Well, Sherry, I know about not posting. It's been awhile since I've been here at the butterfly forum. Sometimes you just get distracted away from stuff and..well.you know. First I had computer issues, then got busy..But I dropped by here from time to time. Nice to see that many of the group are still here.

Maryann in CT

Sorry to hear you have been under the weather. I noticed your lack of posts so I even looked for you over at Network54. Did not see you there either. So, now I know why.

Ooh, I just joined Network54 - for the hummingbird forum. Can't seem to get the little buggers to stop on the trip North in spring, darn it!

MissSherry, I kind of thought you might be sick and am really happy you're on the mend!

Mary, so good to see you here again, too! Really have missed you this past year - seems like it has been awhile since we've seen your posts.

I just ordered some Zinnia seed from Hazzard's - Whirligig, Cut & Come Again, Sombrero, and Chippendale - love those bicolors and singles. Some of these mixes produce doubles among the singles. Some of these Zinnias are also shorter than the Benary's, California Giants, etc., running between 14-24" tall.

Also ordered some White Cleome, Gomphocarpus, and Tithonia Fiesta de Sol, a shorter Mexican Sunflower.

MissSherry, we have had a warm winter, too. Kinda makes me worry about having another hot, dry summer. We are still in a drought now, but they don't know yet if it will extend beyond April yet.

Cross your fingers........

I cannot grow Spicebush - that's a fact. After 3 attempts, I, like Tony Avent, am giving up.

My Wafer Ash is still fine - this will be its 3rd year. Are you just beefing up your collection?

Tulip Tree grows much faster, but the Tigers have yet to use it, preferring the Wild Cherry so far.

Good see you two back!

Susan

Susan, I've got some places picked out where I think the spicebushes are most likely to thrive - a little sun, mostly shade, with the hose nearby, so if it gets dry, I can easily water them.
I've got another spot picked out for the wafer ash. For whatever reason, the tulip trees in the bottom of the hollow aren't putting out many new seedlings, so I thought I'd help that situation out, if I can with another tulip tree. I've found tiger cats on the low branches of them a few times, so, it's used as a host plant here.
Actually, we're having a cold night tonight, down into the 30's, but nothing exceptionally cold.
You've REALLY got a lot of seeds to plant! I've got a good many, too, and it looks like it'll be time to start them before we know it.
Maryann, I can't remember when you last posted! I always think of you as the one who raised some baltimore checkerspots - what beauties! Good to hear from you again.
I haven't visited Network54 either, KC, but I'll pick up again there, too. This flu really had me down for a long time. 'Hope we can talk moths soon! I didn't raise any last year, so I'd really like to raise some lunas this year. I've even planted out another sweetgum for them - I dug it up from my garden, grew it in a container, then planted it out. One good thing about sweetgum, I've never (knock on wood) seen any deer browsing damage on any.
Sherry

I do have a ton of seeds, but aeed "packets" contain so few seeds, usually about 50, that I end up planting a whole pack and they either don't all germinate, or I have to thin them out to the point where I don't have near as many as I started out with. I plant them close together in case some don't come up or don't make it into a larger plant. And Hazzards prices are so reasonable. I won't plant all of them, but on the other hand I won't feel so bad about the losses with a multitude of seeds as I would by losing a few of a 50-seed packet.
Tigers do use Tulip Tree here in Oklahoma (Sandy says she gets eggs on hers and her Cherry tree as well). They just haven't used my TT yet.

There is a Tulip Tree silk moth, Callosamia angulifera, in your range. FYI. Beautiful motb! The eggs, layed in rows of 4-10 (per Bill Oehke website) are deposited at dusk on the leaves. At another site, it is said they prefer to lay eggs on the juvenile Tulip Trees. They spin their cocoon on a curled leaf that then falls to the ground. Cool, but I would think there is a high probability that they would be smushed. In same genus as Promethea, but a bit larger moth than Promethea. Sounds fascinating to me. I just don't get any silks here in the city.

