Just beautiful! How exciting!
Liz

I always like going black swallowtail shopping. Cannot say I've ever found one on a milkweed.

The BST should take off on its own. You don't have to do anything for it.

Butterfly weed usually refers to Asclepias tuberosa. That is not what you have. Looks like you have Asclepias curassavica, which goes by tropical milkweed, Mexican milkweed, bloodflower, and a few more names.

Congratulations! You'll love gardening for butterflies and hummingbirds!

Sherry

If you plant some parsley, dill, rue, or fennel (some of the host plants for Black Swallowtails), then they will come and lay eggs in your garden.

Here is a link that might be useful: More info on Black Swallowtails

Congrats, Congrats :)
Swallowtails love nectaring on Milkweed, esp Swamp Milkweed. They are also fond of Phlox. Fennel is most attractive to Black Swallowtail ELFs and is biannual in your zone.

John

Thanks for help and advice. The plants were advertised as butterfly weed so that is what I've been calling them. Good to know what they are. My new flowerbeds start going in next week. Thanks for the ideas on what to plant.

Oh my!! I love this site. I want to know everything about attracting butterflies, hummingbirds, and all birds I guess. Thanks so much in advance to all of you for this great site again!!!

Coneflowers or Echinacea are also easy, beautiful nectar flowers that also provide seed in autumn and winter for birds. I've just been out on a tour of my garden and our cool, wet spring has gotten me hundreds of new coneflower volunteers. Anise hyssop is another nectar/seed provider. Both can reseed generously, but are easy to control if you need to.

Martha

Just got back from black swallowtails shopping at Lowe's. They had only two caterpillars in stock but they were running a special: Get a free flat leaf parsley plant with each caterpillar. Both cats look like 2nd instar.

My yard's parsley and Golden Alexander still has zero known customers. That is about the norm for me this time of year but I got used to having lots of BSTs last year.

I find fennel to be most attractive to BST in my yard. I gave 19 eggs and caterpillars to a teacher friend. She said the students were really enjoying watching them grow. She divided the eggs between the second grade teachers.

Then, I was able to find another 14 for myself. I collect them ASAP as eggs. I take the fennel sprig with the egg and place those into a deli plastic container. Small holes in the lid, insert the sprig through the hole into the water. I usually recut the bottom of the sprig before I place it in the water. I monitor the water level in these containers. It takes a good 5 days for the eggs to hatch.

By the time the eggs hatch, they need some fresh fennel. I use another deli container and place that near them so that they can crawl over to fresh food. If they don't move, I carefully snip the piece of plant that they are on and place that on the fresh fennel.

runmead, I just snipped a flat leaf parsley leaf with an egg on it. I did not realize I needed to place it in water. Will the egg be OK if the leaf dries up?