In reply, Jay: it really did look like an alien-thing, esp when its hammerhead appeared and started weaving back and forth. Bizarre!

Jay, I've looked up something butterfly/caterpillar related on my computer, and the only information I could find was my own thread! When I lived in the country, I was in a butterfly paradise, so I posted often.

'Love that kitten in the shoe, looks warm and cozy!

Sherry

This is me, having done as much as I can do out there to protect my tender plants (will cover them just ahead of the actual freeze Tuesday night), indoors and with not much to do -- found these online and I so wanna sew a few!

Maybe Jay deleted it? But there are sometimes odd things happening here. So if I ignore a picture it’s probably because I didn’t see it. I love pictures! It didn’t get as cold as I thought. Was 31.5 when I checked. So not everything looks dead. Still pretty depressing looking. And it has this salat kind of smell outside. Best way I can describe it.

Jay: It's a good thing I'm not too easily creeped out -- when it comes to my yard, anyway.

Iris: Thinking I would learn something new today, I looked up salat. Did you mean salad? :)

Javi, these look very nice. Hope they help.

Jay, this is just scary.

Javi, don't worry. I don't think your hammerhead worm is from outer space. There was a problem with the photo before. There was supposed to be a link, but it's weird because I can see it.

Sherry, I come across old gardenweb posts on the internet all the time, concerning a myriad of topics. I find all your old comments most enjoyable and I'm glad they're around for the whole world to read. Some of the people you talk to on them I don't see on here anymore, I wish them the best, include them in my prayers, and would have loved to have known them. I had to check the window well last night and no more kittens. I have the well covered with a cut sheet of plywood and it's sitting flush over the top, so the mother cat must be strong to lift it up and drop the kittens in there. I have them all covered because bunnies and frogs and toads have fallen in them before. The bunnies never last too long. They go into shock and die. Kittens are real troupers! They'll stick it out.

Oops. My German came out.

I want to raise Cecropias next year. It's always nice looking foward to a few big cocoons hatching in spring. Have you ever felt how strong the silk is on them? Amazing! Guess I might need a chokecherry. :)

I would love to see more big silkmoth next year. Watching the Polyphemus grow up from the little caterpillar was amazing. And to actually see it as an adult was the icing on the cake.

Javi, here's one of the native Texas milkweeds. Asclepias obovata. It looks a little like syriaca. They hold up real well to your crazy weather. Seeds are impossible to find, but I just met someone who has some. Trying to stay in their good graces.

Get it done, Jay. :) That is a very cool looking milkweed.

This is an old Walt Disney cartoon that has been put to new music, so you can feel the beat. Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/0RXdd0pCJ9Q

What was it that you feed the 5th instar Monarch cats when you run out of milkweed? Pumpkin and cucumber? I was wondering if slicing one of these and feeding it to the cats would work. It's a milkweed, not a cactus. Just wonder if the cardiac toxins that all milkweeds contain are still at a Monarch friendly level, or if predation in Africa has caused it to have higher toxin levels. Did anyone else get snow?

Hoodia species, Asclepiadoidiae, Tribe Stapeliae. Subfamily Asclepiadoideae, Family Apocynaceae, Order Gentianales.

I recall pumpkin and cucumber rinds, both. My two chrysalises still haven't eclosed, so they may sense cold is coming and may just decide to call it quits. :/

Are they Swallowtail crysalises?

That’s a cool looking plant. I would have called it a cactus. I was going to ask what happened to the Monarchs. The Gulf Fritillary caterpillars are very slow. The passion vines didn’t freeze (just some tips), but I don’t think this will work.

Mine are Monarch chrysalises, Jay.

I don't think this will work. What won't, Iris? How large are/were your passion vines? At last count, I have one Gulf frit cat on the scraggly passion vine I purchased from the Butterfly Center. I really hope no more eggs are laid, as there's no way it could support a cat load. How large do the cats get before they pupate? My guy seems small, compared to Monarchs anyway. It was just kinda still yesterday, so I wasn't sure if it was getting ready.

I don’t think my caterpillars are going to make it to adulthood. It’s just too cold. My passionvines are huge. Even with all the caterpillars you can’t really tell anything is eaten. I think they just look smaller since they are skinnier than Monarchs.

I don't think cages will do it. You need an airplane hanger or a warehouse with all those cats of yours.

Had this really cute wooly bear running around on my driveway. I should really look up what kind of Winter he is predicting.

And Zinnia yesterday to today

Awww, Iris. I see. Did winter hit your area much earlier than usual? If the frits keep laying their eggs right up 'to the end', I guess there's just no avoiding the loss. Best not to look.

I've just decided not to make myself feel worse about it (natural course of things, right?) and stop poking around in the yard too much. Except for the A. perennis I purchased, none of my garden milkweeds made it to the seed pod phase.