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Callosamia angulifera

Sorry you have been ill, yah this forum has not had much action of late but pretty soon, I bet it will pick up. Journey North will be starting their updates February 2, looking forward to finding out how the Monarchs faired this year so far. Hopefully good.

I've never seen the tulip tree silkmoth, Susan, but there's another cousin, the sweetbay silkmoth/C. securifera, that I've found here. It's about the only lep I can think of off hand that uses sweetbay down here.
Here's a female sweetbay moth that came from a cocoon I found low on a sweetbay tree -
{{gwi:450518}}
Sherry

Wow! Those silk moths are just otherworldly, aren't they?

Susan

What a beautiful moth. I'm glad you're feeling better, Sherry. I haven't been on here since I tucked all my chrysalis in for the winter, but popped over to post a question from the cottage garden forum. I discovered the quilting forum and stained glass forum. So many interests, so little time. No more new forums for me...I'm sticking with the six I'm trying to follow. LOL

Sherry, do you ever have Cecropias down there? I have quite a few cocoons in my garage overwintering.

Maryann

Ps. Nice to know I've been missed!

I've never seen cecropias flying here naturally, Maryann, but they've been officially cataloged for this area by the USGS, or whatever that site is, as I recall. I've raised some from eggs and released them - they're beyond gorgeous!
Luna, polyphemus, promethea, sweetbay, regal, imperial, and io moths used to be common here, but they're much fewer in number since the hurricane.
Sherry

I'm another who hasn't been around in a while. We are also having quite a warm winter. Just in the last week I have seen a Giant Swallowtail and have had two overwintering Spicebush chrysalis eclose safely. We have continued to see GFs, Sulphurs, and Long-tailed Skippers all winter. I even found a good size Polydamas caterpillar on my vine, which meant there had to be a female around or would the eggs overwinter, I wonder?

I have had quite a few Monarch caterpillars and butterflies around this year. Appears to be a healthy bunch for a change.

Hummingbirds on the other hand have been traveling through but not staying. I have seen my female Rufous from 3 winters ago - she was banded then and comes to visit every few weeks. Don't know where she goes inbetween times but she has her own feeder that is not used by any other so when I see a bird there, its her. The bander this year caught an immature male Ruby and it has since decided to boycott my feeders but I occasionally see him in his favorite tree. I still have lots of plants in bloom so the feeders aren't in high demand and the bees are making it difficult for the birds even if they wanted to use them.

Here I am holding the immature male. The pink is fabric paint that the bander puts on so that if he is trying to trap others, he will know not to catch this one.

{{gwi:450519}}

Awwwww, how sweet, Mary! I can't imagine being able to catch one of these cuties. Their curiosity will bring them pretty close to me, but not that close, lol!

I've been reading some articles about the warm winter that the entire country is experiencing this year, except for Alaska. Cherry trees are budding out in Washington, D.C. Here in Oklahoma, forsythia and daffodils are up, and in yard, I have Henbit and Dandelions blooming, along with other little weeds. Some folks are seeing the trees budding out, too. Geese and other migrating birds are flying North way early. We have definitely had a Zone 8 winter in Zone 7. Consequently, forecasters have predicted an early spring this year. Seems like we will have a nice, long growing season. I just pray for butterflies that I did not have last year. Lowest numbers in over 10 years since I started attracting and raising them. Also praying for rain, lots of precious, life giving rain, and not another drought.

Did you get your Pentas replaced? I thought it was you, Mary, who lost a lot of them during a cold winter a couple years back.

