I’ve got to assume this drought is effecting the Butterflies.  I’m doing all I can to keep the nectar plants adequately watered.

Speaking of nectar plants, we pulled up the Indian Blanket Wildflowers.  Most of them had finished blooming, and they were starting to crowd out the other Wildflowers.  We planted some Zinnias in their place.

Texan Crescent Butterfly Stretching Wings On Black Eyed Susan

Gulf Fritillary On Coneflower And Bee Flying

Here’s another shot with the Gulf Fritillary on a Marigold.

Gulf Fritillary On Marigold

This last shot I really like as well.  We have lots of Purple Coneflower right now, all growing because Leecy saved the seeds from last year.

I like how the eye is drawn to the foreground Coneflower and Butterfly, but it appears as a nice pleasing background with all the other Coneflowers slightly blurred.

Gulf Fritillary On Field Of Purple Coneflowers

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