It might just be me but it is one of my favorite scents in the herb garden. Lemon basil mint and bronze fennel oh my

Tx for the input. I'm not picky. I imagine I'll like it, but you never know lol I read it's hard to eradicate once it's planted.

I like the aroma of bronze fennel....and of most all herbs, in fact.

I don't think bronze fennel is hard to eradicate at all, thanks to our weather. In 2015, 78" of rainfall eradicated it. The only ones that reseeded were growing in a container, not in the ground. In 2011, 90 days of 100+ degree temperatures and no rain also eradicated it. That year we got so hot so early that it didn't bloom and set seed, so I had to start over with more seed the following year. Otherwise, it reseeds from year to year, here and there, but not heavily in my clay soil like chamomile and lemon balm do. It doesn't even reseed as well as Florence fennel does.

Okay, then. Good to know. I was wondering if it would tolerate the new location. I think it'll be perfect. Yay!

I got my start 2015 from Dawn and the caterpillar try to take it out but it keeps coming back.

That's the fun part! I'm thinking 2 plants. My yard is pretty big.

Bon, I was thinking a little while ago that what I should have said is that it might be impossible to eradicate it in normal areas, but thanks to our abnormal OK weather, it just doesn't get to run wild here.

Kim, I always try to let all my dill, fennel, bronze fennel and parsley reseed and run wild around the edges of the gardens because the swallowtail cats need them to survive. So, in that oddest of gardening feelings....these are plants that I'm happy to see devoured as long as the cats devouring them are swallowtail cats. I try to grow tons of plants to feed tons of butterflies and moths, but the swallowtails happen to by my favorites. I grow passionflower for the Gulf Frit cats that need it too. I feel like anything we can do to help the butterflies and moths survive is good. Well, not all moths--I could care less about all the moths whose larva damage standard garden plants except for hornworms, but I hardly ever see those, probably because of all my four o'clocks. I do like the hummingbird moths we get from the hornworms, and we have not only the tobacco hornworms and tomato hornworms here but also the hornworms that feed on cherry trees and a couple of other kinds that feed on Virginia creeper and grape vines.

Dawn

Mine are the swallowtail cats. Last year I told them it was dang rude that I fed them 2 years in a row and they couldn't even show me their butterfly one time really. About a week later I saw one. I know it was the same cat I was talking to lol.

Kim, That is too funny! Last year was not a good swallowtail year---not compared to how many I see in other years. I blamed the flooding rains of 2015 and the first half of 2016 for the butterfly shortage, fairly or not. I've already seen several male swallowtails this spring. I guess they're all out looking for the females. I haven't seen any females yet, but it is still early.

Dawn

My Swallowtail cats always eat DH's parsley, which makes him grumpy. Last year they were partial to parsley, and the chickens wanted nothing to do with them. Do you suppose they taste bad to chickens?

I've never heard that the swallowtail cats taste bad to chickens or other birds, unlike the cats of monarchs, so I'd just be guessing if I tried to answer. I know my chickens eat the swallowtail butterflies if they can catch them. I hope the chickens never make it into the garden to eat the swallowtail caterpillars. With the monarchs, it is some chemicals in the milkweed that make them taste bad and protect them from predation. I don't know of any similar chemical in the carrot family plants that swallowtails eat, but maybe there is something. Wild birds will come into the garden and eat the swallowtail cats, so......I'm just betting your chickens are spoiled and prefer kale to caterpillars.

My Sophie chases and occasionally eats butterflies. I tried to teach her just to eat the bad ones but she didnt get it.

Alexis, There are different varieties of passionflower vines, but most of them easily climb 6-10' tall and, if they have something like a fence to grow sideways along, they can spread out a total width of 20-30'. They are very vigorous growers, which is a good thing because then when the gulf frit cats devour them down to the ground, they do not remain unsightly long because they regrow so quickly. If you want to grow one for the butterflies, be sure to get the right kind. They don't like some passionflower vines and I believe there is one kind that is even poisonous to them.

There are tons of butterflies out here now---so many that I can see them fluttering by the windows even when I am indoors. I saw a male Eastern Black Swallowtail fly by this morning. We have lots of males, but the females are slow to show up so far.....kinda like squash plants some years when there's a ton of male blooms before the female flowers finally appear. I think it is going to be a great butterfly year here and I'm excited about that.

Dawn

Well, looky here! I'm so excited! I heard some rustling on my porch and assumed it was another skink, but it was way better! This gorgeous gal apparently just woke up, and was trying to crawl up something to dry those wings out! (Can you tell male from female somehow?) Anyway, thought I'd share! -Alexis

I'm not a butterfly expert, but I believe that is a Giant Swallowtail. Unfortunately, both the male and the female Giant Swallowtails look almost identical and are hard to tell apart. If you have a group of them together, then the ones with the longer wings are more likely to be the females. When I don't see them in a group, I can't tell which is which. Sorry. Maybe someone else here is better at butterflies than I am.

I saw one yesterday....and I'm not sure either.

I love these! I planted a whole buncha parsley, too. I hope to get some this year. They can eat my plants. <3

Beautiful. I planted 65' row of dill. I hope they let me have some this year.

Bon, I imagine they'll show up. I grow fennel, bronze fennel, dill of all kinds and parsley for them every year and am rewarded with tons of swallowtails throughout the growing season. They have been really, really early this year and I consider that a good sign.

Kim, I've never yet had them eat every single bit of the dill, but some years they have virtually wiped out the parsley and fennel.

If you have enough swallowtails to wipe out 65' of dill plants, then you'll have the most beautiful spring and summer surrounded by lovely butteflies and I'll be insanely jealous...but happy for you at the same time.

Dawn

They are not allowed to eat it all. I need a few for my flower bouquets. I am planting some in their normal garden several hundred feet away from mine. I have tons if seed I want to use up before it goes bad so I thought why not? And I strategically placed it between brassica rows : )

Yay! 65 foot of them would be a record, I bet!

I hope. Most of them are coming up. I had seed from 5or6 different places. Including some of my own i saved somehow. If I could grow cilantro like I did 2015 I would be impressed.