How lovely! Thanks for sharing. There have been NO butterflies in my garden this year.

Hi gardenweed, the butterflies only showed up here a couple weeks ago, whereas the bumbles were here all summer. The butterflies like the agastache which is easy to start from seed. Oddly enough, the butterflies ignored the dwarf butterfly bush right next to the agastache.

Actually after googling black swallowtails, this might not be one because there are no 'tails ' at the base of the wings. I'll let you know when I have a positive Id.

I wonder if your butterfly is a red spotted purple...if you google rsp, it shows a few that really look like yours.

Beautiful !!! I just love seeing butterflies in the garden! I had heard about the lo and behold butterfly bushes somehow not being as attractive to them ! I have miss ruby butterfly bush and it is smaller ( still a large shrub but not 8-10 ft and wild ) and it attracts a lot as well .

rginnie I think you are right as to the Id of the butterfly... Not sure why they named it red spotted purple when it's blue spotted black, lol.