Susan

It's good to hear that you're still seeing so many butterflies, Mary, and that hummer is precious! I've never once held a hummingbird.
I'm seeing more and more evidence of spring, including lots of new growth from the bottom of the false nettles, so the red admirals should have some host plant up soon - question marks, too. And my Asclepias curassavica is making new growth from the ground up, too, another host plant.
We've been lucky here with plenty of rain - 'hope OK and TX get plenty, too, Susan!
Sherry

Susan - yes I got most replaced and did start a few from cuttings. Most everything came back from the terrible 10 days of freezing we had 3 winters ago. Last winter was not as bad, things got bit and tender plants like the Jatrophas and tropical like plants died back but still flourished. We did notice that many bloomed very late but have actually held on through this winter instead of stopping the blooming cycle in Nov. I

If you go to the Hummingbird forum on GW, under the post of Any January activity, I put several more pictures of the hummingbird banding. Its really interesting the study they are doing and they have found many more Rufous this fall/winter in the Panhandle and Mobile,AL area than ever before. In fact more species have been banded this year and most are of the Western breeding species like Broad-tailed, Black-chinned, Rufous, even a Calliope and another Allens was found. Guess they decided to hang around there rather than coming further south since the weather is warmer there too. Each time we get a cooler spell we see another bird or so but no one is having the numbers of the past 2 years.

Good to see everyone is coming back here to post. I have noticed that many of the forums are really declining in participation. Even the Florida Forum, which used to be very active and lots about flowers, birds, butterflies, etc is now mostly veggie people. There was even a big blowout about it and lots of the "oldtimers" quit posting.
Guess Facebook and Twitter have taken over alot of the traffic. Glad to know some of us "oldies" are still here!

Sherry - hope you continue to feel better!

Hi MissSherry, nice to "see" you. Glad you are feeling better. That is a beautiful orange moth!

Personally I don't do Facebook and still prefer the forum format best for a good discussion. This forum may be quiet during the winter, but around here there aren't too many Leps flying around anyway! Although I do have about a dozen Bluebirds coming to visit fairly regularly and eat some suet nuggets.

This year I can't wait for the gardens to start growing and to see some butterflies!

Hi all,
I thought I'd check in too. I stop by and read every now and then and I'm never real far away, just either too busy to post much in the spring and summer or don't have anything to post about in the winter. I've been going on other GW forums and doing reading, like Container Gardening, Bonsai (that concept still confuses me), Tomato, and various others.

MissSherry, Sorry to hear that you've been sick but am glad to hear that you're recuperating. You have to be well because those leps need you. ;-) Your absence here would surely be noticed because you answer so many of our questions. I appreciate all the help that you and Susan and others have been since I got started into butterflies.

I'm really looking forward to the upcoming butterfly season. Now that I finally have a nice stand (as soon as they come up, that is) of false nettles, I hope to be able to raise some Red Admiral cats eventually. My paw paw trees that my husband and I planted in 2010 are only about a foot tall (those things must really be slow growers), so I'm hoping that if I do ever get Zebra Swallowtails that it will be a few years yet because I want the cats to have plenty to eat. Last year I finally got some Common Buckeye cats to raise; the butterflies had laid on the snapdragons in my garden. I was also thrilled that I collected Giant Swallowtail eggs from my rue and gas plants and raised all of them with no problems whatsoever (compared to having several years of a lot of them dying as tiny cats). I'm going to raise them the same exact way again and see if I can repeat the success (no ventilation in the container and had it sitting on the back porch). It's exciting to think about the possibilities of what might show up here every year. It's almost like a treasure hunt. :)

Finally, I'm so glad to see that some regulars are still coming here to the forum!
Cathy

Cathy, pawpaws are indeed slow growers. I can't remember how long I've had mine, but it's been years, and I, too, was glad I didn't get any cats for several years. My tallest one is about ?10' or 12' tall, and it took a long time for it to get that tall.
Terrene, I've got a Facebook page, but only because my daughters insisted - I almost never visit it. I can't navigate it, and don't really want to learn how. I don't Tweet or Twitter or text either. I've done well to learn how to operate a computer, and that's as high-tech as I plan to get! :)
I worked too hard outside about a week ago, and got down in my back, not too bad, though. So now that I'm nearly pain free, I went back outside today and did a LITTLE. I think at 63 I'm going to have to do just a little each day. I pruned back my 'Hot Lips' salvia down to the nice size clump of new growth at the base - it had gotten real leggy. I also pruned back a good bit of dead tops, noticing that my coral porterweeds are returning. As mild as this winter has been, I might could have overwintered a blue or purple one. I transplanted some stoke's asters, cut back a rose, and stuck the trimmings to see if they'd root - it's a great smelling rose, Maggie.
I saw a cloudless sulphur and a sleepy orange, that's all. I'll work some more tomorrow.
Sherry

