Linda...that is GREAT!
It has been a very slow butterfly year here as well! I have seen very few BFs & have only a few monarch cats out on my milkweed right now. I don't know how well they will fare with the temp down to 37 tonight!
I've been wanting to see &/or raise AL & PL cats in my garden but haven't been able to find a plant that would survive our summers. I have planted seeds for pussytoes & pearly everlasting but not Sweet Everlasting. Where did you get your seeds? Is it a local native?
Thanks & great news!
Lila

Congrats, Linda!
I only get ALs in spring, never any other time of year. I assumed they overwintered in parts south of here, then pushed northward with the emergence of the Gnaphalium plants - I think that was right.
Sherry

The plants (gnaphalium obtusifolium) do grow around here locally...became much more plentiful during the El Nino period and becoming fewer of them since La Nina brought the drought again. Maybe I should try to move some to my garden, so they could be watered from time to time. Prairie Moon Nursery probably will have seeds. Not sure if mine will make any seeds, because of these cats, who do seem to especially love eating the flowering parts. Sherry, some of the Sweet Everlasting plants can overwinter here as small plants, then more can come up in late winter if conditions are favorable. The ones that are flowering now will die out later and just those that didn't flower will overwinter. Hope I didn't confuse anyone! I'm going to check some other Sweet Everlasting plants by the community mailboxes today to see if they have cats also.

Four of the AL cats I'm raising have already pupated! I haven't seen any sign of cats on the plants by the mailbox. But yesterday when a group of native plant people (myself included) were exploring by a small lake near Helotes, an AL cat was spotted...that cat was on some cudweed.