Summer

It is really hard to focus on school when there is so much magic going on outside my window!  I gave in to temptation last week and bought two cannas, one buddleia and two crossandra - none of which are planted yet.  I have to study for an exam today, finish a paper by tomorrow and a project by Thursday.  I have no business going outside but I couldn't resist snapping a few photos this morning.

  The bees LOVE the agastache.  It smells like licorice when you pinch off a flower or leaf.  I have all kinds of strange, metallic, fuzzy, small and big bees buzzing all around this plant all day when it is sunny.

I have seen this moth a few times now and it seems to really like the Sweet Almond Bush (nearly a tree at 10 feet tall!).  It looks like one of the wasp body moths but I am not sure of its name.

  This is a view of the garden standing with my back to the right wall underneath the large philodendron that occupies the corner.

Polydamas Swallowtail caterpillars are covering the Dutchman's Pipe vine.  I have a habitat with a dozen and the butterflies keep laying eggs (seen in this picture with a medium sized caterpillar

 The Gulf Fritillaries like the Pentas. I bought several colors at Lowe's a year ago in small pots and they have grown in large clumps about 2 feet high.

We have a rain tank in the side yard that we use to water with when it gets dry.  I trained a small Passion Flower vine at the base of it less than a year ago and it is exploding with life!  I think there are more caterpillars and cocoons here than in the backyard different variety passionflower that is growing on my Bird of Paradise.

Passionflower

Laying eggs on a tendril

I found these two flying around attached and waited until they landed to take a picture.  Two Gulf Fritillaries mating. 

The cat checking me out under the philodendron's giant leaves.  I was underneath the 'jungle' taking photos.

The White Bird of Paradise in the backyard is about 20 feet tall.  I trained a Passionflower vine at the base and it has taken off dramatically!  There is a caterpillar in this photo also.

Angel Trumpet which is about 5 feet tall.  Came from a clipping from neighbor's plant less than a  year ago.

Gulf Fritillaries

The Gulf Fritillaries are back and all over the garden.  I have five different kinds of Passion Flower vine and they seem to eat all the varieties except for the Bat Wing Passion Vine which is in my front bromeliad garden area.  I have trained one of the Passion Flowers up a 20' White Bird of Paradise cluster in the backyard and it is thriving!  Zebra Longwings lay eggs there as well, but I haven't had any success raising them yet.

We collect eggs, caterpillars and respective host plants and raise them on our back porch protected from wasps, lizards and other predators until they emerge as butterflies.  Then, we release them back into the garden so we always have a steady supply of beautiful, colorful pollinators flitting about.  My husband got me extension tubes for my camera for Christmas and I am just now getting to play around with it, since the butterflies are back in full force and laying eggs.  Above is a Gulf Fritillary egg.  The butterfly laid it on a plastic container my son was holding to collect plants and caterpillars to transport to the porch.  She just flew up and laid it while he was holding it. 

View of the right side of the back wall butterfly garden.  Plants in this picture include: philodendron, sweet almond bush, pineapple sage, geranium, adonidia palm, red passionflower, passionflower, lantana, pentas, agastache, false nettle, dwarf ruellia, buddleia, dwarf cassia, petunia, cat palm, porterweed, salvia, and verbena.  I forgot the name of one of the plants in the lower right with red flowers and there is a rose and an echinacea flower hidden from sight. 

The agastache flowers bloom profusely, smell like licorice and attract hundreds of assorted bees from shiny metallic ones to large, fuzzy ones.  

My kids help with the caterpillars and releasing the butterflies.  We have put together habitats for them to take to the classrooms and share with their classmates which has always seemed to go well.  I am glad they enjoy it and are not afraid of them.  I have purchased a small library of caterpillar identification and butterfly gardening books as we are aware of the type that sting, so the kids don't go touching insects if they don't know what they are.  

We checked on the caterpillars this morning and cleaned up their habitat of old eaten leaves and filled it with clean, fresh leaves.  I have the Gulf Fritillaries in a 10 gallon aquarium/terrarium filled with dirt and stones for drainage.  I took two plastic pots and filled with peat moss/potting soil mix and I take Passion flower vine cuttings which I put in the soil then wet with a mister/spray bottle.  This keeps the cuttings fresher longer.

While we were moving the caterpillars around and tidying up the habitat, my son looked over to see one of the chrysalis hanging on the aquarium lid had opened up and a new Gulf Fritillary came out.  It was still drying its wings by the time we finished with the enclosure so we left her on the lid until her wings dry later, then we will release her into the garden.  It gave me a chance to try out the camera's extension tubes on her wings.

Gulf Fritillary Butterfly on pink pentas

The Polydamas Swallowtail has laid eggs on my Dutchman's Pipe Vine in the garden and we moved some of them to their own enclosure, but I have let a group of them stay outside on the vine.  They are getting much bigger than the ones in captivity.  I hate when I go to check on them and find a wasp greedily munching away on them.

Spring Again

Well, I have almost had the garden a full year.  Winter lasted a long time here in Florida..I suppose it did everywhere else in the country as well but I was not happy a couple weeks ago even when we were still in the 50s.  Today is a gorgeous day to be outside.  I found an umbrella side table on clearance at Bed, Bath and Beyond during the after Christmas sales which I finally put together last month and have really enjoyed just sitting outside on the plastic Adirondack chairs watching the buzzing activity in my garden.

I saw my first Red Admiral butterfly this Spring.  I think it was just visiting because I have not seen it since.  I was able to get a good picture of it before it fluttered away. 

The passionflower vines were the first to explode with growth and blossoms.  I have several different varieties.  A batwing is planted in the front bromeliad garden.  In the back yard I have a red passion flower, a Maypop and another variety - I don't even remember the name but the flowers look different. 

At the time I am finishing this post, it is no longer Spring and really the start of Summer but it took me forever to finish this post and I really wanted to track the transitions of the garden.  After the passionflower's profuse blooms, the Gulf Fritillaries slowly but surely started making their way back to the garden.  Their return initially seemed so slow that I was worried something was wrong, but inevitably they have returned.  I put together a habitat for my son's classroom again and harvested about ten caterpillars to put in the container for the kids to watch until school's out.  I have released about 5 butterflies so far. 

For a short while we had some colorful visitors aka goldfinches.  Initially they were quite dull but as the weeks wore on, their color really started to come in.  They have left us now, went back North I believe.  My daily visitors now include cardinals, blue jays, mockingbirds and mourning doves.  We also get the red finches.  

Now that it has been months since I finally finished this post the garden has grown leaps and bounds even since then.  The top prize would have to go to the sweet almond bush, which started as a 24 in plant in a gallon? sized pot.  I planted it in the ground and it is currently at a height just over the top of the back wall which is 8 feet.