Giant Swallowtail On Pink Butterfly Bush

This Butterfly was so enamored with this particular Butterfly Bush I could barely get a few pictures.  It would visit one section of the plant, then fly to another, then fly to another.  I assume this was a female as I did see her flying near one of our Fruit trees, presumably to lay eggs.

Giant Swallowtail Getting Nectar From Pink Butterfly Bush

Leecy who’s always looking for ways to sell things, has been selling the Lemons for 50 cents and she tells me she’s made about $50.00 so far.  Compared to the Lemons in our local grocery stores, our Lemons are about twice as big.

Today Leecy did our next to last picking.  We only have a dozen left after these that she picked today.

Leecy's Lemons December 2010

Mystery Eggs On Republic Of Texas Orange

I can’t think of a Butterfly that lays eggs like this, but I’m really not sure what they are.

Does anyone have any idea what type of eggs these are?

Before taking the picture I touched the Caterpillar and it shot out its Osmeterium (two antennae).

Shortly after I took this picture I went back so look at it, and it was gone.  Hopefully a wasp didn’t get it.

Giant Swallowtail Caterpillar Displaying Osmeterium

We haven’t seen any Monarch Butterflies, but we do have 9 Caterpillars from the one Monarch from Mexico.  To give the Caterpillars the best chance of success, I have quarantined them in our Butterfly Enclosure.  I did this to protect the Caterpillars from predatory wasps and flies.  So far, all of the Monarch Caterpillars appear to be doing great.

Mexican Monarch Caterpillar Feeding On Milkweed Blooms

Mexican Monarch Caterpillar Feeding On Milkweed Flower

Mexican Monarch Caterpillar Feeding

Another Butterfly that has been making daily visits is a Giant Swallowtail.  From what I can tell, she really likes laying eggs on our Moro Blood Orange Tree.  On that tree alone I’ve counted over 9 different eggs, and I’m sure there’s some I haven’t seen.

Giant Swallowtail Butterfly Egg

I was fortunate enough to also catch a glimpse of 2 Giant Swallowtail Caterpillars. The Caterpillar in the picture below is about two days old.  You can even see the egg casing (white) in the background.

Two Day Old Giant Swallowtail Caterpillar

We’ve also seen the Eastern Black Swallowtail Butterfly.  I’ve been able to find 1 Caterpillar so far.  I’ll post some pictures of that later.

We saw a Monarch (it never did land on our Milkweed), Gulf Fritillary, and a Giant Swallowtail.  I also noticed that one of Monarch eggs had hatched, and another should hatch by tomorrow.

That’s what we “saw”, but we also managed to get some pictures of something we have never seen before, at least not in our backyard.

However, before all that, let me share a picture of something we have seen many times, but it’s always nice when it happens.

Giant Swallowtail Laying Eggs On Moro Orange Tree

The above picture is a Giant Swallowtail laying eggs on a Moro Orange Tree, also knows as a Blood Orange Tree.  She was also laying eggs on our Republic of Texas Orange Tree and Ruby Red Grapefruit Tree.

The part I’ve never seen before is a Giant Swallowtail “Puddling.”  Puddling is where Butterflies sip moisture and minerals from mud or sandy soils. What was interesting is that the Giant Swallowtail was “Puddling” in my backyard.  I did spread some topsoil earlier in the year, so I suppose there were salts and minerals in the topsoil.

Giant Swallowtail Puddling

Giant Swallowtail Puddling Closeup

There are a total of 5 videos, each one is less than 2 minutes long.  Watching these should give you a decent idea of how to start (or continue) a successful Butterfly Garden.

In this first video, I talk about how to buy Milkweed, what prices you should expect to pay (at least in Houston), how to tell if you have healthy Milkweed, and how to plant your Milkweed plants.

In this second video clip, I talk about the importance of having Nectar plants for your Butterfly Garden.  I also show a brief clip of my Butterfly Enclosures.

By the way, some good nectar plants I recommend are Penta, Salvia, Purple Coneflower, Lantana, Butterfly Bush, and the Cigar Bush.

In this third video clip, I talk about some other Host Plants for your Butterfly Garden including, Pipevine, Fennel, and Citrus Trees.

In the fourth video clip, I talk about some additional Host Plants for Butterflies including Spicebush and Passion Vine,  as well as what kinds of Butterflies you can expect to attract with the different Host Plants.

