I’m assuming this one is a male since it made no attempt to visit the Passion Vine and instead spent its time eating nectar from Lantana and Zinnia.

Gulf Fritillary Feeding On Purple Flower

Gulf Fritillary Feeding On Orange Zinnia

This is an American Painted Lady on a Red Zinnia flower.

American Painted Lady Butterfly On Red Zinnia

Although I’ve seen them in the backyard before, I don’t believe I’ve ever taken a picture of the Red Admiral Butterfly.  This one was really drawn to the Lantana, and from the looks of the hind wings, it looks like it’s seen better days.

Red Admiral On Lantana

Red Admiral Butterfly On Old Purple Coneflower

Last, but not least is a Fiery Skipper Butterfly.  These things are always a challenge to photograph as they don’t stay in one place for very long.

Fiery Skipper Butterfly On Lantanta

Strangely enough, we have quite a few Monarch Butterflies right now.  We’ve been releasing 1-2 Monarchs per day for the last couple of weeks.  In a way, this makes some sense.  In October and November, the Monarchs we saw were likely migrating to Mexico and had not yet mated.  The Monarch Butterflies we are seeing right now have definitely mated, and are laying lots of eggs.  As we find the Caterpillars, we bring them inside and give them fresh Milkweed.  Could these just be local Monarchs that spend much of their time in the warmer climates?  They definitely don’t appear to be as worn as the October/November Monarchs were.  Another little interesting tidbit.  The majority of the Monarchs that we have been releasing have been female.  I’d say the ratio is like 3:1.

Right now we have 2 female Monarchs that we should be able to release tomorrow, and there’s a good chance another 2-3 will become Butterflies by morning.

We also have several Gulf Fritillary Caterpillars, Chrysalises, and Butterflies.  We haven’t been bringing in as many Caterpillars from this species inside as they tend to hide a bit better than the Monarchs (at least in our yard).

We’ve had a few days of below freezing temperatures, but not for very long (typical of Houston).  We have been covering much of our outdoor Milkweed with a clear shower curtain (Leecy’s idea) and that appears to give the Milkweed sufficient light, protects them from frost, and also serves as a nice bit of insulation.

Fortunately for the Butterflies, we still have quite a few Nectar plants (Lantana, Milkweed, Penta, Mexican Flame Vine) that have been providing the necessary food that these insects require.

This upcoming week is also Christmas!  Leecy says she doesn’t want anything for Christmas and wants to do something for a needy family so we’re going shopping tomorrow to buy some presents for whomever we decide to give them to.  There is a family we are thinking about that have 3 kids, so we talked about buying 3 bikes for them.  My idea is just do drop the bikes off during Christmas Eve night and let them think it’s from Santa.  I’d prefer they not know they were from Leecy and I.

Also this upcoming week I’ll be receiving my rented Canon 300mm f2.8 lens.  I’m really looking forward to shooting with this lens.  If I like it, and I don’t end up taking that trip to Mexico, I’ll probably end up buying one early next year.

That’s about it on this end.  I’m going to try and take some pictures of the Monarch Butterflies that we’ll release tomorrow so check back if you’re interested in seeing the pictures.

I got a few pictures, but I missed several and several others weren’t that good as I got over-excited.

The plants that seemed to be attracting the most Butterflies were the Lantana and Butterfly Bush.

The most prevalent Butterfly I saw today was the Eastern Black Swallowtail.  Interestingly, none of them were laying any eggs, they were just going after the nectar and chasing each other.

Eastern Black Swallowtail On Butterfly Bush

On top of all that, we’re having a crisis.  We are running out of Dutchman’s Pipevine (Aristolochia Fimbriata) and neither Joshua’s Native Plants nor Buchanan’s Native Plants has any in stock.  We have at least 15 huge Pipevine Swallowtail Caterpillars and although I’ve been thinking they will soon stop eating and form Chrysalises, I’m apparently mistaken.  I could have sworn they were going to stop eating yesterday, and yet today there they were, still munching away.  They were even eating the Dutchman’s Pipevine stems since there were so few leaves.

I’m going to start calling first thing in the morning and see if any other nurseries have this plant in stock.  For those of you in the Houston area reading this, if you know of a source, please share!

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