Butterfly And Wildlife Gardening And Photography» Salvia Leucantha

Butterflies Dropping Out Of The Sky

texdr — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 04:22:37 +0000

Poor Butterflies. Today was a beautiful day, but it was a little chilly for Butterflies. I literally saw two Monarchs drop out of the sky. These poor Butterflies were doing all they could to warm up in the sun, but the high was only 68 degrees. They’d be flying around, then that cold North wind would blow, and they’d just drop straight down to the ground. Once they would warm back up, it was back to the nectar plants.

I saw a total of 4 Monarchs and 1 Painted Lady today. Three of the Monarchs were ones that we had already tagged. I can’t imagine that these Monarchs would still make it to Mexico, but there’s always hope. If nothing else, they’ve got plenty of Nectar plants right here, and if it gets too cold, we’ll probably bring them inside for the night.

Painted Lady On Salvia Leucantha

Painted Lady Getting Nectar On Salvia Leucantha

Male Monarch On Milkweed On Chilly Day

Notice the Spotted Cucumber Beetle next to the Monarch below?

Spotted Cucumber Beetle Feeding With Male Monarch

In the picture below, we had to re-tag this Monarch because the sticker was placed too high. You can see the outline of where the old tag was placed.

Retagged Monarch On Bamboo

Male Monarch With Wings Spread

Ruby Throated Hummers Working On Getting Fat

texdr — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 02:46:47 +0000

Thanks to Hurricane Karl, we are seeing somewhat cooler weather. For you Northerners, that translates to it was just about 90 degrees, which is quite tolerable to me for this area.

Because of the cooler weather, Leecy and I ventured out to the backyard, she was doing her crafting, and I decided to try and get some new pictures of the Ruby Throated Hummingbirds.

Afterwords, we came inside and just happened to catch this wonderful video on PBS called “Hummingbirds Magic In The Air.” You can actually watch the video online here.

One of the more unusual photographs I took today was of this Hummer flying towards the camera. The plant that it was feeding on is a Penta.

Ruby Throated Hummer Flying Towards Camera

Another plant that I really like the color of is the Salvia Leucantha. It has these lavender blooms that normally attracts lots of Bees, but the Hummers seem to like it as well.

Ruby Throated Hummer Feeding On Salvia Leucantha

A few weeks ago we purchased a new Hummingbird feeder and it has become one of their favorite feeders. I normally don’t care for glass feeders as I’m concerned that the feeders will fall and the glass will break, but this one is nice because it has such a deep reservoir.

Ruby Throated Hummer Feeding On New Feeder

Finally, after all that feeding, every Hummer needs to rest.

Female Ruby Throated Hummer Resting On Perch

How To Build A Successful Butterfly Garden Videos

texdr — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 23:07:23 +0000

I thought I would put together some brief videos on how to create a successful Butterfly Garden for my last day of vacation.

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!

Bumblebee On Salvia

texdr — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 01:29:08 +0000

I really like the color of this plant. It’s called a Salvia Leucantha. Supposedly it produces lots of nectar and the Butterflies, Bees, and Hummingbirds all seem to like it.

The picture below is of a Bumblebee.

Bumblebee On Salvia