In this fifth and final video clip I talk about some additional Butterfly Gardening tools such as portable Butterfly Enclosures and long tweezers.

If you have any questions about these videos, where to buy plants or the additional Butterfly Gardening tools, just send me an email or leave a comment.

Hope you enjoy and it makes sense!

I previously had about 10 milkweed plants (which have been in pots that I take indoors when it gets too cold), and bought 6 more.  I also bought 2 new cigar plants (a favorite among Hummingbirds, Bees, and Butterflies), a new Blood Orange tree (gave my other small one to my neighbor),  1 Munsted Lavender, 1 French Lavender, 1 Godwin Creek Lavender, 4 Sweet Onions, 1 Cherry Tomato, 1 Dill, 1 Trailing 1 Purple Lantana, 1 Texas Lantana, 1 Giant Dutchman’s Pipevine, 2 Dutch Pipevine, 1 Russelia Desert Fire, 1 Fuchsia Gartenmeister, 2 Black Eyed Susan, and 1 Mexican Flame Vine.

Oh, and before I forget, I also bought 45 bags of hardwood mulch, 20 bags of potting soil, and 1 triple layer bird bath.

In case you’re wondering, my back, legs, and arm are killing me:-).

I’m including some pictures so y’all can see what my backyard looks like in the very beginning of the season as well as what some of these plants look like.

Below is a picture of my cigar plant as a result of the very cold winter.  This is probably my favorite plant for Butterfly Gardening as Hummingbirds, Bees, and Butterflies all love this plant (at least when it doesn’t look like this).

Freeze Damaged Cigar Plant

Here is a picture of the new Cigar Plant I planted today.

Cigar Plant 2010

Below is some of my Milkweed that was outdoors all Winter, and obviously freeze damaged.

Freeze Damaged Milkweed

Here’s a picture of my Milkweed that we would take indoors when it got below freezing.

Bunch Of Mexican Milkweed

And here’s some Milkweed I bought from Joshua’s Native Plants (some of the lushest Milkweed I’ve ever seen).  I couldn’t fit all of the Milkweed into the Butterfly cage.  I’m hopefully protecting these new plants from Aphids which are all over the Milkweed in the picture above.

Lush Milkweed And Butterfly Cage

Leecy planted a bunch of Herbs in our garden.  Many of these Herbs also serve as host plants for Butterflies.  In a few months you probably won’t even be able to see the pool in the background as many of these plants become quite large.

View Of Garden 2010

Here’s a picture of the Rose Garden, Bird Feeders, and my new triple layer Bird Bath.  The birds seemed a little nervous about the new Bird Bath, but hopefully they’ll adjust.  By the way, most of the Roses are antique Roses, and none of them had any damage this Winter.

Triple Layer Bird Bath And Rose Garden

I was going to post pictures of some of the individual plants, but instead will just post a picture of how the “nectar” section of the Butterfly Garden looks right now.  I can list the individual plants in this section if folks are interested.

Nectar Section Of Butterfly Garden

Here’s the tally

• 56 Improved Meyers Lemon (down from over 300 last year)
• 2 Republic of Texas Oranges
• 2 Ruby Red Grapefruit

I think the numbers are down in the Improved Meyers Lemon because of the extreme drought we had this year.  Even though the numbers are significantly down, the sizes of the Lemons are much larger.  Probably twice as big as they were last year.

Oh, that little Apple by the Ruby Red Grapefruit is a “Two-In-One” Apple tree.  We only picked 2 of those and they tasted terrible.

Improved Meyers Lemon Crop 09

Ruby Red Grapefruit Crop 09

Republic Of Texas Orange Crop 09

This is a Giant Swallowtail Chrysalis that we found on our Ruby Red Grapefruit tree.

Recently we noticed that we had 2 caterpillars on our Ruby Red Grapefruit tree.  Rather than bring them inside (since I have 100% failure with that) we covered the tree with a protective cover.  So today we go out to check and see how the Caterpillars are doing, and one of them was absolutely huge!

Now on to the pictures.  The first one is the Giant Swallowtail Caterpillar next to Leecy’s finger.  You’d never guess that bird poop looking thing would turn into such a beautiful Butterfly.

This next shot is what the Caterpillar will do when it feels threatened.  It pops up those big horn looking things and emits a spray (Leecy describes it as a bad fruit smell).