Yay! Looks like your new garden is doing great!

That's great news Sherry. The cat looks very healthy, so do your milkweeds.

Yes, my MW is very healthy, it's A. currasavica (sp.?) the only one that does well here. I'll plant some more later from the seeds I get in the seed pods, since it's so easy to start from seed.

I said A. currasavica is the only MW that does well here, but actually I have a wet spot where A. lanceolata might grow if I could ever manage to harvest a seed pod. It grows roadside in certain wet spots, but the road crews usually mow it down before the pods can ripen. The flowers are especially beautiful on this one, very intense color!

I saw a female cloudless sulphur nectaring on my red pentas in a pot, so I checked the Senna/Cassia obtusifolia, and here's what I found -

It's not a good picture, but you can see the little white egg on the edge of the leaf, CS style. You can also see where the 'sickles' (seed pods) are forming. These are plants I dug up from my old garden in the country, and they're still in a pot. If I don't have enough leaves to feed the cats I get, I'll venture into the country, there are always plenty of leaves for them there!

Sherry

Apparently, A. currassavica is extremely popular with Monarchs across the US. I had been avoiding it, because it’s not native. But, since I live in MN where it can’t survive the winter, and I am limited to annuals, I have decided to grow it next year. Monarchs and other pollinators need all the help they can get.

Martha

Yes, I've found out that that is true, at least to a point, Iris. And I'm really getting a lot of hummingbirds, too - they use both my flowers and my feeders. I just hung my third feeder to keep the fighting in check.

I found another cloudless sulphur egg on the senna!

Yes, Martha, they really like A. currassavica, and all butterflies like to nectar on the flowers, so it does dual duty.

Sherry

Yes, the Asclepius lanceolata is a beautiful milkweed. I'd like to get my hands on some seeds too. I like how the butterflies lay their eggs on the leaf edges. It makes them so much easier to see.

Here's a picture I took in 2013 of some A. lanceolata near my country house -

Sherry

Beautiful!

My common milkweed looks like h*ll right now. The aphids were really bad this year, and I didn't do anything about them :(

I can hardly believe what happened with my aphids this year. I knocked them off with the hose, and THEY DIDN'T RETURN!! It's been great having clean milkweed!

Sherry

Sherry, I really think your A. curassavica looks very healthy, and I hope that the Monarch is healthy too. I haven't been on here much and didn't know that you moved. Your other place sounded like paradise. I bet it was hard leaving there, but I guess you did what you had to do. I remember your saying about your husband passing, and again, I'm sorry about that, and I can understand why you might have relocated. I hope that you have just as much luck attracting butterflies at your new home. I'll try to get on here more often because I miss reading people's posts. I notice that a lot of people are missing though.

Yes, there aren't any people on this forum from the old days, just me. It was very hard to move, but I couldn't keep up the country place, and I had to live where the doctors are. I'm gradually making this place a butterfly/hummingbird attractive area, and I've had more success than I thought I would. I've got SO many hummers, I've put up yet another feeder - I keep hoping they'll quit running each other away from the feeders, but, of course, that never happens. I have plans that I'll start implementing for butterfly plants, host and nectar plants, in the foundation beds that border the back door near my bedroom.

I'm raising still more gulf frits plus the monarch. The monarch cat ate 4 entire big leaves yesterday, and I see what looks like a small purge on the paper towel at the bottom of the cage near where he/she was eating. I put another leaf in for it, but I have an idea it'll be 'hanging out' real soon, not eating.

I hope you'll keep posting here, it's good to hear from you!

Sherry

I do miss the people from the old days since you and they taught me almost everything I know about butterflies and host plants. I do like seeing people on here because that means that new people are becoming interested in raising butterflies and/or planting things outside for them. It would be sad indeed not to see more people get interested in the butterfly "hobby". It used to sort of be a hobby to me (my understanding of "hobby" is that it's something you do in your spare time after a person's necessities, but over the years it seems to have become my life, in the summer anyway. As much as we might like to, we oldsters won't be able to do this a whole lot of years yet, so it makes me especially glad to someday be able to hand over the burning torch to younger people who are more able to take care of the butterflies. My only regret is that I didn't get into this at a younger age; then I could have had the pleasure of caring for the butterflies even more years than I have (this is my 14th year, I believe).

I'm so happy to hear that you can have success at your new place with the butterflies and hummingbirds. You're so lucky to be able to attract more than just a couple of hummingbirds (always the case here). Ours do the same thing, chase each other, even though it's just a very small number. I'm glad for what we get though. I don't know if you started into birds before you got into butterflies, but my family and I have been feeding the birds here for probably close to 30 years; it wasn't until about 2005 when I became interested in butterflies. I think I had gotten disappointed that I couldn't attract any purple martins here after 19 years of trying and so wanted to try something that I thought I stood a pretty good chance at attracting, and I've had much success with the butterflies, as I know you have had much success. You've always been willing to answer so many people's questions. You really do seem to be such a knowledgeable person when it comes to butterflies and moths, amongst other things nature-related.

Isn't that something, though, how many leaves a Monarch can go through! It sounds like your Monarch will soon be pupating. That's what we do if we think a cat will be pupating, keep a leaf there for it just in case it decides to eat some more because to hate to leave them totally without food even if we're pretty sure that it will soon be J'ing.

Oh, I can certainly understand the reasoning behind your move. Our lives are constantly changing, huh. Best of luck to you in your adventures.

Cathy

Thanks, Cathy! I was wrong about my monarch cat being ready to make its chrysalis - it's eaten about 5 or 6 entire big leaves since I said that! It's been so long since I raised a monarch, I guess I forgot their maximum size, also how much they eat. I do remember when I raised them I was shocked that they ate even more than pipevine swallowtails.

I started watching and feeding birds long before I got into butterflies, but I enjoy butterflies (and moths) more because I can raise them myself.. 'Can't wait to plant my new plants next spring!

Sherry

Sherry

Aww. So cute.

I had a beautiful boy!

Sherry

Congrats on your first Monarch at the new place. He's beautiful Miss Sherry! Oh, I see he went straight for the Pentas. :))

Congratulations! Beautiful picture!