Sherry, doesn't sound like you just did a "little" work in the garden. I'm 63 also, and have slowed down a lot due to back issues mostly. But, I still do all my own gardening with no help. I only "farm out" mowing the little bit of grass (mostly weeds) that I have.

I need to get started with some cleanup, but am hesitant to do a lot. I did have some Black Swallowtails last year, and I'm always afraid I will damage or dispose of a chrysalis in early cleanup. Some of my Lady in Red Salvias are still green, can you believe it? Also, stems on a few of the Tropical Milkweed are green, so a few may come back from roots, too. As I said, it's been a very mild winter here.

Fennel is looking fantastic, but I am convinced that everything in the Apiaceae family thrives in cooler temps. Fennel does tolerate the warmer temps better than Dill, though. Other plants that have displayed green foliage throughout this winter are Oregano, Mountain Mint, Verbena bonariensis, Butterfly Bushes, and Dianthus. Not really surprising, I guess.

I am hoping that my Pyramid Bush comes back from the roots this year. It is really a Zone 8 plant, but I planted it in an area that provides it with a micro climate of sorts, and since it is a warm winter, I am crossing my fingers. Small butterflies, bees, and day flying sphinx moths really loved it last year, and it is a very pretty little shrub with its grayish green foliage and magenta pink bloom clusters.

I was highly disappointed with my David Verity Cuphea. Never attracted anything at all, so it may be coming out this year. I had hoped that the hummingbirds and larger butterflies would like it. I did have lots of Monarchs in the fall and they showed no interest in it whatsoever, preferring the Tropical Milkweed, Sunflowers, Golden Crownbeard, Cosmos, and Verbena bonariensis.

Cathy, I love Red Admiral cats! They are so cute curled up inside the nettle leaves. They are easy to raise, too, IMHO. There is a definite ebb and flow to butterfly gardening. Some years I have a lot of butterflies, a lot of a particular species and very little of another, just like everything in life. I have been so lucky to have experienced what I have in this hobby, so I am not going to complain a whole lot, especially about circumstances over which I have absolutely no control. I have been rewarded beyond my wildest dreams in this endeavor and am so grateful to have met so many lovely gardeners on this forum who have the same ideals and goals, and who share their experiences so freely and lovingly.

So, I raise my glass (of water) to another anxiously awaited year of butterfly gardening. May we all be enriched by our 2012 experience!

Susan

Sherry, Well, at least I know now that it's not just my trees that grow slowly. I just wish they'd grow a little faster. I want to get some zebras someday and I'm not getting any younger. Ha. Yours sound like they're a nice size but will probably double that size if I remember correctly.

Susan, Your description of the RA cats makes me want them even more! Yes, I bet they're cute snuggled up in those leaves. :) It is very interesting the way the butterflies are, that some show up some years and not others. I saw several RA butterflies here one year, but I didn't have false nettle at the time. Hopefully, some will show up again eventually. I raised some Eastern Commas here two years in a row and last year I didn't get any eggs on my small hackberry trees, although I did see a butterfly several times. It always amazes me how the butterflies can find their host plants even if they're nestled amongst other plants and close to our house. I sit the hackberry trees there in their pots; they sit in between a bunch of potted tropical milkweed plants and the butterflies don't seem to have any trouble finding them, and the same goes for other butterflies and the host plants that they lay eggs on.

Yes, here's hoping that we will all have good experiences in the upcoming butterfly season and that they will do well and create healthy future generations.

