Great find! And great picture. What is a weed garden? I have a lot of wild violets flowering in the lawn. Since the caterpillars enjoyed them last year, I googled if they are native. The majority of results were about controlling this weed. I thought this was weird. As far as "weeds" go Ithink they are really cute.

I have violets growing in my 'weed' garden, also at the base of other plants in the garden, because they're a host plant for fritillaries. Our variegated frits use them sometimes (they prefer Passiflora incarnata) but further north other frits use them. I also have Desmodium (host for LTSs), cudweed, (American ladies) mock bishop's weed (black swallowtails), and others.

Thanks for the compliments on the picture!

Sherry

That is a fantastic pic! What zone are you in? I am going to have to wait a few more months for butterflies but I am planting for them now. Iris, I really like the violet "weeds" too. I have even made tea and jelly out of the flowers. Some of my favorite plants are weeds. :)

Sherry, fantastic photo, magazine quality! And such a tiny little guy ... you must be using a large sensor camera if you change lens but whatever it is, you have mastered it beautifully. My old camera finally bit the dust and I'm really missing it.

Please keep the photos and commentary coming as we all learn so much from you and the other contributors on this forum.

Are you expecting this latest cold front to reach your area? 31 degrees expected here tonight!

Mary

Mary, I looked up the weather forecast, and it's supposed to rain late this afternoon, then turn colder and go into the 40's at night for a few days. By Wednesday morning, it's supposed to be 34 degrees!! It's been in the 80's every day and not even very cool at night recently (I've been working in the heat outside, I came in, turned the table fan on and pointed it at the computer and sat down.) so this will be QUITE a change. I've got some pear trees I was going to plant, now I think I'll wait.

I saw a red admiral flitting in and around false nettles while I was out, so I'll probably be getting caterpillars soon. I haven't found any pipevine swallowtail eggs yet, though.

My camera is just a Nikon CoolPix, not fancy or expensive, but it usually does the job. I'll certainly continue to post commentary and pictures.

Thanks, Elaine! I'm in zone 8B - I live in the country between Hattiesburg and Gulfport, Mississippi. We've had a mild winter, but I guess we'll be having winter this Wednesday morning! By the way, Elaine, the variegated frits only use common violets with the purple flowers. We have another common, white-flowered violet here, V. primufolia, that they never use. Now that I'm thinking about violets, I think I'll put some cow manure around the ones in my garden - they've been small in recent years, and I know that they can grow much bigger.

Sherry