are dry. So, that may be why they do not like your soil. Try some that way, and see if it helps. :) Mine usually overwinter in the pots under the tree.

Yes, I should have mentioned the shade thing, Dianne. This year I planted mine in places that only get a few hours of sunshine each day - maybe they'll live longer!
MissSherry

I have my rue in full sun should I move it to part sun it has done good so far but its only been 1 week.

If it's only been in the ground for a week, its roots couldn't have spread much at all, Angie. I'd carefully move it to a mostly shady spot, especially if I were in hot Texas!
MissSherry

I have not planted mine yet but I do have an area I can plant them where they will get sun in the morning and shade in the afternoon. I appreciate the advise. I think I will probably try some in pots too.

Oh, yes, definitely move them to partial shade! The leaves will burn and turn brown otherwise. They should do fine in pots, too. They have very hardy roots, so they don't need to be in the ground to winter over in your area.

Rue is the genus and graveolens is the species name. There are some cultivars out there, but I've not seen any of them here locally. Maybe Linda has. 'Jackman's Blue' is smaller than the species and is more popular in Europe. 'Blue Beauty' is small, to 18 in (45.7 cm) tall, with powdery blue foliage. 'Variegata' has white splashes on the leaves and has been used in floral arrangements.

Something I discovered - a bit of trivia about Rue - is that it was the model for the design on the Ace of Clubs playing card.

Susan

Thx im so glad I saw this post saved my rue and it wasnt easy to find.I put mine in pots in morning sun and shade in afternoon.My butterflys thank you .

Does this same advice go for us northerners? I bought some rue seeds and planted them and intend to plant them out sometime when they get bigger (they seem to be slower growers). Should I also give mine some shade or do you think it would be cool enough up here that they could take full sun? Would either be okay? I know I have partially shady places where I could plant it but don't know if up here it wouldn't be enough sun then.
Cathy

It might do better in sun in your location, Cathy. You can try one in shade and one in sun and see what the difference is between the two. Too much sun will definitely show in the leaf coloring (they get paler and crispy). You could just set a pot in part shade and one in full sun before you plant them out to experiment.

I pinched my Rue back today because a couple of them were growing in linear fashion, with little lateral growth. I also pinched back my Joe Pye Weed (which is already about 3' tall) and my Verbena bonariensis - wanted to see if it would branch out instead of having a tall, gangly plant.

I can't believe how fast the hops are growing. The one I have in the back yard, I put a tomato cage by the fence to give it something to wind around until it reaches the fence. That was yesterday. Today, I went outside, and it had twined around about 4 times and grown upward another couple of inches! Never seen a plant grow like that.

The liatris tubers I planted Saturday are already up! Geez, things are growing fast. Well, except for the false nettle and the passion vine, which aren't up yet. I hope my PV made it thru this atrocious winter we had.

The Aristolochia clematitis is going gangbusters, and coming up 3' away from the main plant in all directions, and bloomed for the first time ever. I have tiny little seed pods now.

I planted a spigelia this spring that I got from MON, and from everything I read, it is supposed to take several years to get established and bloom. Well, I have blooms on it! Praise to the God of Chicken Manure!

Rue is just a beautiful plant to me anyway. If I didn't grow it for the BSTs and GSTs, I'd grow it anyway because it's just so pretty!

Oh, Cathy, I meant to ask you if you had any reaction to contact with the foliage. I know you were concerned about that.

Susan

Susan, When I bought my Rue seeds, I didn't know that it was a short-lived plant, but I think I'd have bought them anyway because I want to try to attract the Giant Swallowtail here. I'll try what you suggested, putting one pot in the two different locations and see which does better.

You mentioned planting liatris tubers. Wow, that was really fast for them to come up! I planted some Blazing Star Liatris in the garden that I had started from seed. Would yours be the same kind?

I just saw awhile ago that one of my containers of Rue blew down on the floor last night when we had a storm blow through here, so now I have yet another mess to clean up. Oh, since the plants are just tiny yet, I didn't really have any contact with them yet. I'll let you know if I do once they get larger. It really wouldn't surprise me if I do have some kind of reaction from that plant and the Gas Plant (I don't have that plant yet though) because I'm allergic to Colorado Blue Spruce and many other trees and weeds. I found that out when a doctor did an allergy test on me. Of all things, I'm allergic to grass and I used to love to lay down in the grass when I was a kid. My grandfather used to have corn planted and I'd get hitching walking through the cornfield. Oh, and I get itchy after handling milkweed. Maybe this means that I should avoid these plants, but I don't. Now that I'm into butterflies and raised Monarchs last year, I'm a milkweed nut, the more the better.

The only plants that I've gotten to plant in the garden so far are ones that I used to replace the ones I tore out. I put the liatris where I had the Black-eyed Susans, and blanket flowers went in where I took out the daisies. My dad is rototilling for me, but he couldn't wait for me to spray the grass to kill it, so it's been hard for him to run the tiller through the lawn. I can see that it's going to take him a few times of going through it until it's decent enough to plant plants in. In the meantime I'm planting seeds in my small flower beds, like zinnias, scarlet runner beans, hyacinth bean vine, dill, fennel, blue flax linum...I think that's it. I still have to put up some kind of trellises for the plants that will vine. I'll probably still be planting things a month from now. I love to see the plants grow and see and smell all of the pretty flowers. I'm so excited about this year! :)

Oh yeah, that's what I was going to say, that I think Rue is so pretty too and would probably plant it even if I'd know that I'm allergic to it. After all, it's not like I'll be out there rolling around in the stuff. Ha.

Cathy

Cathy, I had a similar experience tues morning. I have a very small greenhouse-type enclosure that blew over during the night with the gusty winds. So in the morning, I had to transplant the little seedlings that were in there. Thankfully, they were just a tray of parsley and onions which I was going to put in the ground anyways.

My zinnias, tomatoes, and heliotrope cuttings were safely in the house.

I'm growing Rue for the second year. I too am hoping for GST.
Not likely, but who knows?

Do be careful about touching it, though. Last year I got a few blisters on my finger that I couldn't figure out. Then I remembered I had handled Rue the day before. It wasn't painful or anything, just a few small bubbles that went away quickly.

I'm still not sure if it was the Rue, but I usually wear gloves in the garden anyways.. due to that fact that i work in a restaurant and need to keep the hands somewhat respectable....so I plan to be a little more careful this year.

It's so nice that your Dad helps you out with your garden prep!

Mine just finished covering our 6X8 hoophouse for me with greenhouse plastic so my plants have a nice home! Now they don't have to live in the shaky mini greenhouse that blew over!

The liatris tubers I planted are liatris spicata. These are the ones you most commonly find in packages at Wal-mart, Home Depot, or Lowe's. They are fairly short-lived, too. I think mine hung around a couple of years and burned out. However, you can get a bag of 25 tubers for about $3-5, so they're not real expensive.

I just didn't want to grow from seed, because they take about 4 years to reach blooming size. I would like to have some different species (there are several), but like I said, these are the most common ones you'll find on the market.

Susan