03 September 2007

For 2008: More Milkweed!



Maybe the milkweed has made me crazy, but the experience of watching the dozens of butterflies zoom around it and the dozens of monarch caterpillars happily munching away, has me committing more area to butterfly habitat next year. Here's another visiting lovely -- a swallowtail? -- pictured above. I'm searching through the catalogs looking for the magic words in the description: Attracts Butterflies. In particular, I hope to add a Paw Paw tree to draw Zebra Swallowtails.

I haven't had the chance to post due to dealing with a family illness. After being out of state for nearly a week, it was such a healing experience to drive back home and see the garden. Even though it's starting to fade as the heat is releasing it's grip a bit and the light begins to look like Fall, it looked like paradise after a week in hospital waiting rooms.

I'll start watching for the Monarch butterflies to be traveling by soon. One of my clearest memories from when we lived in North Carolina (and along a major Monarch flyway) was looking up into a stunningly blue September sky and seeing butterflies high above, so high they looked like pieces of distant confetti, tumbling southward. It's amazing they travel so far with that up and down rolling flight. This time, I'll be hoping that some of the butterflies traveling will be the offspring of some of the fat caterpillars that munched on this milkweed at Larrapin Garden.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Leigh,
Sorry to hear about your family illness. Now I'm convinced that you and I are truly kindred spirits. My mother has been hospitalised for the past 2 weeks, and I've been spending most of that time with her. You're so right--my garden, too, has felt like paradise after the artificial and unpleasant hospital environment. I've still got a few chrysalids left, and releasing butterflies now seems even more magical than it did before.
I'm fairly sure that this photo depicts a male eastern black swallowtail (minus a tail or two, apparently--not uncommon this late in the season). He's a little faded but still beautiful, just like our gardens.
I do hope your loved one recovers very soon. If you would ever like to email me, please don't hesitate: yesandgirl@hotmail.com
I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers, Leigh.
Kindest regards,
Tina

Sue Swift said...

Hi – this is an invitation to join the Garden Bloggers Retro carnival. I don’t know if you’ve ever come across the concept of a Blog carnival – if not I’ve explained it in detail on my site today (Oct 1). But basically the idea is to revive an old post which you think is worth rereading, or which you think new readers might enjoy. Send me the link to the post, and in November I’ll publish a series of posts describing and linking to all the posts people have nominated.
I hope you’ll join in and we have a fun carnival!
Sue