Lucky you! I guess I still have to wait a few weeks. But other than the weeds in the lawn, there isn’t really much blooming for them to eat yet. I have seen a few honeybees and hover flies on the warmer days. Saw the first carpenter bee last week, and the first mosquito yesterday. Can’t wait for Spring! Bee from yesterday. It got up to 73 degrees in the afternoon.

I understand your frustration. Spring is in full swing here. Lots of pollen in the air, but the oak trees are turning bright green as are other trees.

Spring is right around the corner for you Iris. Hopefully no more nasty freezes.

I can wait a few weeks if it turns out to be a good year for the butterflies :) Last year was mixed. Some did really well, other not as much. The Black Swallowtails for example showed up very late in my yard. They must have missed two generations and never caught up to the numbers I usually have in late Summer/ Fall.

Tom, have had monarchs all winter. Gulf fruits, orange- barred sulphurs and finally gold rims are finally picking up! An occasional Giant swallowtail checks out my rue. Trying to find wild lime.

Tom, what I saw is what you did not see: the freeze.

Even though it lasted for four and a half hours, the damage was minimal. Minimal in a few ways. Low severity of damage to damaged plants. Few kinds of plants showed damage. And some plants of those kinds, in same small exposed area, were not damaged! My guess at an explanation is that there must have been breeze.

Sulphurs all winter. Twice I saw, for first time ever, what I think may have been Dainty Sulphur. One Orange Barred, many Cloudless, no Sleepy Orange.

Gulf Fritillariies all winter.

One Queen stayed for a few days. Usually their stays are brief.

The usual all-winter Polydamas were and are absent.

The usual all-winter Zebra LWs absent for five or six weeks, which has not happened since the bad freezes of 2010. First Zebra yesterday.

Hummingbirds on and off all winter.

Interesting that you had a freeze and we did not in Clermont. We are more towards the middle of the state, but probably only twenty or so miles south of you. You didn't mention Monarchs. I assume you have had them all winter? Lots of them around here now. They are chowing down on my milkweeds. I have a bunch of them, but still don't know if I have enough.

Yes Monarchs. Didn't include them because I figured that it would amount to just a "me too".

Skippers me too. Mostly the spotteds.

Because milkweeds also are good nectar plants, I do much relocation of caterpillars among plants so that the caterpillars do no eat the buds. Relocation also from small plants to large so that the small can grow. And from heavily eaten to less eaten so that plants do not become entirely defoliated. Sometimes switch large caterpillars (more consumption) and small.

I do the same with the caterpillars.

Sadly, I've resorted to culling eggs so the overpopulation won't wind up killing off the plants.

Carol, do you do any captivity raising of Monarchs?

I'm preparing for this year's season, one milkweed plant survived winter so hopefully it'll do good this year. I haven't seen any caterpillars yet, but i've seen quite a few adult butterflies and moths.

No captivity raising, just outdoors at work and at home.
There are about 6 or so caterpillars in various stages on our rec center butterfly garden plants, and I'm not sure they'll all make it, since the plants are not that big. The ones at home were completely stripped and are just now starting to regrow leaves. I'm culling the eggs at work, haven't seen any on my home garden plants - yet.

The reason for the question is that, for captive Monarch caterpillars, I use many techniques which individually extend available food, and which in combination extend it by probably a factor of five or six, compared to laissez-faire.

I saw a butterfly yesterday. Time to hide my newly rooted passiflora cuttings before they lay eggs all over them and the baby cats kill them lol.

What kind of butterfly did you see? I'm struggling now with some cats on my new milkweed. They are too small to remove and put on other plants, but they are chewing away. You are just north of me, I believe. You should be seeing a lot of butterflies soon.

Too small to remove can be from standpoint of the remover or of the removed. Caterpillar per se fares well at any size if the remover does well. I have relocated very many newly hatched (an hour or a few hours). Thumbnail and forefinger.

If they're small, I often take a small twig and gently coax them onto it to move them.

> "rooted passiflora cuttings" ___ What species?

Tom, my arthritic hands sometimes makes it hard for me to move smaller cats. This method has worked great for me. Using a small, clean, flat soft bristled makeup or paintbrush, lay the end of the brush on the leaf in front of the caterpillar and slowly move under the caterpillar. They will normally crawl up the brush. Then, just carry the little guy to the bigger plant and do the reverse.

My thumbnails are clipped, so that won't work. Also, I have no small makeup or paintbrush...I would need a magnifier and a very small twig to move these. Thanks for all the suggestions. I will wait another day or so and I should be able to pick them off.

Meanwhile, I saw a Pipevine, a Giant, another black swallowtail that was too far to judge, several sufurs and many monarchs today. I know there are zebras around, but I haven't looked for them yet.

I saw one male hummer. I think there are two around. Waiting for the migration to hit. That should happen by the end of the week or sometime next week.

Things are really picking up.

> "rooted passiflora cuttings" ___ @sultry_jasmine_nights (Florida 9a), what species?

Tom, today a hummingbird taught me that salvia calyces still have nectar after petals drop. It was not snatching seed-containing calyces, rather was feeding just as usual.

Could be, or it could have been interested in eating small insects in and around the calyces. The females really like very small insects when they have young. I assume you have a lot of blooming flowers that they visit, Four. It's difficult to know exactly what they are doing at times.

>"eating small insects" ___ Thanks, I did not think of that, maybe because I neveer see insects in the salvia which I handle all the time. I will begin to examine very closely. Nearly always present in the petal-less Pentas calyx clusters; has to be something good in there for them.

I reported in here last year : "Gulf Fritillariies all winter". This year I have been wanting to ask about them at your place, @Tom, because this year I am getting fewer and fewer. One a week now, Aug 2022.

Still seeing quite a few here, Four. They have eaten most of my passionvines, though--at least those that are in the sun. Seeing lots of Zebras also. They seem to be able to find the vines that are hidden in other plants.

Thanks, Tom.

>"Zebras.... find the vines that are hidden" ___ Good observation. Their slow flight probably accounts for the findings.

@Tom, do you have Chaya? If so, then you may have noticed that the Zebras always choose these flowers. If not, then I recommend it to you, for that very reason.