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.  

  

Strange and Wonderful Things in the Garden

This semester of classes is pretty tough..Discrete Math and a more advanced C++ currently topping the list.  I have to study harder and more frequently which gives me less time in the garden..I have left it to its own devices meandering out there here and there to check on things.  This morning, however, I decided to spend some quality time as some of my plants needed moving and some just needed to be put in the ground.

The veggie garden is making good progress.  I planted Fern Leaf Dill, Pineapple Sage and Gomphrena in the space next to the edging this morning.  Hubby had dug a trench to install irrigation off our main system and the tilled dirt inspired me.

I finally planted my red Passionflower Vine on the back wall of the butterfly garden, in between my regular Blue (purple) Passion Vine and a Lady Lavender Passion Vine (which I have yet to see bloom).  This really weird 'hammer head' worm was sliming down the back wall.  I watched him in fascination and allowed him to crawl around my plants until I lost track of him.  After the fact, I kind of regretted it, realizing he may be some strange parasite..he was about two inches long.

Back behind the garden is a shed which we will eventually remove.  For now, I use the ledge of the foundation at the base of the shed to 'store' my plastic pots and some garden paraphernalia that comes from the nurseries.  I have started re-purposing a lot of items for gardening, like egg cartons to sprout seedlings with vermiculite/moss mixture.  Admittedly, I don't always pick up after myself.  This is a bucket I used to scoop up oak leaves for the chipper to make mulch.  After I was finished I left it sitting behind the garden and eventually put two plastic containers in there that I had used for sprouting.  Several rain storms later..it was filled with these slimy, goopy black eggs.  It is VERY bad to leave standing water in Florida because of all the terrible mosquitoes..but there was no mosquito larvae to be found.  I have no idea what the eggs are..I am going to guess some sort of frog..and I could not bear to dump it out so they are staying where they are for the time being. 

Moving on to the butterfly garden..I never get tired of snapping photos of the ever present Gulf Fritillaries.  They pose for me all the time.  I normally crop the pictures in really close but I loved all the background colors in this one from the petunias and the pentas.

The Long Tailed Skipper has been here for a few weeks.  Prefers to hop around the lantana.  I love the blue green fuzz on his back.

Another strange and wonderful creature spotted in the garden.  This white spider was clinging to the underside of the lantana and didn't really want its picture taken but I persisted.  It was so white - I didn't know if this was the natural color or if it had gone through some skin shedding process but he looked pretty cool.

Aside from being messy, another of my faults is impatience.  Everything I have read about gardening says to have a plan and don't just put things in the ground.  This is very good advice.  I have looked at hundreds and hundreds of plans but couldn't decide exactly what to do for my zone and the space I had..etc.  So, sometimes, I just impulse buy a plant or flower then look up its characteristics later.  I bought a seed mixture wanting lots of blooms and colors..not realizing the height the flowers would grow.  This seed mixture has grown over the course of four weeks now to a height of three feet!  Since I foolishly put it at the front of my red and yellow garden, it is blocking the view of the beautiful plants behind it and looks kind of wild..I am going to have to move them one day. 

Luna Hibiscus is blooming profusely and one of the flowers blocked by the giant cosmos and zinnia. 

Coral Honeysuckle is blooming and growing beautifully on the trellis John built me.  I was worried about it for awhile but it is doing great now.

 

Mr. Lincoln rose bloom this morning.  The roses are doing pretty well in their own garden beside our temporary shed.  I had to weed today for the second time this week then covered them up with some more cypress mulch, hoping to inhibit some weed growth. 

I cut these flowers from my garden this weekend.  It includes Vinca, Zinnia, Melampodium, Lantana, Dahlia, and Pink Roses.  I have two varieties of Melampodium in the Red/Yellow garden..I don't know how the second, larger variety got there.  Several months ago when I planted the garden, I bought some dying Melampodium Melanie at Lowe's..they died after a couple weeks.  I bought some smaller Melampodium ( I think Paludosum) at a local nursery and it was thriving.  I saw these large leaves sprouting up one day and they bloomed like Melampodium..so maybe they were the dead ones from Lowe's?  At any rate, this morning they were invaded by army worms which are the only caterpillars I don't keep in my garden so I pulled some of it out and disposed of the critters. 

Caterpillars for Class

After getting permission from my boy's elementary teachers, we put together some boxes so they could take caterpillars to school.  I have never written a 'How-To' but going through this process and the realization of everything I have learned in the last few months about raising caterpillars and releasing butterflies..I thought maybe I would take some pictures and try to write about it.  For the caterpillars I raise, I use two habitats that were purchased online - one is from a kid's kit for Painted Ladies, the other is a small monarch castle I got from Shady Oak Butterfly Farm http://www.butterfliesetc.com/

For the boys' projects, I decided to emulate a release box we used at our wedding, just a little larger with room for live plant cuttings.  I started with a shoebox, a roll of tulle (on sale for $2 at Hobby Lobby) and a hot glue gun.

