How nice for you! I am jealous. I am already missing the butterflies.

The only thing flying around these parts are dead leaves in the cold winter winds.

Although I did just buy some Hamelia Patens (firecracker bush) seeds for the hummers.

Not sure that Hamilia Patens will do well for you in zone 7a. I'm in 9b and it took a few years for them to get going with significant blooms. They don't do well with cold weather, so you will need to bring them in next autumn.

Tom, congrats on the Queen and all the other flutterbys (what my youngest son used to call them)! I'm with you, this is the best time of year in Florida :) Now only is the butterfly population picking up dramatically, but my flowers are bursting. But...still no hummingbirds :(

Wow Tom, you're still getting a lot more than me at the moment. I only see the Polydamas around April, they stay for the summer and than nothing. I don't know if they'll be back next year, the Hurricane damaged my pipevine. My biggest avocado tree fell on it. My Zebras, Fritillaries, and Skippers are kind of slow too. I had a lot of Queens a couple of years ago, and for the last 2 years, nothing.

Hey, Ily, like I said this might have been the first I saw this year. I may have seen one Queen this spring, but I'm not sure. The monarchs are numerous, but not Queens.

I was fortunate that the hurricane didn't do much damage to my garden. A lot of broken branches and it damaged some of my taller plants, especially my large purple porterweeds, but they are coming back. Right now I have this plant that I thought was called the Mexican Hat Plant--but it isn't. It is in full bloom now and is very attractive. I will have to take a picture of it and see if anyone can recognize it.

I have a number of plants in my garden that I don't know the name of. I have planted many over the years and some come up in places that I have no memory of planting them. Right now a star performer is a bleeding heart vine that has grown up into and over some Crepe Myrtles in my back yard. The vine must be twenty-five feet high now and is draped over two or three large Crepe Myrtles. A few years back I saw a rufous hummingbird visiting them.

Didn't know it was so easy to post a picture. Anyway, this is the mystery plant in my garden. Anyone know what it is? I thought it was a Mexican Hat plant, but it isn't.

That looks like my Chinese Hat Plant. I bought mines at Fairchilds Tropical Gardens, but mines is orange. It does get a lot of butterflies and hummers too. They have a huge bush of it, and they told me it gets filled with hummers. I've haven't seen it in yellow, but I have seen it in red. Very pretty.

https://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/2446/  If you google the colors of the Chinese Hat Plant, there are yellow, red, orange, and pink.

My bleeding heart vines, didn't really take off. They are almost the same height that I bought them. I have both colors.

Ily, thanks so much for identifying the plant. I had the wrong country. I'm wondering now if the red is more attractive to butterflies and hummers. I have so many red flowers that I wanted a yellow to balance out the colors. It looks like it will get quite big eventually. Last year I trimmed back the branches to make it more compact. From the link you gave me at Dave's Gardens it looks like I did the right thing. According to the postings there it grows roots when the branches touch the ground.

My Bleeding Heart is red with white centers. It took a long time to throw down roots and get established, but now it is going full bore. Perhaps yours will just need time to root.

I saw a gorgeous Tiger swallowtail today. I hadn't seen one in perhaps a month. It was warn, humid and sunny here today. Not much like fall, but I'm not complaining.

I have the orange one, same as in Fairchilds. I don't get hummers here, just the one last month. I have a lot of the flowers they like, but they don't come. I have a pink with read, and a white with red, Bleeding Hearts vines. Right now, the pink and red seems to be doing better than the other one. I have the red Firespike, among others, which hummers are supposed to love, and nothing. Maybe one day. I do have a lot of Bluejays. I put peanuts in the shell for them, unsalted ones, they love them.

Tom, I finally saw a hummingbird in my yard. It was on my Chinese Hat Plant, than the following day, it was on my red Fire Spike plant. I took some pictures, but he was far, didn't come out that good but here are some pictures, along with the plants.

Queens are very pretty, lucky you seeing one

I've never seen a Queen butterfly but whenever I look up their range they seem to extend north into Southern Georgia, further North than Zebra Longwings which I get plenty of. I have at least 20 milkweeds, all well-used by monarchs. Also have lantana, verbena, butterfly bush, zinnias, heirloom zinnias, porterweed, and coneflowers so I'm not sure what the problem is lol

ily68(10b)

Wow the growth on your Firespike is so very different from my own "grove"... Mine are much shorter but very dense. Plenty of flowers, though. Gotta love firespikes

My mom likes to tie them at the middle so they don't spread as much. I would rather leave them be, but usually let her have her way. There's another color of Firespike that I want to get, purple Firespike, but it looks more pinkish to me. I don't know how good it would be for the hummingbirds, because they love the red one.

