Monarchs had a very good year. Also tons of red admirals. It was my first year growing host plants for American ladies and I found plenty of cats but didn't see any butterflies. (Except the ones I raised) I guess they are sneaky. Looking forward to doing it all again. ❤

Have any nectar plants for the AL, Elaine?

I had plenty of nectar plants for the smallish space I have. Do they like anything in particular? I had coneflower, liatris, blanket flower, a wildflower mix, lupine, and some others, I can't remember them all... I will have to spend more time looking for them this summer. When a giant or a tiger crosses my yard, it's pretty easy to spot. The smaller guys, not so much. Do you have any recommendations for good nectar plants?

Where in the US are you?

They seem to love plants in the aster family. Goldenrod, Joe-pye weed, ironweed, new England asters. Red clover is a favorite.

As to why you didn't see any, it could be a number of things. It could of been a wet spring. Neighbors might of sprayed insecticides. I like to think most of issues where I am are either spraying or constant construction where natives thrive.

Same as every other year: Cabbage white. Dozens fly through my yard everyday.

I’m going to try to pay more attention this year but I think all I had were swallowtails.

I'm in MI. I know they were there because I found caterpillars. Not a lot of pesticides around because our yard is surrounded by vacant fields. Thanks for the suggestions. We have goldenrod growing wild and I have seeds for Joe Pye.

KC, if I'm honest, it was cabbage whites for me too. I wasn't counting them :D

Sulphurs outnumbered the rest by quite a bit last year. I only have one Senna shrub, but it is a hit with those yellow butterflies. Twas a lousy year for Monarchs here, and Gulf Frits only had a single vine to visit.

Elaine, during the summer days, I always have a constant flow of cabbage whites that go through my yard. Come from the northwest. When they hit my northern property line, some head south and some head southeast. I just have a ranch house but the butterflies don't want to fly over it.

Late last summer I had hundreds of painted ladies visit. I was told they had a population explosion in the Midwest. James

There were more Pipevine swallowtails than anything else, but that's because I keep lots of little A. fimbriate growing for them and dutifully carry the caterpillars from one plant to another when needed. I even had a Pipevine butterfly eclose in the house last week. The caterpillars travel far and somehow one made it into the house. I never found the chrysalis.

Usually I have lots of Gulf fritillaries, but the huge Passiflora caerulea they used as a host plant didn't come back after last winter. I've replanted, but the vines haven't gotten large enough to support cats yet.

I see Painted ladies occasionally, but in mid Septemper we had an "invasion". I looked out one day and there must have been 30 or 40 nectaring in my back yard. The next day there were only a few and a few days later they were gone.

Here's hoping for a good butterfly year for all this summer .. :-)

Lots of these:

Monarchs were the most abundant in my yard last year. I collected over 100 eggs and cats from the milkweed growing in the yard, and released around 100 healthy adults (tagged 88).

Cabbage Whites were probably 2nd, they are annoying though because their larvae ruins the Kale. This year I'm thinking about trying row covers. Also saw a few Eastern Tiger Swallowtails, Spicebush Swallowtails, Sulphurs, and misc. others.

I had a lot of Monarchs, Zebra Longwings, and Sulphurs.

I can see you were very busy. Where do you live? I live in Florida, and have yet to see that amount of the Black Swallowtail. I only had them 1 year, but only a few. My mother was fighting with the toads, I didn't see any pass the caterpillar stage. I also lost my Dutchman's Pipe, so I won't be getting any Polydamas this year. I haven't been able to find a Dutchman's Pipe here locally, and the seeds are taking forever to grow.

I live in Fuquay-varina NC zone 7/8. Planting lots of fennel and parsley attracts the females. I think they favored the fennel over the parsley. I wish I had Polydamas and zebra long wings here

Lots and lots of pipevine swallowtails, giant swallowtails. My faves are sulphurs and have planted accordingly but I don’t see as many as I’d like.

We have the zebras year around here. The Polydamas only come around April, and stay thru the summer. I have about 4 passion vines, and get all the passion vine butterflies. This past year I had the most, of the zebra long wings ever. I do get a lot of Monarchs, and I do run out of milkweed, and have to go looking for it. Going to get more Fennel & Parsley, thanks.

There sooo pretty!! Maybe one of these days I'll have to travel to Florida to see some. Just wondering what milkweed species you grow @ily68?

I have the Tropical milkweed, Giant milkweed, and the Family Jewels milkweed (a/k/a Swan milkweed). I haven't had luck with the native ones, but going to try growing the seeds again. I'm probably not growing them right, going to luck up how to do it. I have the candlestick plant and another, the Sulphurs go on it, so I get a lot of those butterflies. I also have other host plants, but the butterflies haven't come as of yet. I have Coontie plants, and Galactia Striata Florida Hammock Milkpea vine. Coontie is for the Atala butterfly, and Galactia Striata Florida Hammock Milkpea vine, Host plant for Zestos Skipper butterfly which is believed to be extirpated (extinct) in FLorida. Also used by Cassius blue, longtailed skipper, and Zarucco duskywing.

.

What native milkweeds do you plan to grow? I've been looking for Florida milkweed, velvet leaf milkweed, Curtiss' milkweed, and largeflower milkweed. If you ever find any seeds I would love a few.

City butterflies I see most often are cabbage whites (and certainly over the most extended season), but Red Admirals are a very close second. I am reliably informed that they are mostly using Pennsylvania pellitory as a host plant here (it happily grows in concrete cracks!)

Next most frequent, probably Black Swallowtails. I've also had some kind of Ladies (they never hold still long enough for a positive ID), azures, various little bitty brushfoots, and a monarch or two - enough to lay eggs and yield me some babies.

William, I don't have any of those milkweeds. I got some seeds from ebay for the butterfly weed, Common Milkweed, Swamp Milkweed, and Whorled Milkweed. I planted half the seeds, and nothing came out. Going to try again now. I get most of the seeds I buy on ebay.

@ily68 I might know why your milkweed seeds didn't germinate. Have you tried stratification?

I tried the last time, but nothing came out. I might not have done it right. I did get some Common milkweed seeds from ebay, that already came with the stratification, and nothing. I think I might have seeds for that one, going to try again. How do you do the stratification? The Tropical milkweed and the Family Jewels, don't need it.

I get a damp paper towel (make sure it's not dripping) and I put the seeds in the towel. Then I fold the paper towel and place it in a ziplock bag. Then the bag goes into the fridge for 3 or 4 weeks. While there in the fridge I check for mold every 4 days.

Thank you, going to try it.

Not a true butterfly but a fellow Lepidopteran (aka Butterflies, Skippers, and Moths), Long-tailed Skipper was the single most abundant species, clouds of them everywhere.

Not the best picture of them as it doesnt show that their lower half is iridescent teal, very pretty. They eat a common weed here called Desmodium incanum. The weed is narrow in growth habit so you can let it grow with your regular flowers without fear of it choking them out.

After that it was probably Gulf frits which I have the host plant of. Palamedes and Zebra Longwing were also resident.

I get more monarch caterpillars than monarch butterflies since my population seems transitional between resident Florida population and the Eastern US population so they move a lot.

Excited for this year because I finally have Winter Cassia (host plant for Sulphurs) and I'm growing fennel&parsley again after not being able to last year. Hoping for more butterflies this year :)

We had a lot of what I think were Painted Ladies on our sedum just as the flower started to open up here in Z6 last year. There are many seeds germinating in my WS jugs for flowers the butterflys will love. I'm hoping to start a butterfly garden this year, wish me luck.