The first frost was right on schedule. I think it’s the generally lower than normal temperatures. The average high should be 66, but it has been about 53 degrees for the past two weeks. It’s like everything moves in slow motion. I have never had caterpillars hang in the “J” for almost 3 days. And then things go wrong. This is a picture of the ones from my very first photo in this thread. Maybe it didn’t wiggle enough because it was cold?

That's a sad sight.

Just checking in how things are going.

Miss Sherry, how are your passion vines adjusting to being inside? My giant milkweed did get a lot of yellow leaves within a few days of coming inside.

Javi, did it freeze in your area? How is the planting going and did the Monarchs that looked ready still make it?

Jay, how is the hunt for all the seeds going? And the preparation to plant them? it’s been raining the whole week, so cleaning I found seeds for nodding onion and yellow ironweed in the fridge. Think it will work to just scatter them around?

Yes, it did, Iris. Only for about a couple of hours, but yesterday never made it past 42 (and blustering wind all day!). Late morning, I set the "Monarch" chair out in the sun -- lookee what I just found!

I hope the second one takes advantage of the warmish temps before long.

One Monarch has been flitting around since this morning -- he's very skittish right now, so this is the best shot I could get. Here, enjoying the nectar from a late blooming Texas Silverado sage.

Everything seems to have made it through Round 1 okay. Of all the covered plants, the pentas seem to have appreciated the chill the least: leaves are just ever so lightly brown. My new (double covered!) Passiflora foetida looks fine -- the last frit cat is hanging in there and has resumed munching.

The uncovered tropical milkweeds and tithonia don't seem a bit fazed. I'll give it another couple of hours and will go out and re-wrap everything (we've got one more round of light freeze tomorrow morning).

How's Iris? :)

Yay! I am glad the Monarchs made it (surely the second one is fine, too). So I guess your covers are doing the trick. Does it say how much protection they give? As in down to 25 degrees or something? I am still expecting 1 to 2 more inches of rain tonight into tomorrow. Sigh. There is so much to do outside. At least everything from the refrigerator to the washer is sparkling.....

My covers are nothing more than old sheets and towels. :) I did add an additional layer of painters plastic over my passion vine, so the wind can't get through -- that seems to have done the trick.

I didn't cover all of the (P. Incense) runners coming underneath the fence, and this healthy volunteer seems to have done just fine, left alone:

Go figure. :)

I have a beautiful potted Blue Daze (Evolvulus glomeratus) in the front yard. When I uncovered it this morning (temps in the upper 30s), it was fine. I must have removed the sheet too soon, as I just returned to cover it for tonight, and all the leaves are dried and crispy. :( Shoot!

I am sorry about your Blue Daze. Had to look it up. Very pretty! I am hoping the weather will corporate so I can clean up at least this part in front before the Christmas decorations go up. The lights shining on soggy dead elephant ears, tomatoes, Zinnia and such is not my idea of festive.

Don't fret too much. IMO, lights make everything look happy! I have half a mind to willy-nilly hang some strands on my two tuteurs, since I don't have anything growing under them yet.

I really should get that pipe vine (A. elegans) into the ground...what do you think? If I'm to believe the forecast, not a freeze in sight at least through Dec. 1. Surely the roots will start venturing forth in that time? :)

Iris, what in the world do you mean by 'giant' milkweed? I have 100 native species mostly host plants to sow, plus 30 milkweed species and about 20 annuals. I'm serious, no joking. I'd write all their names out but.........There's always room for more milkweeds. :)

Javi, I would plant it. Around here things don’t do well in pots. I thought some little oaks would make it in the pots last year, but they didn’t.

Jay, not sure what exactly my giant milkweed is. It’s not really giant for me, just about 2 feet. And the way this is going it might not make it. I can’t believe how many seeds you are planning to plant. Wow.

Should I just scatter my seeds? They both need cold stratification, so I figure maybe after the holidays?

found a picture of my not so giant milkweed flowering.

Jay: You're MW project is so ambitious, I think you need to move somewhere with an extended growing season. Didn't your spring start in May this year? :)

Spring started before I did so yeah, I had a late start. I can't move. It's a milkweed experiment. I'm not trying to grow the California/ West Coast milkweeds like Will Kelly, but if he's pulling off growing those species in North Carolina, then I stand a good chance of overwintering a few of the species that usually range further south or west. I admire Will very much. The amount of milkweed species he's been able to find is incredible! I'm trying to follow in his footsteps. :)

You go, Jay! So...if my latifolia would get seeds next year you don’t want them?! Milkweeds and other things called weeds are sometimes really strange. Poke milkweed is native here in SC. I killed 4 in different locations of my yard. My green milkweed comes up strong in Spring. Flowers. Dies back to nothing. Then comes back. Joe Pye weed is just pitiful for me. Jerusalem artichoke was supposed to be a pain in the behind to be controlled, so I planted it out of the way in places it can just be mowed down. Well. The deer ate it to the point I don’t think it will survive.

