What a pretty picture Sherry! The most Gulf Frits I've seen in my yard at one time is six. Some years I don't have them at all though so I won't complain.
Is porterweed a perennial for you?

Yes, Christie, at least the coral porterweed is. The red never comes back in the spring, and the blues and purples will come back some years and not others. So, I'm sticking with the coral, which dies back in a mild freeze (32 degress will brown the leaves) but reliably comes back in spring, at least for me here in southeast MS.

I've dug up some volunteer passionvines/P. incarnata and potted them up to plant out in a few weeks - the Mexican sunflowers didn't do this year in a sunny bed in my garden, so I think I'll plant passionvines there.

I just released another one - what fun!

Sherry

Beautiful!!!
I'm seeing a lot & my Blue Passionvine has been eaten down to sticks 3 X already! They still aren't using a huge, beautiful dark purple Maypop that a friend in Florida sent me! They are all over it there for her but the mamas ignore it here! Love the flowers, though!
{{gwi:538515}}

Great pic. I get Variegated Fritillary's, not Gulf Fritts, but they are never in great numbers like I see with the GF's in FL. Are the VF's less prolific then the GF's?

Great pic. I get Variegated Fritillary's, not Gulf Fritts, but they are never in great numbers like I see with the GF's in FL. Are the VF's less prolific then the GF's?

That looks like 'Incense' Lila, which they ignore here, too, until everything else is eaten - then they lay eggs on it. 'Incense' came from a cross between P. incarnata/maypops and P. cincinnata, and they've made the same cross many times since then, with the resulting flowers nearly the same each time. I've had to feed the leaves of it to my cats, because everything else is gone, and they're doing fine on it.
Last year my 'Incense' made some fruit, which had to have been pollinated by the neighboring P. incarnata, since 'Incense' doesn't make its own pollen. Three of the seeds came up, and one of them has been REAL vigorous, growing like a weed. The flowers look just like 'Incense' but I assume the chemical make-up of the leaves must be more like the pollen parent, P. incarnata/maypops, because the gulf frits lay eggs on it right away when they lay eggs on the maypops.

VFs are less prolific here, karyn1, than gulf frits, but sometimes, when the gulf frits aren't here yet and they have the vines to themselves, they can lay a good many eggs, and create many VF butterflies. They'll also use violets, particularly the common, heart-shaped leaf types.

Sherry

MissSherry, isn't 'Incense' the one that carries some kind of mosaic virus? I don't know that the virus is toxic to cats or humans (via the fruit), but just recall reading that the virus can kill the plant eventually. OTOH, I understand there are some 'New Incense' hybrids out there that do not carry the virus.

Some say that the virus can affect other plants around it, and some say it does not. Seems like a lot of research might be in store for someone who really wants an answer to that question.

I don't grow Incense and maybe some who do will respond to these questions.

Susan