EXTRAORDINARY. I am insanely jealous. What is that exquisite swallowtail called?

A zebra kite swallowtail. Found in southeast through central US. Host plant is the paw paw tree. I will actually release 10-20 this year!

Beautiful! Your gardens are absolutely lovely. I love the rocks, pathways, and from what I can see of your water garden, gorgeous! It looks like you have a stream that flows to the pond?

Beautiful butterfly friends you have visiting too.

Thanks :)

Beautiful - your butterfly weed is ahead of mine, I still just have buds. How many native host plants do you have?

Native/other host plants:

(monarchs) milkweed:A currasavica, A Syriaca, A Humistrada, A Incarnata

Black swallowtails-parslay, rue, fennell
Giant swallowtails-citrus, herculese club,
Tiger swallowtails-tuilp poplar, chokecherry
Frittilaties-passionflower
Red Admirals-false nettle
Zebra swallowtails-paw paw
Pipevine swallowtails: dutchmans pipevine
other hosts:carolina aster, blueberry.

I'm sure I have more, but these come to mind.

Absolutely stunning!!! I am on the second year of my project and have gotton no way near as far as you have. It is very hard work!!!

What else are you wanting to attract to your wildlife garden, or should I say what else have you been able to attract.

How large is your land? Mine is a little over 3/4 acre. It is hard planning out where to put things etc. I have 4 big dogs that have access to my big fenced in yard via dog door.

Thanks for the description of host plants on what attracts certain butterflies too :)

This year for me is a very small pond with a little waterfall and hummingbird plants. Also putting in a shade garden since I do not have too much sun in the front. Also, have a front porch wrap around deck I am sanding and re-staining. I am limbing up a tree in the front yard this winter to bring in more sun.

Next year, replacing some other trees and putting in evergreens and dogwood, maybe a few other berry producing trees, want some spicebush too. Also working on butterflies and attracting woodies.

Thanks again for the nice pictures. :)

MIne has been a three year project, the truth be told, thousand of dollars I never could have imagined, some in expensive mistakes, some just because there was more than I imagined. But it is all coming to completion. I have a cast sluminum fence, very subtle and blends with nature so i have no critter problems. The amount of birds, insects, and butterflies is amazing. My dutchmans pipevine plants are really growing in their third year, and I have close to 300 caterpillars...the most ever of those. The amount of birds is increasing, cardinals, thrashers, doves, bluebirds, bluejays, green herons, titmouse, finches, the list goes on and on. The pond is loaded with minnows,frogs of all types, and some small sunfish have appeared. We caught the minnows from a natural pond, but the sunfish are a mystery, probably birds eggs. We use no pesticieds of any kind, and there are no pest problems, the garden is truly a balanced place. It will never be "finished", but the structure and body is now complete. Thanks for the kind words.

msrpaul-
Beautiful gardens, amazing butterfly and flower photos! Makes me want to pull up a lawn chair and sit in your garden with a cool glass of ice tea and watch those pretty butterflies! Wow!

BooBooBearBecky

I absolutely love your garden! It is wonderful!
Kay

Lovely garden. I've been calling that black/white butterfly a zebra, didn't realize how close my guess was.

Thanks for the pictures

Organic kitten-meow!

msmary-there are actually 2 butterflies with the zebra monicker. THis is the zebra kite swallowtail. There is a also the zebra longwing, which lives in the deep south :)