Cathy

Well, it hasn't been a bit spring-like today, temps in the upper 40's, and it's supposed to go into the 20's tonight. The commercial blueberry growers in this area are worried about losing their crop, since so many of the bushes are in bloom, some may have even made little green berries. I haven't paid my bushes much attention, but I think only the early fruiting cultivars are blooming. Let's hope the growers have planted early, medium and late blooming/fruiting types, too!
I assume that the weather has taken a cold turn all over the midwest and the east, since the eastern two-thirds of the country seems to get the same fronts, just with different degrees of intensity. Here's hoping that y'all don't lose any of your plants!
Sherry

Ah, yes.....blueberries. Oklahoma is kind of on the border if whether or not folks should grow Northern Highbush varieties or Southern Highbush. I would guess that in Mississippi, mostly Southern Highbush is grown. I grow the Northern Highbush, which tolerates cold much better. If we get a frost or freeze (and they are usually very short term when the plants are in bloom), they handle it with ease. But I imagine the Southern Highbush are not quite as tolerant of cold, especially if they are in bloom. This weather, over the last few years, has really had a negative impact on crops nationwide. If it's not drought, it's flooding, or freezes, or hail, or something. I heard on the news the other day, that beef prices are going up 10% because of the effects of the drought in Texas and neighboring states because ranchers had lost many of their herds during the scorching temps and lack of rainfall. What next?

Cathy, I have a trick to attract the Emperors to my Hackberry trees. I put out a plate of rotting fruit and keep it filled nearly all summer long. They hang around and mate and lay eggs much longer that way. Your Red Admirals will also be attracted to the fruit, as well as Commas and Question Marks. Placing the fruit plate or hanging a suet feeder with a rotting banana close by your trees will help tremendously.

Susan

Susan, I had tried rotten fruit here two different years with not much luck, unfortunately. I saw an Eastern Comma on it a few times but other than that, nothing in the way of butterflies. We have some type of huge bee here (reminds me of a huge yellow jacket) that was attracted to it and for that reason alone I stopped putting it out. I don't know what kind of bee it is but I noticed that they like to hang out around a lilac bush that we have. They do this every year. They're so big they scare me. :-O Oh, my fruit mixture was overripe bananas, beer, and molasses.
Cathy

Cathy, I bet they are Cicada Killer wasps. They are HUGE! They have a heavy, lumbering flight pattern, and often fly into the side of the house and otber structures. While they are quite intimidating - IMHO - they really are harmless. Most of the flying CKs in the garden are males and can't sting. The females can, but they are very non-aggressive, usually only stinging if they get caugherht and are handled. That said, I don't want one landing on me either!! Ugh!

I don't know why I am seeing so many over the last few years or not, if my garden has become more "comfortable" for them, or if cicadas/locusts are more numerous, or the CKs come in waves/cycles like the cicadas/locusts, or what. But I wish they would go away. Oh, they also nectar on the flowers and fruit, too. I just try my best to ignore them. Hard.

with the fruit, I just persisted until I began to get a population of Emperors and other fruit feeding butterflies. It make take some time to attract them. I have to admit, bananas are their favorite. Last year, I bought 5 lbs of overripe bananas at a time from my grocer, who sells them for folks who make banana bread, etc., and I would put out a huge bag on the porch, and in the suet feeder. I had tons of Nessus Sphinx in the early morning and evening, and they are such fun to watch. Cute little buggars, too!

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Cicada Killer

Susan, I think that's what those huge "bees" must be. I know that they're larger than any other I've ever see, like about twice the size of a yellow jacket. I agree with you, harmless or not, I wouldn't want one on me! I've never noticed any of them with any cicadas, but the pictures of your link sure look a lot like this creature. I never used to see them at all and like with you there have been a lot of them here over the past five years or so.

Maybe I'll have to give the fruit another go sometime. It's just that I got tire of running down to the store every week to look for overripe bananas on sale and them not having any most of the time. Then when I finally got some, the butterflies mostly ignored it anyway. I'd love to be able attract some emperors here sometime. I saw one here for the first time last year. Funny thing is that it landed right on me! It was only there for a second and flew off never to be seen again.

