Beautiful! You take great pictures!

Very nice photos, how lucky for you to have these beauties.

You are "butterfly blessed", MissSherry! Congrats on all the species. It's cold here--no lep activity today.

Sandy

Sherry, really nice pictures. Especially the first.

Jeff

You captured the "pearl crescent" really well on that second picture. It took me a while to figure out why it was called pearl crescent...duh...

Beautiful photos.

-Elisabeth

Stunning! esp. like the PVS shot.

My group of coneflowers has hardly grown since emerging.
A nice healthy green color, but all stuck at 3-4" tall!?

I am going to have TONS of Joe-Pye this year, tho.

I checked my pearl crescent's picture against the one in my field guide, and from her undersides, she's definitely a female - she was back on the same coneflower this morning. I sure wish I knew what member of the aster family - HUGE family! - they use around here.

Ron, I pulled up a coneflower the other day that I got at Walmart. I've had it for two or three years, and every year it makes nice new growth in spring, but the flowers are total duds. All I get is a center, with one or two deformed, colorless petals, and the entire flower then dies quickly. I also pulled up another one I got from Walmart that had flowers on top of flowers, and the flowers had those fluffy petals with no centers that butterflies don't like.
The coneflower in the first two pictures is one I got from Pine Ridge Gardens. Its leaves are narrower than regular E. purpurea leaves, so I e-mailed Mary Ann at PRG, and she said as far as she knew it was E. purpurea, it was just a little different. I'll say! This one does wonderfully for me, and the butterflies love it. She said she got the seeds from someone in Louisiana who found it growing roadside. The fact that its from our part of the country may be the reason it thrives here, and the others don't - the others probably originate in the midwest. If you want me to send you some seeds, I'm going to let several of the flowers go to seed and start some myself. PRG is sold out of it.
I've also got a giant "coneflower" that I got from Bustani's - it's actually a black-eyed susan, since the scientific name is Rudbeckia maxima. Mine has grown to be be about ?6' - 6 1/2' tall! It's got green blooms on it - the one in the center is showing yellow petals. I'll stand on a ladder and take a picture of it and post it when the blooms are ready. If you want seeds let me know.

The pearl crescent would be smart to lay her eggs on the giant coneflower - the leaves are huge, with plenty of food for a lot of caterpillars.
Sherry

The past couple of years I have planted a variety of asters to see if I could get more of the local crescent butterflies to spend more time here. I was so impressed with how beautiful some of those little guys are. I sometimes see one that may or may not be a crescent but it is sooo tiny and never seems to stop moving for more than a half-second or so. It rotates on the flower head and dips in for a drink while still on the move. And the orange is so bright it could probably win a beauty contest if it stopped long enough for someone to get a good look at it. Murray

Murray,

You described the behavior of the Pearl Crescent. They love to circle the flowers, nectaring on all sides. And they are tiny. The Silvery Checkerspot, which is sometimes confused with the Pearl Crescent, can be bigger. Both butterflies are beautiful.

MissSherry,

YES, YES, YES. I would be soo grateful for some of those seeds, love that story regarding the source.
The wild stock is most desireable, I think.

I do have one giant black-eyed susan. It did beautifully last year, but it too is struggling this year. I need to bring it some water. I think the entire Gulf Coast and beyond is experiencing this damn drought.
I got the giant 4-5 yrs. ago from a local botanist/forestry agent. If it can manage some seed this year, we can swap.
Thank you for your kind offer.

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What a little beauty, Ron!
I just got back in from watering my garden. If I do a rain dance, will it rain? I'd sure do one!
This duskywing, I think a male Horace's duskywing, was nectaring in an odd fashion on some Salvia guaranitica today -
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I'll let you know when it looks like the seed is ready.
Sherry

MissSherry - what is the Salvia? Looks like a guaranitica species or cultivar. Pretty blue blooms!

I don't know why, but the butterflies just snub their noses at the E. purpurea here, and the Black Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia).

The one thing I discovered about the E. purpurea, is that is prefers to be watered regularly. It will survive without, but looks much, much better with good watering routine.

The E. pallida is just the opposite. I love the drooping petals on it.

Susan

You're all making me want to move down south where there's more butterflies...