I  cut out rectangular 'viewing windows' on the long sides and the top of the shoe box.  I also figured this would help air circulate through the habitat so the caterpillars wouldn't suffocate.  The windows could not be wider than the width of the roll of tulle so I made sure not to cut the rectangles too large by placing the roll on top of the side and top of the box first, then just 'eyeballed' where to cut and used the combination of a cheap steak knife and my kitchen scissors.  My husband helped me with the second one and he prefers more accuracy so I believe he used a pencil to trace his outline.

Next, I cut out pieces of tulle to fit the inside of the box on the underside of the rectangular cut outs.  I trimmed any overlap but there needs to be at least a one inch or so overlap on all the edges to get the hot glue to adhere the tulle to the cardboard.  This step was tricky and we tried different ways with the glue gun, from putting the glue on the cardboard first, to putting it on the tulle then carefully laying it on top.  The problem is the glue dries fast and when the tulle is placed down it can bunch up and be hard to work with.  What finally worked best for me in the end was to lay the tulle over the opening as flat as I could, then use the glue gun on top of the edge of the tulle and pressing down with the glue gun onto the tulle and running the length of the cutout so that the glue presses flat and it instantly sticks to the cardboard.  The tulle easily pinches and bunches..so it just requires a little patience.  Also, I knew I was creating a caterpillar box for my little boys, not an art masterpiece.

After the shoebox was finished, I put a little camo tape on one end..I have boys, after all, so I wanted to make a butterfly habitat seem more 'boyish' to them..plus they just love the camo duct tape.  I gathered together some plastic kitchen containers.  I have been saving lots of these lately as I find they are very good for starting seeds on the porch before transplanting to the garden.  I used a half gallon milk jug, plastic soup container and plastic fig container with the first two containers tops sawed off.  You can use anything as long as it is not too deep nor too shallow to hold some potting mix and the plant cuttings.  I lined the bottom of the box with wax paper folded into a rectangle and doubled up..I find that it helps a little if you spill water and is easier to clean up caterpillar poop by replacing the wax paper.

Next, I make my fresh clipping 'potting mix'.  I must've read about this mix in a gardening book or blog somewhere but I love it!  I bought the moss and vermiculite at Lowe's in the garden center.  I guess I use about half and half..I have never really been one for measuring..but I fill the containers about half and half..then add water until it turns soupy and let it sit for a few minutes.  I just use a stick from the yard or whatever is lying around to stir the mix up a bit.  If it is too soupy and watery..just add a dash of vermiculite..a few sprinkles at a time and watch it absorb the water up until it is the right texture of a strange looking soil.  I used this mix with some coleus clippings and root hormone to successfully create some new coleus plants.

Then, I went to the garden and clipped some of the caterpillar's host plants.  I have read over and over again to clip plants at an angle..so I always do that.  For this box, I collected Gulf Fritillary caterpillars and their host plant is Passionflower vine - this is what I am cutting in the picture.  I have found in the past that some caterpillars will starve themselves to death if you just put them in a box with cut leaves of their host plant.  I started out using live plants when I ordered some online, then went to using clippings in water, but now I use my clippings in the potting mix.  I find that the plants stay green for a very long time..and sometimes they will even sprout roots at the bottom..which means you can then plant them to grow a new plant.  This is helpful when buying lots of plants just for caterpillars to eat them can get expensive!

After you have a few clippings, take them back to your potting mix to 'install them'.  They take some fiddling around with to get them to sit in there right sometimes.  Since I was putting these in a shoebox I had to get the bottom of the clipping far down into the mix enough that I could curl up the top of the plant so it didn't constantly brush the top of the lid if the kids wanted to remove the lid.  I also used my fingers to mound up a little bit of the mix at the base of the root I stuck in to stabilize it a little more.  If you play with it long enough, you will get them arranged the way you want them, just make sure they are secure enough so if they are bumped or something they won't pull up out of the mix making a mess everywhere.  

Arrange the plants inside your box.

Gently collect the caterpillars and place them in their new 'home'. 

Ready to go to school!  The plants should be checked daily and when they have all been eaten, need to be pulled out and replaced with fresh plants.  The vermiculite mix stays moist for a long time but if it starts to get dry, add a little water so it stays moist to the touch.  

I am no expert at all but I have learned a few things about raising caterpillars so far:

Caterpillars go through several stages, called instars, where they shed their old skin.  If the caterpillar is very still and not moving, don't touch it or mess with it, as it may be shedding its skin.  If the skin shedding process is disrupted, they can get stuck and die.

Caterpillars can get stressed out..don't handle them more than is needed.

When clipping live plants..ants and little spiders can get into the habitats on the plants.  If I see any other bug in the habitat I immediately squash (or remove) it.  Caterpillars have many enemies.  

Caterpillars sometimes die.  I have cared for several generations of several different species now, and as careful as I try to be, sometimes some of them start to shrivel a little or don't look good..then they just die, and  I don't know why.  I have read somewhere that when a butterfly lays eggs in the wild, typically only one of 100 will survive to full maturity.

Don't mess with the cocoons, nor the caterpillars when they get into 'J' formation.  You can tell they are about to pupate when they attach themselves to the top of the habitat or a piece of plant in a 'J'.  I never touch them or bother them during this stage although sometimes I am lucky enough to sit nearby and watch the cocoon form.