That would have been neat to see all those Nessus Sphinx moths! To be honest, I don't know much about them. Do they nectar on any flowers at your place? Every summer I have some nicotianas blooming and there are these real big moths that come to nectar on them, and I'm not sure if that's what those are or not. I had some big cats on the plants last year, but I didn't bring in any to raise. I think they were either lucky or there weren't any kinds of wasps here that would lay eggs on them because I didn't see any with wasp eggs on them at all. I just hope that they all ended up being fine.
Cathy

Cathy,

My $ would be on European hornets. The lilac is the key. They grab the bark off of it for nest building and they drink sap from it. The only time I've ever seen European hornets was on my lilac. Google "european hornet lilac" and you will come up with some hits.

They are referred to as "gentle giants." Unless you encounter them near their nest, they don't really care much about you. While a swarm of them was dismembering my lilac, I was able to get up close and personal with them, closely watching what they were doing. It was really cool. Unfortunately, I had moved out of that house and had no camera equipment available. :(

KC

Here is a link that might be useful: PSU's webpage on European Hornet

Cathy, my Homeland store sells the overripe bananas in huge 5 lb bags at 25 cents/lb. A 5 lb bag will last me 2-3 weeks.

If you can't find overripe bananas, you can get the regular bananas, put them in a plastic bag in the sun. The ethylene gases will start working more quickly to ripen them, and they'll be ready in a couple of days. I have done this several time when I haven't gotten to the store on time to get the bags of overripes.

Nessus sphinx are only a bit larger than the Snowberrys and Clearwings. They are a richly colored reddish brown, with 2 cream colored stripes across the abdomen. Their host plant is Virginia Creeper, or other vines in the grape family. The larvae are night feeders, and I find the larvae in evening or early morning hours on the basal growth of my Virginia Creeper. During the day, they climb up higher on the vine to hide out.

This moth is diurnal, though, and can be seeing during daylight hours nectaring on flowers or fruit. I just happened to see more of them in early morn or early evening on the fruit dish.

I am giving you a link to an older post with a lot of photos of the adult Nessus sphinx moth.

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Amphion floridensis aka Nessus Sphinx

KC, Now that you've given me another name to look up and the links, that's what I think they must be. They look too much like European hornets not to be them. I guess the lilac bark must have been a giveaway...I wasn't aware that there was a type of hornet that strips bark off of lilac bushes. How interesting! I wonder if they're capable of killing a lilac bush. I only ever see them hanging around one of our lilac bushes (we have about 10); this one happens to be the only white one. That has been the only place that I've seen them besides at the rotten bananas. I wasn't going to get close to them to watch them because I've been stung by too many bees to want to get stung again and they just look so menacing with their size. If I wouldn't be afraid to get close to them, I'd ship you some so that you could study their behavior. ;-) You don't have to worry though because I'm too chicken.

Susan, I hate to sound wish washy but now that I've seen pictures of a European hornet, courtesy of KC, I'm sure that's what they are. I've never watched them closely enough to realize that they were stripping the bark off of the lilac bush that I saw them flying around at. Who'd have thought!

Thanks for pointing me in the direction of that thread of moths. Aren't they pretty! I'm sure that I get Snowberry and Clearwing moths here, as I've seen those nectaring in the garden, usually either at the butterfly bushes or the Verbena bonariensis. I might have seen the Nessus sphinx here too without realizing it. I know that there is Virginia creeper growing here at several places. I found a Pandora sphinx moth cat on the vine one time and brought it in with some of the vine. Those are beautiful cats! Little did I know at the time, something had already gotten to it and it ended up dying. I was real upset because that was the only one that I ever had here. Of course, with all my time being eaten up with tending the gardens, I don't take much time to walk up to where the Virginia creeper is, so maybe that's why I never saw more than one!
Cathy