A couple of years ago, I had a lot of Queens. I kept going to home depot to buy milkweed. I must have bought at least 50 to 60 plants in about 2 months time. After that year, I haven't seen any. I do get a lot of Gulf, Longwings, Sulphurs, and Monarchs.

ily68(10b)

They definitely like both. Red just blooms earlier so it's better for my area (other species bloom after they migrate south but long-tongued butterflies like them too like Cloudless sulphurs). All firespikes root very easily from cuttings so if you know of someone with them you should ask. I've seen magenta and purple. I lowkey "stole" my purple via a cutting I took from a plant growing at my school.

There's a bunch of other tropical acanthus species related to firespikes such as jacobina/justicia, aphelandras.. might be worth looking into them since you're a good zone for them. All are shade species and are very lush in their natural growth habit imo which is why I use tropical acanthus as shade "filler"

Tom(9b)

Wow! I've heard of three different colors for them but not four. If you ever have pics I'd be interested in seeing them.

Tom, the cuttings of the mauve firespikes that you gave me two years ago that I dug up and brought down to Englewood are now blooming for the first time ever.....very pretty. Wish I had hummers to enjoy them.

Rhonda

Rhonda, I had the firespike for years, before I saw any hummers. I finally got some coming into my yard these last couple of months. They are the cutest thinks ever. I enjoy them so much. I have a feeder for them, but they rather go to the flowers. I have a pair of Orioles, that enjoy the hummingbird feeder, but they only came a few times. I put out peanuts for the Bluejays, and get them plus a pair of woodpeckers, along with crows. We already have a colony of quaker parrots here, but they only seem to want sunflower seeds.

Ily,

This is the first place that I've ever lived that I don't have hummers other than for a few days in the Spring when they pass through while heading North. I really miss them :(

Tom has Orioles that use his hummingbird feeders too. They sure are beautiful birds. I've never had wild parrots, that must be neat.

I used to have many seed and suet feeders at my prior residences but because we grow mangoes, bananas and Barbados cherries, I don't put out those feeders here so as not to attract too many squirrels. We do have lots of birds still, mainly water birds such as herons, egrets, ospreys and many mockingbirds, wrens, and occasional cardinals.

Last week, a wood stork came up to our lanai and let me feed her some sardines and a little bread and take a few pics. She was so friendly that I decided to leave the door open to see what would happen. Even after we went inside, she sat on the sidewalk for a while waiting for me to come back out. They were on the endangered list until 2012 when it was upgraded to threatened. Here's a few pics.

What a cool looking bird! I had a vulture landing not more than 10 feet from me today while I was pulling weeds. I must have looked worse than I felt. Just picked up some fake fur from the dog toy, pecked at an antler and took a drink from the birdbath.

Too funny Iris! I hope your doggie didn't mind sharing his toy.

Those vultures circling overhead scare me. I'm afraid to stop moving when they're around...don't want them mistaking me for road kill.

Jay, I just put cuttings of my firespike in water, lets see if they get roots. Going to find some cuttings of the pink one too. Wow Tom, you have all of the, that's good. Rhonda, the parrots are very beautiful and all, but they are very loud. You can't get close to where they are at, the start screaming and fly away. They wood stork is beautiful, I don't think I've seen one around here.

Really enjoyed your pics, Rhonda. Must have been very cool to see that guy so up close. I keep hoping you will see hummers soon. I had two Rufous show up the day after the big freeze. They visited for ten days or so. I still have the one female hummer that's been here since fall. She only visits flowers, so I don't see her every day.

The orioles are still here. I'm waiting for the Purple Martins. They are due any day now.

In my experience buzzards are easily spooked by humans, Illy. You must have been having an extremely bad day:)

Thanks Ily! She is beautiful in her own unique way :) I forgot how loud parrots are so you can keep them for yourself lol

Thanks Tom! It was cool but I also know that I can't make a habit out of doing that....don't want to get her dependent on humans.

I'm glad that you're getting to enjoy hummers. Believe me, I sit on that lanai where I have an excellent view of my garden and feeders every chance I get.....especially around dawn and dusk. If I have any, I'll see them :)

I also would love to see Orioles but don't think there's any chance of that happening here. They are just beautiful.

Rhonda