Tonight I write from Pharr, Texas, and this time tomorrow I will be deep inside Mexico. We are headed back to Las Cuevas, a tiny village north of Patzcuaro in the state of Michoacan. It's the same place where we spent the winter. I saw seven or eight species of butterflies over the winter and I am hoping for many more during the summer.

It was hard leaving the garden in Alabama just at the end of June. The milkweed was blooming, grapes were starting to turn purple, lantana was cascading and buddleia flowers were just starting to open.

I had not seen many butterflies during the spring, but the very first Gulf Fritillary had visited the garden the weekend before I left. I saw only three Monarchs, and none left me any eggs, so the milkweed was quite lush. Aphids attacked the fennel, but left the milkweed alone, and lady beetles took care of the aphids on the fennel. I was sad that no BSTs took advantage of the rank growth of fennel and parsley, but maybe they'll come while I am away.

I believed the drought in the Southeast was to blame for the lack of butterflies in my garden until I saw Suzanne's garden. I've never seen so many butterflies in one place in my life, except maybe for the enclosed butterfly house at Callaway Gardens.

Driving through Texas today, I was rewarded by the sight of many butterflies along the highways. I couldn't identify them, but I think some were Giant Swallowtails and some were big, black swallowtails -- maybe BSTs, maybe PVSs, maybe Spicebushes, maybe Tigers. Whatever they were, I was very happy to see them. We stopped for lunch at a truckstop restaurant outside victoria, and a little planter in front was full of seedling A. curassavica. Texas, clearly, is butterfly country.

Now, on to Mexico and la Tierra de la Mariposas.

geni