We've had two inches of rain in the last 24 hours and it's been a good soaking rain. everything's really starting to grow!

be sure to tell the butterflies we're ready for company in Minnesota! Tony

Okay, Tony, I'll trade you some butterflies for some rain! :) How about some red-spotted purples? They've been really plentiful this year. Here's a big one I released today -
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Susan, the salvia is just the species form of Salvia guaranitica. I had some 'Black and Blue' but it wasn't as floriferous as the species for me, so when 'Black and Blue' began to decline, I just pulled it up. The species spreads by root runners, so I dug up several sprouts, potted them up, babied them in a container, and then planted them in the two front beds in my garden, where I took the picture. S. guaranitica is real popular with both butterflies and hummingbirds, so I love it! Also, it's easy to grow, it always comes back in the spring, (actually, it has leaves near the base of the plant all winter) and the blue color blends well with every other flower color - great plant!
Sherry

It's funny, Sherry, before we got all our rain, we had lots of BFs. Since the rain has started, haven't seen many, even when it's not raining. I saw a female Monarch yesterday--didn't find any eggs, and I saw a Mourning Cloak today. While driving to the Backyard Habitat Tour, I saw a male Diana Fritillary flying across the road--the bright orange band on the hindwing caught my eye. I got some plants today, got some violets from Mary Ann (Pine Ridge) that are supposed to be the Diana's host plant; a Hercules Club Tree (also from MA); and an Amorpha fruiticosa from Marilyn (Wild Things Nursery). Marilyn had a Common Wood Nymph caterpillar on a clump of grass that she had discovered out in her prairie patch. I also got some plants from Missouri Wild Flowers. All in all, it was a good day! Just hoping the butterflies come back soon.

I don't think that we have the Pearl Crescent out here but we obviously have some variety. It sure looks a lot like the one in the picture.

I had a good day too and I wish the butterflies would come back soon as well. I went to a native plant nursery that was new to me and I got a shrub willow for the tigers and the sphinx moths here and some APL host plants that i have been wanting for a long time. I got some Pearly Everlasting and some mugwort and native aster chilensis for the crescents. Now the only plant left is the false nettle. Then, I will be set for awhile. I also got some giant zinnias. Oh, and some monkey flowers for the buckeyes. Yesterday, I got a few more lantanas. They are new varieties for me so I am not sure how they will work. So it was a good day and I can't wait to get started planting them. Murray

Sandy, I've noticed that butterflies don't come out right after a lot of rain, it takes a day or so. Obviously, that's not been a factor here. :(
That's fabulous that you saw the male diana! I remember your picture of the female that visited your garden - what an amazing shade of baby blue! I'm so glad to hear you got violets that they like - is there a particular variety? We have two varieties that grow here, but only the common violets are used by variegated frits.
Murray, you've really got a lot of new plants coming! Looking at my field guide, your crescents could be either the field crescent or the mylitta crescent, most likely the latter. Unless of course yours are checkerspots - there are many western checkerspots. It's good that you're getting host plants as well as nectar plants!
Sherry

Sherry, we don't get enough time between rains for the BFs to make an appearance! I'm not for sure on the violets--they have a small leaf, and are different than any I've ever grown before. But they should do well here, if they make it next door in Arkansas! I'll check and see if there is a name on them. I'm going out to plant before the T Storms hit again.

Sherry,

The violet is Walter's violet, which is apparently not found in Oklahoma--just all around here. But, it's a very pretty plant. Now, I just need to get some of the Bird's Foot violets, which I don't have, but are native.

Sandy, I looked up Walter's violet, and it is a VERY pretty little plant. Of course, I like violets. It looks like a smaller version of common violets, but the violets are more blue than than purple, like common violets.
Keep us updated on how they do, and if you ever get dianas - well, you know I'd want to hear every detail about 'em!
Sherry

Walter's violet!
That's it... I have some.
I did a bit more research and...tho I have not seen them in bloom, the leaves are so distinct/unusual...has to be it
(i think, maybe, :-)
I found two small and seperate patchs about 2-3 months ago on a cooler, shady, north facing slope (indian pink also) and have been wondering ever since...
Thanks! YEA

I checked out today and it appears you are right and I am not sure which ones I am seeing. Some of the local checkerspots are very similar to the Field and Mylitta Crescents. Maybe I can get a pic this season and see if perhaps I have seen both crescents and checkerspots. It is amazing how beautiful they all are.

Too bad we don't have the RSPs and Dianas. I remember them when i lived back east. Murray

There's a pale, very small sulphur that flies here every year. I usually just ignore them, thinking they're probably a white form female little yellow, but I decided to take a picture of one and check it out. Well, this one is definitely not a little yellow. Based on the very good pictures in my Florida Butterfly Gardening book, I'm about 99% sure that the one in this picture is a summer form female barred yellow or fairy yellow/Eurema daira - this butterfly has a winter form that is darker. The barred yellow or fairy yellow is a butterfly of Florida and the eastern Gulf Coast -
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I also saw, for the first time in years, a hummingbird clearwing! It flew off before I could get a picture, but I was glad to finally see one again. I think the last time I saw one was before the hurricane, if so, then this is another lep to return - YAY!
Sherry