Monarchs

It is the time of year for Monarchs in the Atlanta area. I have plenty of milkweed this year. I have seen a few flying around, but I have yet to see any eggs or cats on the milkweed. Crossing my fingers!! 

Slow Summer For Butterflies

I have not had any caterpillars this summer. Here in Atlanta, we are just starting to see butterflies and mostly Eastern Yellow Tiger Swallowtails. My family was in the North Georgia Mountains last week and we saw a lot of Tiger Swallowtails and Pipevine or Spicebush Swallowtails. It was encouraging after a disappointing summer. Our area has had a lot of rain this summer with pop thunderstorms almost every afternoon. I don't know of that would affect the butterfly population. I am hoping for Monarchs later this month. We have plenty of the host plant, milkweed. We will see soon enough.

Pesky Ants

I have started my zinnia seeds and some bulbs for container flower displays. Today I thought I would share one of my little discoveries that has nothing to do with butterflies, but it does have to do with NOT using pesticides which will kill the beautiful butterflies.
Simple Green kills (or paralyzes) ants on the spot. In the spring they always find the cat food bowl. I once had a bottle of SG handy & sprayed them with it. BAM! So, if you are like me & try to keep any pesticide use at the very minimum, you may find this tip handy. The next thing I do is put the liquid poison bait brand Ant Terro (sp?) in a small container with a tiny hole so the ants can get to it, but My pets can't. After a few days of the ants taking the bait back to the nest, no more ants. 

Winter

It is winter in my butterfly garden. One, and maybe the only, downside to butterfly gardening is the way I have to leave my gardens in winter. It is not that big of a deal for us, but it could be a draw back in areas people might like to entertain all year. I leave all of the stems and branches because they may have chrysalises on them all winter. Also, the chances of having plants like Lantana return are better if you leave them uncut through the winter. Otherwise cold air will go through the hollow shaft to the roots. Several types of Lantana will return in my area (Atlanta), year after year. Mrs. Huff is one of them and she can grow to be very large. Always give her plenty of room to spread out.

After a couple weeks of warm enough weather for butterflies to emerge in the spring, I will trim and rework my butterfly gardens. It is mid February and a good time to start some seeds indoors if you want o go that route. This year I plan to grow Zinnias, Zinnias, and more Zinnias. They butterflies love them and they are easy to grow from seed and very economical. Once the flowers have faded, the song birds will enjoy the seeds the Zinnias set.

No Monarch babies as of yet

I saw our first Monarchs last week, but none have laid eggs on our milkweed. I wonder if the temps have them moving on southward opting not to lay eggs here this year. Or is it just my milkweed? I just don't know.

We have had some gulf fritillary come out of chrysalis, but they have been very small. I am at a bit of a loss for that one as well. 

Zinnia with Lantana Bandana

This summer the flower beds have been visited by Gulf Fritilary and Skippers the most. We have also had Black Swallowtail, but they were very late this summer and we did not see them in the numbers we had last year by any stretch of the imagination. We probably had about 20 Black Swallowtail cats on our carrots and parsley. Right now we are trying to save the Gulf Fritilary cats from the ants that patrol their host plant, the Passion Flower Vine. We are still waiting for the Monarchs. We expect them any day now with them peaking mid October here in the Atlanta area. 

The flower beds have really matured this summer.

Lantana is great! It is easy and the butterflies love it, but they love Zinnias better. We will be using a lot more Zinnia next summer. It is so easy to grow from seed. You just need to be sure to water the Zinnia plants in the morning as it susceptible to mildew, especially in humid summer climates like Atlanta.