Gold Standard Hostas before the deer found them.

After the deer found them.

I've had latifolia seeds for a while. They aren't hard to find. Poke milkweed likes some shade. Especially in South Carolina. The deer ate a lot of my plants too, but it was at the end of the season so I don't care. Your giant milkweed, is it a tall curassavica or what???

Your hostas looked great! Most of mine looked like your “after” picture. Woke up to my own personal creek this morning.

I do believe you've just ID'ed a future, perfect planting spot for aquatic and swamp milkweeds, Iris. ;)

I checked the local forecast last night before heading to bed and saw our area wasn't supposed to dip below freezing. For a brief moment, I thought 'ugh! all the work covering everything.' Woke up this morning to 30 degrees! Once again, better safe than sorry!

I found a couple of not-well looking Gult fritillaries in the yard yesterday, so I put them under my bed sheet enclosure (with potted plants, milkweeds in full bloom), to keep my Monarchs company. Once the sun warms the temps a bit more, I'll uncover the area and see if the butterflies are okay.

Uncovered tithonias are looking very droopy right now, but hopefully there's enough plant (and blooms) to trudge forward these next couple of weeks. Only because Iris LOVES pics, I'll post some later. :)

Would love some pictures! Well, the plants in the water are swamp sunflower (it’s kept so short by the deer) and willow. It doesn’t happen often that i have a creek there. We had 6 inches of rain in the past 4 days. It’s also just 38 degrees.

Picture time! Temps shot up to 60 very quickly -- been out in the sun these few hours and am almost to the point of trading sweats for shorts (were it not for the mosquitoes -- don't think they got the memo about last night's freeze!).

I put my chair Monarchs out in the sun. Yesterday's already-eclosed is flexing its wings, so takeoff should be imminent. Little guy to the left just cracked its case, and I see legs moving. Good sign.

I found only one of the frits (that I placed into the enclosure yesterday) -- moving kinda slow, but I've moved him to a milkweed plant. I've never had a frit sit still enough for me to actually see their spots are truly silver!

There are a couple of mockingbirds swooping in and out, looking very hungry. :/

The lone frit cat on my P. foetida is moving about again, appreciating the sunshine.

If he can survive the mockingbirds and lurking anoles, it should be clear sailing for the next couple of weeks.

Tropical milkweeds are looking great -- not a hint of burnt leaves on this one, flanked by salvia that are also doing fine. Nice to know I'll have some color in the yard for a little while longer.

Most of the tithonia heads are looking very droopy, but I still see orange petals out there.

Beautiful pictures! Thank you so much for sharing. All I have seen this week was a Daddy Longlegs and some ants. If you don’t count the at least 60 Goldfinches currently at the feeders. It sounds like a Pet Shop. I still have some flowers. The pineapple sage actually looks great. It’s supposed to be freezing tonight, so we will see how long that lasts.

I imagine 60 Goldfinches make quite a racket! Stay warm.

Iris: I can't remember if it was you who mentioned keeping pentas stalks in water over the winter months, then planting in spring. I just noticed my red pentas stems are forming roots already! I have so many cuttings going, I think I'll just 'plant' these in a plastic cup w/ potting media.

Mine never grew any visible roots last Winter. Maybe some little knobs if you looked closely. So by Spring I was thinking I would just put them in a pot and they would make it or not. And they did. With real roots I would plant them. My Christmas Senna looked surprisingly good this morning. The popcorn one not so much. Neither did the tropical milkweed.

Saw a skipper and bumble bee around. I am glad there is still some food for them. The lantanas are goners, but the butterfly bushes look good. Also saw these two determined flies. Or maybe they just wanted to huddle together because they were cold :)

I dunno...I'd bet your milkweed and popcorn senna come back: leaves don't look damaged, just a bit sulky.

My red pentas looks pretty bad -- and I even covered it both nights!

I see some green leaves on the part snuggled up against the shrimp plant.

Monarchs, frits and Queens all over the place here, today. Just so you don't think it's all lollipops and rainbows over here (my attempt at empathy), my tithonia:

These are annuals, right? So, what's the harm in my snipping back the definitely dead, brown stuff, if it won't make it through spring anyway?

PS I planted the pipe vine today and will post a pic tomorrow. Question: should I go ahead and snip off some of the vines in order to encourage root growth? I'll, of course, save the snipped cuttings and try to root.

I don’t know about my plants bouncing back, the only one that did today was the white veined Pipevine. I don’t know if the snipping encourages root growth. Maybe Jay would know. If deciding to pop in here. I read with some trees they put their energy into producing new leaves.