Susan,

We have millions and millions....OK, that is a slight exaggeration, but not much.

I have a pile of overly ripe peaches and plums knocked off the trees by last week's wind storm and that rotting fruit pile is covered with butterflies and moths.

I have a lot of Question Marks, Mourning Cloaks, Black Swallowtails, Pipevine Swallowtails, Monarchs (and eggs on my milkweeds), tomato hornworms, Hackberry Emperors, Sulphurs and a lot of checkered ones of different types that I don't know the name of. Have had a very unusual moth that looks a lot like the Squash Vine Borer moth, but it is solid black. I don't know what it is. Oh, and I have clearwings, but then they are pretty much always here. I have seen Sphinx moths, but not Sphinx cats.

I planted about 75 parsley and dill plants for the swallowtails and they are gobbling them up. The tomato worms, of course, are decimating a few tomato plants, but they leaf out again pretty quickly. When we mow, we mow around the milkweeds, so the pasture is a sight---relatively short grass surrounding 'islands' of milkweed.

The bats are back too.

It is a great year for Mother Nature's critters.

Dawn

How much space do 75 parsley plants take up?

Where can I get some of those walking aka Egyptian onions? And GARLIC, I love GARLIC and don't want to miss the next planting time for it. When is it anyway and where should I get my starts or whatever?

Hank,

I have planted them as close as 12" apart, depending on the variety. They make a pretty edging plant for flower beds and other veggie beds. I even grow them underneath and between my tomato plants, some years, as a 'living mulch'. With their pretty green leaves, you can sneak them in anywhere and they look good....at least until the caterpillars devour them, but they bounce back pretty quickly from that.

Plant garlic in the fall. I'll post some sources later tonight or in the morning. I'm on my way out the door to the fire station.

Dawn

I've been told, although I cannot verify thru experience, that the Black Swallowtails prefer curly parsley. If you want to plant the flat leaf for yourself, plant the curly for the butterflies. I have 3 big uns, one pupating and 2 getting ready to, plus 10 babies eating Rue.

You can always plant Rue as well to feed the Black Swallowtails and just move the caterpillars from parsley to Rue. They should accept Rue just fine.

I will try to photograph my butterfly larvae and post them tomorrow. They are growing like lil' weeds! The Question Marks are so cute! They are spikey looking and the position they assume on a leaf is.....you guessed it....similar to a question mark shape! Altho this is not why they're called Question Marks. When the wings are folded they have a white "backward C" shape with a white dot below it, hence, a Question Mark. The lower wings blend in with dead leaves so they are hard to see when they land on the ground. But, when they open their wings, they are startlingly gorgeous orange and black (summer form). In their winter form (around September-November), they are predominantly orange.

I just wish those darned Red Admirals would lay some eggs now.

BTW - I found another sphinx cat on my VC yesterday - tiny little 1st instar. Horn is longer than the body! LOL! It is different than the first which has a red horn (possibly another Nessus). The second is probably a Eumorpha sphinx. Anyway, both are in the container happily chowing down on VC.

Susan

My favorite parsley for the butterflies is extra curled dwarf, because I can tuck it into little spots here and there underneath taller plants. I do grow a lot of the regular curled parsley, which the cats love, and also grow lots of the larger flat leaf variety for us.

I have not been home at much during the daylight hours since Thursday evening, so I don't even know what is happening in my garden these last few days. I hope to get out there in a few minutes and find out. There are so many moths and butterflies coming here for the fruit that it it unreal, and I have hardly been home to enjoy them.

We are having a bumper butterfly year, too, Dawn! I don't recall seeing this many since I started BF gardening about 5 years ago.

Keep you eye out for those long-tailed skippers now!

What I'd also love to see is a Great Purple Hairstreak. Host plant is, of all things, mistletoe. You'd also be more likely to see them than I. They are gorgeous!

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Great Purple Hairstreak

I have been watching for the long-tailed skippers, but haven't seen any yet.

I would love to see a Great Purple Hairstreak, but doubt I will. You would think that we would have tons of mistletoe in our wooded areas, but we have barely any at all, which I think is odd. In Fort Worth we had lots of mistletoe.

I really need to spend a whole day outside with a butterfly book and a notepad. I am seeing dozens and dozens of butterflies a day, and I don't know what 75% of them are.

Most of the time, I have such a heavy load of gardening chores, or a heavy fire dept. schedule, that I barely have time to look at the butterflies as they flutter by.

Dawn

There is a really great book for Oklahoma butterfly gardeners called "Butterflies of Kansas, Oklahoma, and North Texas". John Nelson is one of 3 authors of the book. I found mine at Borders in the local section, but I think you can order it from the University of Oklahoma Press website, too.

It doesn't have photos of the caterpillars, but it is a great guide book. Caterpillars of Eastern Forests by David Wagner, a noted lepidopterist, is a great one for the cats. I ordered a couple of my books from Abe Books online. They are used, but in good condition, and it's so much cheaper to order from them.

Susan

Hi Susan!

Thank you so much for the names of the books. I intend to order them. I really, really want to learn the names of all the lovely flutter-bys I see. I like Abe Books too. The less I spend on books, the more I have to spend on plants! Thanks again.

Dawn